LIVE I Community leaders hold rally to counter Kristi Noem's visit to Twin Cities

Hello, everyone. My name is Paul Freemuth, but most of you know me as Gray. My name is P-A-U-L-F-R-E-I-M-U-T-H. I'm here representing Minnesota 5051 in our mission to create a better America by forging a stronger Minnesota. Kristi Noem, in her role as Secretary of Homeland Security, has actively worked to weaken Minnesota. She's used ICE to terrorize our communities, abducting people from their homes and workplaces, and taking them to detention centers like Alligator Alcatraz, where hundreds of detainees are still unaccounted for. Change! Being in Fort Snelling, I thought it fitting to call on the history of Minnesotans fighting for what is right. During the American Civil War, Minnesota was the first state to pledge support in the form of soldiers. A thousand soldiers came from here in Fort Snelling to the front lines. In the Battle of Gettysburg, they suffered an 82% casualty rate. The second highest rate of any U.S. military force that survived the day. Then, the very next day, they charged again, capturing a Confederate battle flag that is still held by the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul. That is the history that we want to be here in Minnesota. We will not stand by while ICE kidnaps our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones. Our strength is in our diversity and in our unity. Life is not a zero-sum game. Our success does not come at the expense of someone else's suffering. We all do better when we all do better. Immigrants come here in search of a better life for themselves, for their children, and for many generations beyond that. Engraved on the Statue of Liberty is a poem, and I'd like to read a section of it for you. Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. What happened to us? What happened to our belief that we were the best country on earth? Not because of any specific circumstance or because of any God-given right, but because anyone could be an American and bring with them their own greatness, making our country great with them. Their new $37.5 billion budget is not doing this. They are not making America great again. In fact, they're taking away the very thing that gives us the potential to be great. New blood, new immigrants who bring with them new ideas and can bring our country further ahead. Tomorrow at 1 o'clock, there's a march organized beginning at the Capitol. I invite all of you to join us there as we protest against Trump's deployment of the National Guard and ICE into cities across the country. But our resistance does not stop there. It happens in everyday moments, in supporting our neighbors, in lifting them up. Even as SNAP payments have been delayed and stopped, we can step in. We can fill that role to care for our neighbors. So I ask all of you, look to the bravery, to the tenacity of the Minnesota 1st Regiment, who lost 82% of their fellow soldiers and continued on. No matter how dark things get, no matter how hopeless they seem, Minnesota will continue to fight and we will emerge through the chaos and be successful. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much, Craig. It's a very important reminder that this stuff doesn't just happen by itself. We've got to stay on the streets and be organized. Join a group if you haven't already. There's more to protest than just showing up. Somebody's got to make it happen and there's more and more people coming out. That means we need more and more organizers. Give a hand to all of the people, please, who put this together on such short notice in response to Nome's sudden appearance in our beautiful state of Minnesota. And, of course, one thing that we've seen out of this administration is it's a real combo package. It's not just an attack on immigrants. It's not just an attack on people of color, on queer people, on foreign countries. But they are attacking our very control of our bodies. So I would like to now introduce Roxas from the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee. And let's hear what they have to say. Hi, everyone. The Minnesota Abortion Action Committee, or MNAC, is proud to be here today with other local organizations ready and willing to fight back against Trump's attacks on our immigrant communities. And whatever form it takes, we have a duty to stand up against political repression and to demand an end to deportation. We know that any presence of ICE and federal agents makes our cities unsafe. We've seen the violence and chaos they've unleashed in Chicago, D.C., Portland, and beyond. If the Trump administration wants to deploy these forces to our city, we are joined the call to resist. And we urge others in the movement for reproductive rights and all people on the side of justice to join us in this fight. MNAC is a grassroots organization that fights for abortion access and bodily autonomy for all. The Trump administration and the Republican Party want to strip us of our basic rights to make decisions about our bodies, our health care, and our family planning. But we will not stand by this and let this happen. Just like we won't stand by as they seek to tear immigrant families apart. Deportations are a fundamental attack on bodily autonomy. We see this play out in ICE detention centers, where children are stolen away from parents, where pregnant people are denied basic medical care, and where women have been sterilized against their will. Shame! No one should experience the inhumane conditions of these detention centers. But by their own agency procedures, ICE should not be detaining pregnant or nursing women in the first place. A 2021 ICE directive states that agents should not detain, arrest, or take into custody for an administrative violation of the immigration laws of individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing. Yet, we know they have