MINNEAPOLIS. — Chanting “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (The people united will never be defeated), thousands marched here Dec. 20 protesting recent arrests of immigrant workers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including in Latino and Somali communities along the march route on Lake Street.
They also protested the government’s targeting Somali immigrants for attack.
They were angered when ICE agents operating near the Somali-owned businesses at Karmel Mall had reportedly smashed the window of a vehicle Dec. 15, pulled occupants out of the car, dragging a woman through the street.
Since Dec. 1 when President Donald Trump called Somali people “garbage,” federal officials say their Operation Metro Surge has led to the arrest of over 670 people.
Several immigrant rights groups, including CTUL (Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha), COPAL (Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action) and MIRAC (Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee) co-sponsored the action. The state AFL-CIO and other unions, including the United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE, Service Employees International Union, Minneapolis Federation of Educators and more, took part. Union members in AFL-CIO vests were among the marshals for this disciplined protest.
In below-freezing temperatures, some small-business owners along the route passed out hot drinks to help fortify marchers.
The protest concluded with a short rally outside the Karmel Mall. Business owners welcomed marchers and offered food.
A contingent of Native American dancers led the march. Jackie Perez, who is American Indian and Mexican American, told the press that ICE talks about deporting criminals, but not about the construction and bakery workers arrested.
Ahmed Abdirahman, a member of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 22, said he was glad to see that the Militant, to which he subscribes, was writing an article on the action. “Immigrants are not criminals. Immigrants make this country move forward,” he said. “If they want to go after the ‘worst criminals,’ then go out and arrest them, but not the kids who are starting to have a life and a good future. America has always been part of immigrants’ lives, but going out and attacking the whole community will just make things worse. That’s why I was so glad I came to protest,” he told the Militant.
Some of the signs marchers carried connected the need to fight against Jew-hatred with defense of immigrant rights. One read, “The Holocaust began with deportations.”
“My dad was with the Dutch resistance, and he helped hide Jews and others who were fleeing Nazi persecution,” 73-year-old Rick Vandendolder told the press. “I met some of the people that he saved, and I never dreamt that I’d be seeing the same thing going on in this country.”
SEIU union banners were prominent in the march. On Dec. 22 SEIU Local 26 posted on its Facebook page that a union staff person named Said had been stopped on his way to work by masked individuals in unmarked cars. Said told them he was a U.S. citizen and asked if they were stopping him because they assumed he was Somali. They let him go.