(this list is mainly ways non-locals can donate but by extension offers a lot of resources and places to volunteer in the Twin Cities + there are specific ways to donate time under the cut which can be adjusted to your local neighborhood)
full credit to cataloo from r/minnesota [x]
🩵Immigrant support
Immigrant Defense Network – coalition of 90+ groups organizing rapid response and collecting evidence.
Immigrant Law Center of MN – free immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees.
COPAL – advocacy, organizing, phone hotline. Focus on Latine community.
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) – education and protest organizing.
Interfaith Coalition on Immigration – advocacy, aid, events.
Monarca MN – training and phone hotline.
Unidos MN – education, protests, advocacy.
Center for Victims of Torture – advocacy and mental health services for immigrants and refugees.
International Institute of Minnesota – refugee resettlement group that provides support and legal help to vulnerable new-to-country families.
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota – offers services to refugees, including legal aid to non-citizens.
🩵Food support
If local, food donations are welcome, otherwise monetary donations help these types of orgs source what is most needed
VEAP
La Vina Community Church/Iglesia Cristiana La Viña Burnsville
Second Harvest Heartland
Every Meal
The Food Group
Meals on Wheels MN
Find a local food shelf
🩵Mutual aid funds & community support
Community Aid Network
Twin Cities Trans Mutual Aid
Leo's Tow (Venmo @leostowingmn) is towing cars back to families if a car is stranded when someone is detained.
🩵More links
MN50501 Mutual Aid Linktree – well-organized list of various Twin Cities groups.
Mplsmutualaid Linktree – many neighborhood and individual GoFundMes listed here.
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine – see Food Drives and Fundraisers.
Stand with Minnesota – extensive list of organizations, mutual aid, and crowdfunding campaigns.
🩵Donate blood
Memorial Blood Center declared a blood emergency on Tuesday, Jan 13. MBC is the blood supplier for both tier 1 trauma hospitals in the metro area (Hennepin County Medical Center and North Memorial Health).
American Red Cross
🩵Donate food or other goods
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine – see Food Drives and Fundraisers.
Volunteer your time (under the cut)
🩵Mutual aid
Reach out to your neighbors – especially if you know they are staying home right now – and ask if they need groceries or toiletry items. Offer to pick up prescriptions, give rides, or shovel their driveway. If you know them well, bring them a treat that you know they'll enjoy. Or just ask them how they're doing and let them know you are there to support.
Connect with any of the orgs above and see if they are looking for volunteers.
Connect with a church or mosque in your area. From u/MuddieMaeSuggins: "I know a lot of regular Redditors are not religious (myself included) but like it or not this is a where a lot of community organizing happens, especially in immigrant communities."
Connect with your local school's admin office and/or their PTA. It's ok to reach out even if you don't have kids at the school. PTAs are organizing mutual aid for school families, safe rides, school observers.
🩵Activism
Find an official protest or other event via Indivisible, 50501, FREE AMERICA, or MIRAC. Students at many high schools are staging walk-outs; if your local school is doing this, reach out to school leadership or the PTA and ask how you can support as a community member.
Join the effort to stop Hilton from housing ICE by booking hotel rooms and then cancelling at the last minute. This action can be done from home! The effort is being organized by Sunrise Movement, who are telling activists to target specific hotels one-by-one. More info: SHUT DOWN HILTON
Find people in your area who are actively monitoring ICE and/or stationing themselves in high-traffic areas and ask how you can help. Check for local FB events where people are organizing and just show up.
At minimum, read the COPAL Handbook before you go out to observe. The DFL, Monarca, and other orgs have been hosting online trainings for constitutional observers (though these fill up quickly).
When you see ICE in action, start recording. Be as loud and as disruptive as possible: honk your horn, set off your car alarm, blow your whistle. Let people know that ICE is in the area. If you see someone being detained, try to get their name and a phone number to call their emergency contact.
If you do not feel comfortable observing ICE in person, there are ways you can support from home. Just ask the people who are organizing in your area. I have social anxiety, and I had never participated in any kind of political action before this past Saturday. If I can do it, you can!
Local organizers are requesting that people who help monitor ICE DO NOT participate in 1-to-1 mutual aid efforts, as these can put the families you are helping at risk.
If you have friends/acquaintances who are sympathetic but not politically active, reach out to them. Show them that they're not alone in feeling helpless. Pick a few low-commitment actions from this list and do them together.
📢 📢 📢 If you donate mutual aid funds to powwowgroundscoffee today and email a screenshot & address to [email protected] we will mail you this sticker, no questions asked. 📢 📢 📢
It's a small material thing to do, but if it helps motivate anyone to help out during this time, we'll support it.
With all due respect, nothing - not firing, shuffling personnel, nor political envoys - nothing beyond total abolition of ICE, CBP, and this administration will suffice against the murder & chaos it has wrought.
As a group of three trans people, when we founded this business, we did so on the pretense that we read books. We dig into text for education, understanding, and inspiration. Many of those are history books. And every history book has told us that we are too far down the path of fascism for return. Personally, as a Mexican-American born directly onto militarized soil, I've never felt more grief for my family, friends, and neighbors who have already experienced untold trauma and are living through it again every day.
Right now, the thing most paramount is pressure. We cannot let up, we cannot stop supporting our neighbors in every way we can, and we cannot go back to complacency. We may continue to post our work in the coming weeks to support our livelihoods; but we do so in order to continue to voice our dissent and engage with history as it comes at us. We hope you join us in continuing to live and to fight another day. Drink water. Eat what you can. Start with fingers and toes.
LEAVE YOUR PHONE AT HOME, HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS, BE AWARE OF YOUR VEHICLE (tips from local MN resistance)
ICE has been driving around using license plates to track people that public cameras are spotting in real time, and agents are essentially roaming the streets waiting for nearby pings (and are racially profiling/stopping anyone they want to while they wait).
It’s safe to assume they are also using phone data to track people. Leaving phones at home or keeping them in Faraday bags and only turning them back on in crowded public spaces or at home is the safest way to avoid this. If you need directions, write them down on paper before you leave.
The best ways for vulnerable (i.e. not white or otherwise easily targetable) people to protect themselves right now is to limit trips in “known” vehicles as much as possible, while also leaving phones at home or keeping them in Faraday bags.
The best ways for white allies to show up for our vulnerable neighbors is to offer rides, escorts, grocery/other errand deliveries, and show up in public and be as loud and as disruptive as possible any time they see ICE agents in action. We absolutely have the numbers, we just need to show up.
"[Iglesia Cristiana La Viña Burnsville] church has a mostly Hispanic and working-class flock. Its pastor, Miguel Aviles, who goes by Pastor Miguel, told me that it had sent out about 2,000 packages of food that Saturday, and about 25,000 since the federal agents had arrived. Many of the people in hiding, he said, “have asylum cases pending. They already have work permits and stuff, but some of them are legal residents and still they’re afraid to go out. Because of their skin color, they are afraid to go out.”" -Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
photos by jack califino (for the alantic)
donate to Iglesia Cristiana La Viña Burnsville here