done away with this practice because pregnant women are being detained all over the country. Shame! Just two days ago, a group of immigrant rights organizations wrote an open letter to ICE summarizing the detainment, abuse, and medical neglect of pregnant and postpartum women in Louisiana and Georgia. Here in Minnesota, a woman by the name of Antonio Aguilar Maldonado was detained in St. Paul in August and separated from her toddler, who was still nursing and dependent on her breast milk due to an allergy. Shame! In detention, she was initially not provided a breast pump, and she was subsequently separated from her son for nearly one month. Shame! All of this is beyond shameful. In MNACC, we fight for reproductive justice, which includes the fundamental right to raise children in safe and healthy environments. We know that if Trump deploys his immigration enforcement to Minnesota, our communities will experience a loss of that safety which all parents and children should be afforded. That's why we are here today, and that's why we are joining the People's Action Coalition Against Trump Tomorrow protesting September 25th at 1pm at the state capitol to say, No Trump, No Troops, and No ICE! Shame! Thank you. ICE OUT! Alright, thank you so much Roxas, from the Minnesota Abortion Access Committee. And also thank you for shouting out the People's Action Coalition Against Trump. That is a new coalition formed just this year to respond to Trump's attacks. We are trying to build as broad of a coalition as possible to stand up against Trump and his administration's attacks, which affect us all. And that's why we see such a diversity of people here standing together. Recently, we have been planning for Trump to deploy troops to Minneapolis because, as I'm sure you all know, Minneapolis has one of the strongest activist communities in the country. And we've seen Trump deploy troops to other cities which fit this bill. Democratic mayors, diverse populations, strong activist communities. So we've basically always known that this was coming, and we are doing our very best to get ready for it. And we have in the works plans for what we're going to do once the troops come to our streets. Please join one of the groups from the coalitions, if you haven't already, if you want to be part of that process. And now I'd like to bring up our next speaker from one of the PACAC member groups, MIRAC. Please welcome to the stage, Mirka. Hello? Okay, perfect. I didn't know how to work this, my bad. When immigrant rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back! That's exactly right, and that's what we're doing here today. When Kristi Noem comes knocking at our door, when ICE comes knocking to our neighborhood, when they try to intimidate and attack our neighborhoods, they should know these are our streets, our homes, our communities. And we reject their claim that they keep us safe. Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe. Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe. My name is Mirka, I'm a proud member of MIRAC, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. Thank you. We are a grassroots organization built on solidarity, courage, and the unshakable belief that every human being deserves dignity and justice. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our immigrant neighbors, with those who cannot safely speak out or stand up for themselves. We raise our voices because silence in the face of injustice is complicity. Our leaders, our neighbors, our country has chosen to stay silent and be complicit in the attacks against our immigrant brothers and sisters, but not us. We stand here so they know that there is resistance. All across the country, New York, Portland, Chicago, and Minneapolis say we want ICE out of our cities, and we will scream it as loud as we need to. you. Your hate. Ice out. That's right. Your hate has no place here. Your ignorance has no place here. Your violence has no place here. Our immigrant neighbors have a place here. We welcome them with open arms. We welcome our differences, our diverse set of world values because we believe in the America that we were all raised in. The only America that we know, the one that was built by immigrants, the one that will never forget the ones that took care of it and worked this land. The one that was promised to us as a dream, a dream of freedom and a right to the pursuit of happiness. That is the America I believe in. The one that promised liberty and justice for all. And we mean it. We say all for everyone. I thank you all for being here today. I'd like to dedicate just a minute of our time to be in silence for all of the detainees who are suffering at the hands of our government right now. And then I'm going to lead us in a chant. I'm going to give you a name, a detainee that has disappeared, been killed or suffered at the hands of our government government. And I'm going to say their name and you're going to repeat their name back to me. And we're going to do that a couple of times so that they know that these people will not be forgotten, that we will not forget, forget or forgive their inhumanity. All right. We're going to do one minute of silence. Thank you. Ismael Uribe, say his name. Say his name. Augusta Clara, say her name. Say her name. Oscar Rascone, say his name. Say his name. Lorenzo Vargas, say his name. Say his name. And for the tens of thousands of others that we could not name today, we will not forget. We will not be silent. We will not back down. These are our seats, our streets. And who keeps us safe? We keep us safe. Thank you. Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! Ice out! No one is illegal! All power to the people! No one is illegal! Power to the people! We stand with immigrants. Not Donald Trump or JD Vance. We stand with immigrants. Not Donald Trump or JD Vance. Say it loud, say it clear. All right Minnesota, thank you so much once again for being out here. We got a few more speakers. But first I'd just like to quickly point out where we are. Fort Snelling was the first foothold that the U.S. Army established in their campaign to acquire this land for white settlement. Being here in this building where every effort is made to keep this country as white as they want it to be is very appropriate for what they've done to this place, which is sacred land from what I understand being the confluence of the Minnesota and the Vedote rivers. I just like to say good morning and thank you all for being here. You know like listening to you guys and watching you know throughout the time that you know moving back here to the Dakota, the original Dakota homelands of our people you know. I'm a Dakota exiled here so you know in all due respect you know we're here on Dakota stolen land so no immigrants on Dakota land. And I love what I'm seeing here so thank you very much for all being here and all these organizations that are coming to stand together and I just love to see how everybody is waking up and coming together because we've all been waiting for you. The Native American people have been waiting for all these years for what they have done to us you know so thank you very much for allowing me to speak. Thank you. Land back! Land back! Land back! Land back! Land back! Land back! Hello Minnesota! Make some noise! I would like to invite our next speaker from the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America. Here is Brooke. Please give her a warm welcome. Hello my name is Brooke Bartholomew B-R-O-O-K-E-B-A-R-T-H-O-L-O-M-E-W and I'm a co-chair of the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America. It's fitting that Kristi Noem and the Trump regime whatever they plan on saying or doing today chose this location Fort Snelling a site where Dakota people were held in concentration camps by the U.S. government. There's a there's a clear through line between that genocidal settler colonial government and today's racist fascist regime and make no mistake what's been happening across this country and in other parts of the world is what modern fascism looks like. This rule by fear this dividing the working class attempting to pit us against one another their open blatant flaunting of their white supremacist mythologies the merger of corporate billionaires in the state a process which has been going on for decades and their increased militarism that underpins everything that they do. These are all the signs of fascism. Fascism is the way that the ruling class tries to protect desperately capitalism and protect their interests by bringing the hammer down on all of us by creating a racialized other as a scapegoat for whatever problems they want to come up with and by disappearing our families our neighbors and our friends but are we going to back down no in the halls of power right now Republicans they just roll over Democrats are performatively resisting but it's us the people who will stand up for one another who will fight back against fascism against the deportation against the military in our streets and the bombings abroad we will let them know that ice is not welcome here ice is not welcome here and let's be really clear ice should have never existed in the first place and we will not let them terrorize the people of the twin cities or Minnesota whatever Christine Nome and all the rest of them say or decide later today now is the time for us to join together against this threat join the protest tomorrow join an organization preferably a socialist one there's plenty around here join a labor union or form one get to know your co-workers join a tennis union or form one get to know your neighbors revive those mutual aid networks get to know your community because right now we need solidarity to fight and win against fascism and keep our communities thank you so much Brooke and I really appreciate Brooke naming fascism because we're kind of staring it in the face right now we can get into an academic debate about whether what we have is name brand fascism or something that's very similar but I think what's clear to everybody is if it's not here already it's right across the street from us or actually right behind us more accurately and yes also thank you for shouting out the big protest tomorrow it's being put on by all of the groups that are part of the people's action coalition against Trump which you know that's a it's a really great thing to see because what I'm seeing in these groups is we are making united against fascism not just a slogan but a boots on the ground reality here in the twin cities can you get a hell yeah oh I bet they are they got nothing else to do all right but while we are on the topic of fascism I would be remiss to mention that fascism is the workings of the United States empire turned back on its people you know it's called the imperial boomerang that's a term coined by a maze is there over 50 years ago and with that in mind I'd like to invite our next speaker to the podium we have Allison from the anti-war committee and women against military madness give it up hello thank you uh as Kalani said my name is Allison Gunderson and I am a member of the Minnesota anti-war committee and the WAM Palestine solidarity committee as member orgs of the cat or the people's action coalition against Trump the AWC and WAM stand in full solidarity with this coalition against any attacks by the Trump administration on our communities in the twin cities this visit by Kristi Noem sets the stage for Trump to send the National Guard to Minnesota and as anti-imperialist organizations we know that the violence enacted abroad by U.S. militarism eventually comes home to be used against our own people Trump tries to portray himself as an anti-war president but here he is bringing this U.S. militarism