The aftermath of ICE’s deadly occupation in Minneapolis is still sending shockwaves through the community, and the agency’s operation there is not finished.
For Twin Cities residents, the upheaval is just the latest trauma to hit Minneapolis and St. Paul, which also witnessed and protested the murders of Philando Castile and George Floyd in the last 10 years.
That’s why one father of two refuses to be silent—both in calling out injustice and creating the community he wants for himself and his family—no matter what it costs.
Here’s our interview with St. Paul’s “Dissent Dad.”
On what ICE enforcement actually did to his community
At first, it was, people weren’t showing up to work. Then people start quitting. And then, you know, or have to get fired because their jobs just won’t let them. And it’s like, well, you either are going to come in or you got to go. So a lot of people lose their jobs. You’ve got families that are just like living and hiding. People stop going to school. The attendance rates in St. Paul, Minneapolis — they’re just abysmal right now. People are afraid to leave their homes.
I kind of liken this to an economic blockade. There’s no fence around your house or something like that, but they’re going to intimidate people from going to work. We have ICE agents sitting at the grocery store. We’re going to have them sitting at the pharmacy. We’re going to have them sitting outside of your daycare, outside of the hospital. Healthcare, anything that you need to sustain life, there are ICE agents patrolling those areas. I live in the suburbs, and I literally couldn’t leave my house without seeing federal agents. I drive a block and see an ICE agent.
A lot of the restaurants either shut down temporarily or came back and locked their doors. People had to knock, and they’d let them in. And if you’re an ethnic restaurant and you serve your ethnic community, they’re scared. They don’t want to come out and buy food, or maybe they don’t have the money to because now they’re not working. It’s just like this butterfly effect that ripples through the community. And then February rent’s due, and now March rent just went due. A lot of these people are getting kicked to the curb. We have a manufactured home park right outside of town, and the owners of the park were colluding with the ICE agents telling them who to go after. And then they issue eviction notices to their people saying, hey, you were late on rent. So this person is using all this to their advantage to try to rid themselves of tenants they don’t like.
On why he couldn’t stay silent
I remember the Chicago Midway Blitz happened in November, and I was expecting someone I know to say something about it. Like, someone. Anyone. And I’m like, God, is someone gonna say anything? We grew up Catholic. And I remember, in Broadview, Illinois—they have their detention center there. There is a Catholic church there that does a Eucharistic procession every Sunday to try to bring the Eucharist to people in detention, which is a constitutionally protected right. So I remember showing that to all the people I know—like, hey, look, I know you’re super Catholic, look at this, it’s right by you, you can go. And every single person I told—silence. The second you present them with, “Here’s the Catholic group that cares about this, why don’t you go?” It’s “not my deal.” So I think all those things were very disappointing.
And what was happening during Halloween? Kids in Chicago were out trick-or-treating, and Greg Bovino shows up and starts tear-gassing them. ICE agents terrorizing people in Halloween masks. All these things happen. And then you go on Facebook. And then it’s all the people I know, trick-or-treating with their kids. And that’s when you’re like, Yeah, we live in different universes sometimes.
The people that I am most upset and, I guess, just disappointed with—it’s the good people that refuse to just stand up and say anything. All those people who are still just kind of living their lives, hoping this doesn’t directly affect them. Every time I talk to people at home, I can hear it. I could see that you think I’m crazy. You don’t believe me. My family thinks I’m just dramatic. So at some point, I just got sick of convincing people that I know and care about.
On raising young kids through it
My kids are five and three, and one of them is special needs. It’s just been a weird time, talking to your kids about what’s going on in the country. We’re not religious anymore. We just teach our children to love other people and treat people well. Even if they say something that another kid said that’s racist, we stop. We talk to them. We explain, “That’s not right.”
Do I go out and tell them everything? No. But at least they know that ICE is in town. They know there are bad people here. My kids go to daycare, and police show up and do public safety things. They meet firefighters. And I would love for them to be like, these are people in my community that are helpers that we respect. And now it’s like—I remember talking to my son, and he’d be like, “Why don’t we call the police on them?” Sorry, buddy. Not how it works here. And he’s not an idiot. He’s really smart. They watch cartoons. There are villains. Even Paw Patrol—I used to call him “Trump Humdinger.” He’s like Mayor Humdinger, he’s at it again. There are ways that you could do it, and they get it.
As a parent, you have your standards. You want to get a nutritious meal. You want them to eat well, sleep at a good time, play outside. And then reality hits, and you start cutting corners. We’re too distracted. They’re going to be watching more TV today. You’re barely scraping by in your own self-care, and then it starts to ripple into their lives. Before you know it, you’re like, “Man, I’m not even taking care of myself, let alone my family.”
Every part of you wants to be like, “Everything needs to stop and we need to deal with this.” But life still moves on. You don’t want it to become a new normal, but you kind of have to find ways to still exist in this reality and have some type of routine. And I hate it because people are like, “Just turn off your phone and turn off the news.” It’s a really privileged thing to be able to do. There are people who literally can’t turn off their neighborhood chat because they might not find out that their neighbor is getting taken. It’s absolutely crazy.
On what every community should be doing right now
For communities where this hasn’t happened yet, it’s just a matter of time. This is going to come to your city. They’re buying up office spaces throughout the country. The Whipple Federal Building is an office building. It is not a detention center. They retrofitted it into a detention center. They just literally have people in leg irons, immobilized in offices. They’re buying out office spaces, buying out infrastructure, hiring people, setting up networks in your town, too.
What happened to us is that my neighborhood, my town, we got caught flat-footed. Renee Good got murdered, and everything we did was reaction—a month of just hard reactionary behavior, us just trying to set up the networks and the people. But we put up so much pressure that it did get them to back off. They were so operationally inefficient because of all the roadblocks that people put up just to slow them down. Us standing together. Working together. And the most unusual bonds—this wouldn’t have happened unless people went out of their comfort zone and started talking to other communities and other people they don’t normally talk to.
These are members of your community. They’re your neighbors. They’re human beings. They live and work in our communities, and they see what’s going on. Those unlikely bonds are what allowed us to do this. If we weren’t talking with those people and all those interconnections weren’t happening, we’d all be standing on our own. They could find a way to come at you. But the fact that we have all these connections—word travels fast in this state outside of social media, through Signal, through all the different things.
Organizing is not something that is super fun. It’s really stressful. Maybe I have my certain beliefs, but I know a lot of other people don’t. So there are times when you have to be like, maybe this isn’t about my politics. This is just about standing up for the community. Sometimes you gotta listen to other people and see what they need and not what I think they need. You really gotta take ego away.
But if you’re an individual and you’re like, hey, maybe I don’t have time to organize—start meeting your neighbors. Start getting your neighbors’ phone numbers. Take a little bit more time out of your life to just say hi to someone that you haven’t met. Those little relationships are going to be invaluable, because mainstream media could cover maybe 1% of what’s actually happening, and I think that’s generous. The major newspapers have been gutted. So honestly, if you have the ability and you’re willing to stand up, start speaking, start working on your audience. Get Signal now. Start trying to divest yourself from Google and from the big systems that are tracking your every move.
Just make sure you’re paying attention. The news is not sufficient. And until we have more people out there speaking and more people out there listening to those people, it’s gonna be tough. If you think you just watch the news and it seems like nothing’s going on, that doesn’t mean it’s the case.