I had a lot of ideas for what I might write about this month. This week I’m traveling through the central part of our state, meeting with inspiring community leaders, elected officials, planners, farmers, and affordable housing providers. I hope at some point to share reflections on this trip. It’s also an active legislative session with many important bills that our state team is working on. In Seattle and King County, new leaders are staking out new agendas for the most populous city and county in the state. There are a lot of things I might write about under normal circumstances.

But it’s hard to act like everything is normal because it’s not. 

As most of you probably know, Minnesota, and Minneapolis in particular, has experienced a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents over the last month. These agents have detained thousands of people, grabbing many off the streets, smashing windows and ripping people out of cars, pepper spraying bystanders, and generally sowing chaos. Schools are closed. US citizens are being removed from their homes without a warrant. The chief federal judge for the District of Minnesota has identified 96 court orders that ICE has violated during this surge. Most tragically, these actions escalated to ICE agents killing two peaceful protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

As I was driving from Walla Walla to Richland, I listened to an interview with a pastor in Minneapolis who is organizing food drives for the many people who are afraid to leave their homes. 

It is horrifying to see what our government is doing. At the same time, it is inspiring to see how ordinary people are supporting their neighbors and organizing nonviolent protest, strikes, boycotts and other forms of peaceful resistance (with cities nation-wide organizing in solidarity). Stand with Minnesota offers ways to support these efforts on the ground right now. 

This is a moment when we all have a civic duty to stand up and defend the rule of law, democracy, and the humanity of our communities. We can’t have healthy, equitable, opportunity-rich communities without it.

– Alex