home with the National Guard occupation we are also watching his actions in Palestine Iran and now Venezuela and Colombia as he bombs fishing boats indiscriminately and sends troops to their shores these actions create further instability and crisis U.S. destabilization abroad leads to an immigration crisis the U.S. terrorizes and destroys their home countries with sanctions bombings occupations this forces them to seek refuge elsewhere and when they come to the U.S. for this the U.S. then demonizes them and turns them away at our borders and attacks the U.S.'s own citizens for protecting their immigrant neighbors under the pretense of protecting our borders Trump is pivoting his focus towards the U.S.'s own backyard in South America and to the enemy within his own U.S. citizens as the new core mission for the U.S. military this is Trump showing that he wants to waste millions of taxpayer dollars occupying our cities and terrorizing our immigrant communities instead of spending any money trying to improve the lives and living conditions of the people here in the states Trump's methods of intimidation with the National Guard with ICE will not work we are prepared to fight back we have seen how other cities we have seen how other cities have responded to troops bombarding their neighborhoods and we have a duty here to stand with our immigrant neighbors both at home and abroad and protect our people from Trump's attacks because we know the people united will never be defeated so I want to thank you I want to end on the chant this chance to just repeat after me money for jobs and education not for Trump's occupation thank you thank you for pointing out where all this money comes from it comes out of our social programs that we need to educate our kids and be healthy and all of that right it's not free real quick before I introduce our last speaker I'd like to encourage everybody to follow the People's Action Coalition on Instagram follow all of the groups that are part of it follow some more groups if you can find them it's really important to stay updated you know there's it's not just two or three protests that happen a year you know this is an ongoing thing it requires you know a consistent commitment you know and I would like to now bring up to the podium Jess from the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice thank you Kalani thank you to all the others who spoke today and thank you to the many people who came out on I don't know 15 hours notice or something because we're not speaking for ourselves we are just representatives a handful of people speaking on behalf of a whole community that is united to say no to Trump and his troops and all his aggression against us the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice is a black-led organization I happen to be the white person with time off today to be here today but we are part of the national alliance against racist and political repression and across the country it's chapters of that alliance that are leading the fight back against Trump's occupations and wars on our cities especially black cities like D.C. and Chicago we stand in absolute opposition to Trump's racist campaign against our people we stand in unconditional solidarity with our immigrant neighbors who are being targeted based on a lie ICE hasn't been targeting criminals at least 70% of the people they've snatched up have no criminal record of those who do a bunch of them are trying driving citations or low level of offenses that were resolved decades ago this was never about keeping us safe in fact it was instead they're pulling mothers out of their cars at the school pickup line they're racially profiling drivers and then running into their cars to snatch them up they show up at courthouses like right here and arrest people with no cause and no warrant while the hardest hit communities are Latino it's clear that ICE is snatching up whoever they can with no legal basis in one case a black postal worker was stopped and detained while he was working they accused him of impersonating a federal worker when his supervisor verified his identity rather than apologize for their mistake the ICE agent warned him that he should wear his full uniform I think the most disgusting example I have witnessed was when they rappelled from a black hawk helicopter down to an apartment building in Chicago pulled people out of their homes in the middle of the night and uh zip-tying children detaining countless people something like half the residents of that building are african-american citizens none of them were complaining about their neighbors uh their immigrant neighbors engaging in criminal or gang activity but that was ICE's so-called justification for the action in Chicago in Chicago ICE is even tear-gassing Chicago cops crazy the more Trump and his thugs act outside the law and terrorize our community the more important it is for us to stand up and speak out against these actions community members and cities across the country have been chasing ICE out of their neighborhoods teachers have been giving safe passage for their students to and from school tow truck drivers have been hauling away illegally parked ICE vehicles for the hundreds of ways that Trump is attacking us there are thousands of ways that we are standing up and fighting back this is the city that sparked a global rebellion when George Floyd was lynched by Minneapolis police we saw the National Guard deployed in our city to suppress our protests did it stop us no the Twin Cities we know how to stand up for our people the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice will be in the streets to defend our immigrant neighbors and to defend all of us from Trump's troops we will march with the People's Action Coalition against Trump in St. Paul tomorrow and we will be anywhere else that we are needed in our movement