As ICE drawdown takes shape, Minnesota organizers say their work continues

NINA MOINI: A new filing from DHS lays out a plan for the number of ICE agents left in Minnesota to drop to about 400 after today. That comes after border czar Tom Homan's announcement of a drawdown earlier this month. Thousands of Minnesotans have taken part in recent weeks in demonstrations, mutual aid efforts, and rapid response networks to support neighbors and fellow Minnesotans during the surge of federal agents.

A week of action kicking off today, organized by a broad coalition of groups across the Twin Cities, looks to continue building on that momentum, even in light of a drawdown announcement. José Alvillar-- I'm sorry, José Alvillar Hinojosa is with Unidos Minnesota, one of the organizations behind Bring The Heat, Melt The ICE action this week. He's on the line now to tell us more about it. Thanks for being with us, José

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: Yes, thank you for having me here.

NINA MOINI: But before we talk about the week of action, I want to hear more about these last couple of months and what it's been like for you working so closely with people organizing on the ground.

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: I'd say these last couple of months it's been a mixture of emotions. Like on one end, it's very devastating to see what's happening to Minnesotans, and not just immigrant communities, like, living in fear or children quite literally being used as bait, but also everyday other Minnesotans, like the murder of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, to see that people are quite literally putting their lives on the line and that we're facing an administration that doesn't care about people's lives. And in this case, it's like literal US citizens.

So like on one end, it's like just the devastating and heartbreaking and wrenching emotions of what it means to organize in this moment. And on the other end, there's this sense of unity of what we're seeing, how Minnesota and Minnesotans in general are leading in this moment, not just in terms of the protests, but quite literally resisting and, to some degree, really changing the tide on how the public all across the country sees ICE and DHS in terms of their raids and their operations.

NINA MOINI: What has it been like for you hearing about the drawdown? So reportedly, there's going to be about 400 ICE agents left in Minnesota after today. This is based on information from DHS Monday. It's in a declaration that was filed by DHS. What does that mean for you in the work that you're doing?

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: I guess, for me, I would say it's also like a mixture of emotions. On one end, we know that the reason why these things are happening, the reason why Bovino was removed and quite literally just being thrown under the bus by the Trump administration is because of the organizing that happened here in Minnesota, the general strike that we had on January 23, and the continued organizing from everyday people that have shown up.

And at the same time, we're in a place where we're still not celebrating because families are still sheltering in place. There's families who have literally been in their homes for three months now. There's families who are also now facing the repercussions of the harm and chaos that this administration has caused to Minnesotans and we're now facing an economic crisis all over Minnesota. And again, children are still being used as bait.

And we've also-- like, it's interesting that borders czar Tom Homan mentioned at the press conference that there's going to be a drawdown when literally that same day, through our rapid response system, we had heard of ongoing presence of ICE in Shakopee since the very morning up until like the very late evening. And that's what we've been continuously seeing, that ICE is less in the Twin Cities.

That's not to say that they're not because there's still some activity in St. Paul and Minneapolis, but that they've drawn most of their attention to the suburbs in greater Minnesota, which is where there is less legal observers. And so which is the reason why we're seeing less of this. So I wouldn't say that there's quite, at least for us, we haven't seen that level of drawdown quite happen yet. We just have seen a change in tactics.

NINA MOINI: So with that in mind, being in this place of not knowing exactly what's going on and not knowing if the drawdown has had that impact on the ground, but also being in this mode of recovery, balancing those two things, how did that inform this week of action and what you decided needed to happen this week?

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: Yeah, I would say part of the reason why we had the week of action is because-- and granted, we planned this before there was the press conference. And so as we were thinking about this, we knew that there was going to be a continued moment where we had to keep the momentum. I think what we've seen in Minnesota is that Minnesota has quite literally led this movement. It has been ground zero. And our thinking is that if we don't stop it here, it would just progressively get worse in other states.

And so that's why we thought it was our responsibility to continue on with that work and at the same time address the actual harm that is still happening here in Minnesota. Regardless if there is a drawdown, like an actual drawdown in the future, Minnesotans are already facing the repercussions of this administration, and there's families who are already getting eviction notices. There's families who are struggling with regards how to pay the rent, students who are still afraid to go to school and are still doing online classes. And so until there's some moment where people can quite literally just go outside and live their lives with dignity, we will continue to do this work, and that's why we felt that this moment was needed now more than ever.

NINA MOINI: And tell me about some of the actions, the actual activities that are going to be going on.

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: Yeah. So there's a series-- essentially, there's two tracks. One of the tracks is, like, trainings for people, especially because there's people from other parts of Minnesota, the suburbs, greater Minnesota, and then other partners and organizers and activists from across the country who are coming for this week of action.

And so one track is essentially trainings. For us, that means training people on our legal observation trainings, just because in Minnesota we've gotten a head start in building that infrastructure and some states have reached out to us, like, hey, how do we build it? What are some lessons that you learned? How do we build the infrastructure of it and the back end as well? So part of that track is essentially doing a lot of those trainings.

On the other end is, like, the public actions. I know that there's some public actions with the tenant unions, for example, right now, as they're organizing with everyday people to fight for rent relief for communities, both at the state level and at the city level, and also on extending some of those eviction notices from 15 days up until 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days for some of those situations. And then there's also other public actions going against corporations, because they also need to defect and stand their ground that if they're specifically, for example, Target, who has headquarters here in Minnesota and constantly talk about its roots, then now more than ever, we need them to show up.

And then also, we have, as Unidos Minnesota, we have an action tomorrow at the State Capitol because this moment shouldn't just rely on the backs of Minnesotans for us to get by. We need elected officials to also show the same amount of courage that Minnesotans are showing in this moment.

NINA MOINI: What I'm hearing from you, and what I've heard from a lot of other organizers, is that exactly what you just said, that it's a lot of grassroots. It's a lot of smaller organizations or organizations that already had the infrastructure, small businesses. So when you are interacting with folks from other states, what are you-- how are you telling them to set up an infrastructure?

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: I would say like the main part of it is like as folks are reaching out to us, that they're curious, what is the messaging? What is that's useful and helpful? Because we know that the Trump administration-- so, for example, at the peak of this surge in January, the Trump administration was essentially referring to legal observers as people who were getting in the way of ICE operations, which, in reality, is like it's literally their constitutional rights. And so when we talk to other organizations from other parts of the country, we're essentially telling them, lean on to the Constitution.

Like, that's what's helped us here in Minnesota, because then when there is any possible retaliation from the administration, we can just reference back to our literal Constitution and fight those in lawsuits and litigations that what we are doing is just essentially reminding people of what their rights are as residents of this country, as people who reside in the US. And so that's one of the biggest takeaways.

And then the other thing is really just supporting with the back end infrastructure and trying to expedite that, because at least through our process, and we've been doing this since, I would say, December of 2024. And we learned what infrastructure, what systems actually work really well to essentially operationalize a 911 dispatch. So we're also teaching on the back end process what works really well, how do you get texting set up, and then what are the legalities that you need to have to ensure that people can opt in to a system, because we can't legally send them text messages, unless they consent to it.

NINA MOINI: Building that infrastructure. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, José, and sharing your perspective. Really appreciate your time.

JOSÉ ALVILLAR HINOJOSA: Yeah, thank you very much.

NINA MOINI: That's José Alvillar Hinojosa with Unidos Minnesota, talking about a week of action beginning today.