John,

Hi, I’m Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and I want to thank Democracy for America Advocacy Fund for the chance to speak to you about what’s been happening on the ground in Minneapolis under ICE occupation.

For more than 50 days, ICE’s ‘Operation Metro Surge’ has created fear, instability, and violence in our community. Minnesotans have watched our neighbors disappear in front of us, and we have come together to protect each other.

Let’s be absolutely clear on this point: Minnesota and its neighborhoods are under attack from our own federal government. Labor has played a key role in this resistance.

Minnesota Labor is stepping up to keep the resistance going. Can you join us by splitting a donation with Democracy for America Advocacy Fund and Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation's Working Partnerships fund to build local rapid response networks that are meeting the needs of workers in Minneapolis?

rush a donation

Some of the folks that are being arrested work at workplaces that have significant background checks that require all of your paperwork to be absolutely impeccable in order to work, and yet they are still being arrested and whisked away to a camp in the middle of Texas within hours.

And then they're in these facilities for days, detained illegally for weeks on end when they have every right to be working here. And it's just causing havoc and fear, widespread fear across all kinds of industries.

Teachers are teaching to half-empty classrooms. Restaurants are having to close. Peaceful observers have been gunned down in the street. This is what a community under siege looks like.

That’s why on January 23rd, in -20 weather, 90,000 Minnesotans took to the streets peacefully, in solidarity, to demand ICE OUT of our communities.

This act of solidarity puts all our collective muscle together to say: This has to stop.

It's a message that resonates beyond Minneapolis and beyond the state of Minnesota. It's a message where our entire country has to take this very seriously, and we all need to work together to make what is happening in our community and this occupation of our community and other communities stop immediately.

Specifically, your donation will be used for:

1. Mutual aid supporting families who can’t safely work, providing food, rent relief and rides

2. Legal defense for the detained workers and constitutional observers

3. Rebuilding our communities vast organizing networks

Even if ICE leaves Minneapolis tomorrow, rebuilding our communities could take years. Your donation today will make sure we are able to respond and rebuild. Rush a donation today!

We’ve been overwhelmed by the outpouring of solidarity throughout the nation. Minneapolis thanks you. I thank you.

In solidarity,