I didn't know I was going to be the last speaker but I'm going to do a repeat on this chant because this is the energy we need to bring who keeps us safe we keep us safe who keeps us safe we keep us safe who keeps us safe we keep us safe one more time who keeps us safe we keep thank you there is another protest tonight here at 4 p.m yes it's going to be absolutely huge people in my circle who don't normally talk about protests are inviting me to it that's I also want to shout out some more protests I've just learned that on Fridays at 10 30 a.m there's a group that assembles right across the street from here it's a weekly vigil against ISIS violence and then also tomorrow 1 p.m at the state capitol that's been working on this for a while and uh we think it's really going to be a fantastic protest we've got a lot of great speakers lined up and by I mean a lot of great speakers lined up we're expecting a huge turnout it's going to be really empowering and also like people put that nasty one of these protests I think literally they keep us safe here in Minnesota we're used to this being a relatively safe thing to live in out of all the ones that you want to be dead right now I would be I think a part of that is because we have such a well-developed protest movement that you know so these violent actors that they have limits to what people will put up with and that we will and we will make the way I'd like to call this out with this dance they build a wall they build a wall no one is illegal power to the people also uh I was just reminded that we have a little bit of cameras here and uh of course that means that we're keeping in time to take any questions does anybody have any questions for either myself or any of our speakers this afternoon I heard there's another person not that way but that's the other way there are two parking rides here uh there's also a light rail station so you may want to park at like one of the other uh parking rides so we're going to show us on the blue line and then you know ride it down to stop but yeah I do expect that these two parking lot boxes that are around here are going to fill up not a lot of uh not a lot of other park grants you can park in cold water springs when you park you can keep them out here from there back oh The series shows us that as you think it gets closer and closer to home, that activates more and more people. So, you know, protests, you know, they might not be as active as they used to be. When they said the National Guard, I think that, you know, we need to recognize how important it is for us to be ready to support things that have consequences. I got a question. This isn't just for me, this isn't for anyone in the audience, but did you see somebody get just such a high-five or high-five or something? That's a good question. Well, I think more, you know, more rapid response would be, you know, get to know your neighbors, get to know the people you see. I recommend taking the right response training for fear-ass, I believe. If you don't have one of those, too, document, document, document. Make a ton of noise, get people out in the street. We need this work in other cities. I think it's important for that, but I know that they have emphasized, if you see ICE activity in your city, do report it. Let's be specific. What we don't want to do is show fear. What we do want to do is to organize and respond to what that does to you. I know that NERAC is one place to report those on their social media. There are probably many others. But make sure they're specific. Don't just raise it. You drive by, you don't quite have the information, is what I'm saying. That's a really good point. You need to always sort of report that. I've really found that with a lot of noise and that sort of response, you don't have the actual active reporting. So it's really nice to have that. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Let's go. We need to do that before. 612, 444, 613. Thank you so much for repeating that. Apparently, I can't remember. I wanted to stress the importance of documenting and reporting yourself. I know that we've met with members of the government's office, other people in the legislature. The state doesn't have a way to track the information of who is being taken by ICE, so we need to do that ourselves. Get the numbers who is being taken by ICE. Our local governments aren't able to. Is there a question? Yes. All right. So from there, we're going to do a quick poll. How many of you have a question? Okay. It's a great response. We've got a few questions. The question was regarding the active action of arrests and arrests. Is it possible to get the real list? It's hard to find a place to get a list. Well, it's hard to find a place to get a list. I do. Yay! I do, but our agency, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Justice in general, has found that it is not possible to get a list. It's not possible to get a list of arrests that did not affect our justice system. It's not possible to get a list of arrests. We don't want that. And the first question that we're asking is, you know, you know, if they're all convicted or not, can they be treated as, you know, if they were arrested? Can they be outlawed? Yes. If they are arrested, that's their job. That's their job. It's not possible to get a list. But they have finished those arrests, and we want our way of putting it later, I don't really care where he has to stay the third day or if he's not doing anything anyway. If he's not doing anything, I'm not taking his perspective of how his office is carrying it out. I would like to hear how he's doing. I don't want to hear how he's going to deny how our, that they have not put the list in. When he's not put the list in, it's a different story. So when he comes back with a list of places he's going to protect, there's never going to be a list. Woo!