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Notes from the fight against ICE.

In the streets: Notes from the fight against ICE.

This week's Wire is excerpted from JVP Executive Director Stefanie Fox's blog, The Voice Memo: The people of Minneapolis and Saint Paul organized a historic general strike on Friday, the likes of which have been unseen in this country for 80 years. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans protested in minus 20 degree weather, hundreds of businesses shut down, and scores of unions striked, all making the demand: ICE OUT FOR GOOD.   This unprecedented show of force was a culmination of incredibly beautiful and powerful organizing Twin Cities residents have been mounting to defend their city since ICE agents killed local mom Renee Nicole Good and Trump subsequently sent federal forces to lay siege to the city, abducting adults and children all day and night. The day after the general strike, ICE agents executed another Minneapolis resident: 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti. Trump’s unprecedented investment in ICE machinery for deportation and detention has made the agency the largest law enforcement entity in the country, with a bigger budget than most of the world’s militaries, and with it, Trump is able to escalate this campaign of terror. The ICE assault in Minnesota builds on similar invasions of federal forces across the country, including a steady escalation of ICE presence since Trump surged ICE into Los Angeles this past summer. LA community members are being snatched from every corner of the huge and sprawling city. On New Year’s Eve, an off-duty ICE agent murdered local father Keith “Pooter” Porter Jr. outside his home in Los Angeles. Around the country, JVP members, trained and skilled from Palestine solidarity organizing, are showing up to community defense efforts resisting ICE. Last week, I sat down to talk to some of our local JVP member leaders on the ground in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.    On the ground in Minneapolis   In the weeks since Porter and Good were murdered, the response from thousands of everyday people has been to show up to help resist. Our LA member remarked on the energy of a recent community defense training put on by a coalition the JVP chapter is active in. “I was so moved to be in the room with all these everyday people who just saw someone get murdered for doing this work, and their response is to show up and ask where they can sign up.” Every neighborhood in Minneapolis, and sometimes each block in the neighborhood, has a communication thread for rapid response. Tens of thousands of people are working together: assessing safety, patrolling for ICE agents, checking license plates, alerting each other, dispatching protective presence where it is needed. There are masses of people that will show up at any hour of the day or night to try to get between ICE and their neighbors. In addition to rapid response community protection, Minneapolis neighbors have built mutual aid structures to care for one another abundantly. There are systems for delivering food and supplies to neighbors that are unsafe to leave their homes; organizing rides to and from work. During our conversation, one of the JVP-Twin Cities members let out an excited “yes!” when a text came through: A huge pallet of diapers and menstrual pads had just been delivered to one of the community organizations serving as a hub for resource distribution.  Throughout it all, there are easy ways for new people to get trained up and find a role, and for communication among and between all these systems... Read more on Substack

Call your Senators: Cut funding for ICE!

In the next few days, the Senate will vote on a bill that continues funding immigration enforcement and detention, including violent ICE and Border Patrol operations across the country.   Use these tools from our sister organization JVP Action and our partners at Detention Watch Network to call and email your Senators now and demand they vote NO on this funding.

Call now Email now

Defend student protestors standing up for Palestine.

As the federal government escalates its war on our neighborhoods, nationwide repression of those brave enough to stand up to this violence is also accelerating. At Stanford University, 11 students are facing felony charges at trial after being arrested in a non-violent sit-in demanding divestment from Israeli genocide. At UCLA, more than a dozen students still face disciplinary charges for their divestment advocacy.   Email now to demand that all charges are dropped and these universities stop advancing the U.S. government's repressive agenda and persecuting their own students.

Email Stanford Email UCLA

Drawing connections: Fighting fascism from Minneapolis to Palestine.

For +972, Amahl Bishara writes that to understand and fight fascism, we must "insist on drawing connections across time and place — from the Holocaust to Gaza, or ICE detention to Israeli prisons."  Read more

Take action from anywhere at Power Half-Hour.

Power Half-Hour is JVP's collective, organized space to channel our grief and outrage into targeted action, every Monday-Thursday at 3pm ET. Register now as we come together to take action against ICE and keep up the pressure for Palestinian freedom.   Register now

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