If you're in Maine or Philly or wherever the fuck Vance claimed DHS is going next, I BEG you to look at the rapid response and mutual aid networks and how they've been built in Portland, Chicago, and the Twin Cities, and start building your own version NOW.
Download signal if you haven't already. Pick a resistance pseudonym. Make a proton email that has no indicators to your real name. Start buying and printing whistles and whistle zines.
Organize your school patrols and foot patrols NOW. Talk to your community and your mercados and your Hmong and Somali grocery stores, ask them what support they need. Get "ICE are not welcome here" signage for businesses and homes. Familiarize yourself with the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant.
Learn how to take down a SALUTE report. PRACTICE salute reports. Learn, memorize, and embody radio etiquette for rapid response work.
Pick your lane: rapid response or mutual aid-- you can't do both, because rapid response often puts you in direct contact with ICE. They've been taking down plate numbers and leading responders back to their own homes here in the Twin Cities.
Remember that being under siege is a marathon, not a race. Try to remember that while your neighbors are being kidnapped in their underwear, from their own homes.
Meet your neighbors. Attend your city council meetings and demand separation ordinances NOW. Tell your congress people and representatives not to give ICE more money.
Prepare yourself to see high school children being stopped and harassed. 5 year olds being used as bait for their mothers. Old men being dragged out of their houses in underwear and Crocs simply because all of them are not white.
Be flexible, be ready to pivot on a dime as situations change. Be ready to be paranoid. Be ready to be distrusting of every Texas, New York, California, or Illinois license plate. Be ready to be suspicious of EVERY out of state license plate. Dark sedans and SUVs with extremely illegally tinted windows. Unreadable or missing plates.
No one will save you, save us, or save our neighbors but ourselves. No one is coming to help or protect us but us.
Signal for Beginners
MN Community Response Resources
ICE Are Not Welcome Here sign
Private Property Sign
Know Your Rights Sign
Judicial Warrant vs Administrative Warrant
SALUTE Report Graphic Rapid Response Patrol Handbook
Legal Observer Basics MSP Whistle Hub
Whistle 3D printing File
Talking to children about ICE actions
OG Whistle Zine in ENGLIGH || SPANISH
MSP whistles which also have zines in Somali, Amharic, Oromo and Mandrin
Hmong Whistle Zine
Karen Whistle Zine
If you're gonna go out chasing ICE in your car, they WILL take down your license plate. If you're following them, it's very likely they will lead you back to your house. If you're white and not at risk-- let them. The more time they spend fussing with you is less time they're trolling around for people to harass and detain.
They're unlikely to mobilize while they know they're being followed.
Buy a dash cam with no Internet access that's SD card only. That way if ICE hits your vehicle or commits an atrocity in front of you, you'll have proof. Take the SD card with you when leaving your car.
Here are some more things I learned since Metro Surge started;
If, like me, you have chronic trust issues, then your state being under siege is an unfortunate way to work through those issues on your own. You HAVE to trust your fellow rapid responders, your dispatchers, your commuters, and your neighbors in general. You have to lean on that trust so you can take a moment and breathe. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and no one can fight ICE alone.
Friendships forged with your neighbors in a crisis like this will keep you going. My fellow rapid response admin happened to be near my house and simply stopped over to give me a hug. I beep my horn at the stationary observers outside of the mercados and we all wave to each other. WHEN we win this, when WE drive out ICE, we all promise to come together for a neighborhood potluck. These connections will outlive ICE, and can never be taken away from us.
Grace. Giving and getting grace. We constantly have to remind ourselves that we're doing our best with what we have; we're adapting the best we can and that adaptation is working. None of us thought this is where we would be in 2026, but we all stepped up in the capacity we could. And sometimes we max out our capacity. Sometimes dispatch makes a bad call or is frustrating to work with-- but we're all just trying our best out here to support and protect our neighbors. We're alone out here and that means all we have is each other right now. We're all doing the best we can, in this moment, with what we have.
