Throughout the Twin Cities, residents are carrying on the state’s long-standing tradition of solidarity. You can read my latest piece on mutual aid and 'Minnesota nice' in The Conversation. theconversation.com/minneapolis-...
BREAKING: #SCOTUS unanimously deals setback to private prison contractor GEO Group. High court rejects company's pretrial immunity claim in immigration detainees' forced-labor suit
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Did an interview for this and I really appreciate NPR for continuing to cover the surreal situation facing observers and commuters here in Minneapolis, even as the attention of the world moves on.
The current person in charge of ICE's procurement for detention is a GEO Group executive who ran the company's immigration detention portfolio. He was granted an "ethics waiver" from DHS allowing him to hand out contracts to GEO in his new role.
Are you in #Minneapolis or the southern suburbs and want to get involved in some ongoing mutual aid efforts? Hit me up!
Our group knows we're in this for the long haul, as food and diaper insecurity will continue if/when the feds ever GT the FO. And you can help!
Iowa courts charge people $73 to $83 per hour for court-appointed lawyers. The law specifically allows for such charges when a defendant is found guilty or is acquitted, but not for dismissed cases—something prosecutors want to change.
Wow.
ICE contracts increased private prison company GEO Group's revenues by 800% in 2025, according to an earnings call attended by @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social. But none of that money seems to be going to oversight amid a spate of sexual abuse & physical assault complaints against GEO Group guards.
And in case you missed it, we cataloged the members of Congress who have taken thousands of dollars from private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. Find out if your rep is among them: theappeal.org/ice-cold-cas...
Boot off the neck: Homan announces end of Minnesota surge. Hugely welcome news, and shows the vital importance of pushback from government and citizens; but when you tally up the overall cost to Minnesotans, and subtract the public value if any, it’s an insanely huge bill they’re leaving unpaid.
A moving essay by my colleague Amna Akbar: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
![Evan Greer - "You Will Have to Come Through Us" [Tiny Desk 2026]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gexyzhqlp5r7kart7lw4jgzb/bafkreiagzoeakorke5ffoysfjhpcevvqmzsyhfvsqkwemon5dmbiiam6kq)
I brought an actual desk out into the snow and gathered a bunch of my neighbors to sing this anti-ICE protest song.
On the desk is:
-A mug from the North Dakota AFL-CIO I happened to have in my cabinet, containing two (2) pride flags
-A photo of Anne Feeney
-A sign that reads "Abolish ICE"
New York Times’ Brett Anderson on Minnesota’s secret grocery networks keeping hungry families fed as ICE tries to starve citizens and non-citizens of color. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/d... (gift link). Brett is a Minnesota native, former Twin Cities Reader writer & award-wining food journalist.
This is a really incredible episode of @revealnews.org, in part bc reporters @artiscuriskis.bsky.social and Nate Halverson are MN natives. Esp love the postal carrier perspective on what has happened to people on his route revealnews.org/podcast/minn...
From a Comrade 19h. C One of the nuts things about organizing in the Twin Cities right now is that even the most long term organizers who've been here for decades can't keep track of all the resistance that is going on. There are so many self-organized crews just doing work that in any conversation with someone from another neighborhood you might stumble over a whole collective of people resisting in ways you didn't think of. There's a crew of carpenters just going around fixing kicked-in doors. There are tow truck drivers taking cars of detained people away for free. People delivering food to families in hiding. So many local rapid response groups that the number is uncertain but somewhere between 80 and the low hundreds- especially when one considers that several immigrant communities have their own non-English rapid response networks usually uncounted in the main English-language directories. People standing watch outside daycares and schools. This whole resistance has so many poles of initiative and leadership, so many layers of self-organization, that it's extraordinarily difficult for the state to repress or for opportunists be they Democrats or movement-riding parties) to co-opt and control. Of course, that's built up through many years and decades of organization, and not only through explicitiv political campaigns or formations built during times of crisis and rupture like 2020. It is also built through day-to-day mutual aid, culture building, workplace and tenant organizing, and simple, basic relationship building among neighbors and coworkers here.
From a Comrade 19h. C One of the nuts things about organizing in the Twin Cities right now is that even the most long term organizers who've been here for decades can't keep track of all the resistance that is going on. There are so many self-organized crews just doing work that in any conversation with someone from another neighborhood you might stumble over a whole collective of people resisting in ways you didn't think of. There's a crew of carpenters just going around fixing kicked-in doors. There are tow truck drivers taking cars of detained people away for free. People delivering food to families in hiding. So many local rapid response groups that the number is uncertain but somewhere between 80 and the low hundreds- especially when one considers that several immigrant communities have their own non-English rapid response networks usually uncounted in the main English-language directories. People standing watch outside daycares and schools. This whole resistance has so many poles of initiative and leadership, so many layers of self-organization, that it's extraordinarily difficult for the state to repress or for opportunists be they Democrats or movement-riding parties) to co-opt and control. Of course, that's built up through many years and decades of organization, and not only through explicitiv political campaigns or formations built during times of crisis and rupture like 2020. It is also built through day-to-day mutual aid, culture building, workplace and tenant organizing, and simple, basic relationship building among neighbors and coworkers here.
message from MN
ICE has grabbed so many people from their vehicles that there are abandoned cars across Minnesota.
This tow truck driver returns the cars for free as a public service, and he’s been getting death threats.
They hate the helpers.
Which is why must keep helping.
If you don't already support @liberalcurrents.com with your attention and, if possible, with your $, I'd invite you to join me in doing so. Our media landscape is a howling wilderness with very few big outlets that understand the stakes and make them clear to their audience. Liberal Currents does.
Thank you for your service!
We made a special episode about the damage being done to public mental health here in Minnesota. Even if you don't live here, it's a bracing look at the dangerous position we're in, what we stand to lose, and what our community is doing about it.
Here’s an under-discussed risk of lucrative fed contracts with local jails: what happens when the feds decide to pull out, or (as DHS seems to be doing more and more) stop paying invoices on time? Well, Cumberland county taxpayers are getting hit with a huge bill www.pressherald.com/2026/02/04/i...
NEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program.
This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE.
Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.
Heads are going to explode 💥
Cato Institute just nuked the lie. Immigrants have cut U.S. deficits by $14.5 TRILLION since 1994, slashing the national debt by a third.
All that “immigrants are bleeding us dry” noise? Absolute bullshit.
1/3
We need more worker-governed news collectives NOW.
I WANT an editor.
I WANT a fact checker.
I NEED an attorney to defend my reporting against the fascist regime.
Freelancing is a nightmare right now, y’all. I can’t make enough to survive and I could have published 3X the news were I on staff.
We're cosponsoring this year’s Carceral Political Economy Conference at The New School for Social Research, NYC, March 27–28. Register to attend (it's free!) and *UNTIL FRIDAY* submit presentation proposals.
I wrote about neighborism — specifically, about small business joining the resistance.
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/the-other-...
A person carrying a new Minnesota flag on a bike amid other people biking
A person on a bike hi-fives a bystander
People bike up the 28th St bridge over I-35W
A person on a bike with a sign that says “Rolling Against Racism”
This is the largest winter bike ride I’ve been in so far since I’ve moved here. Estimated 1500-2000 people.
Wow, here in MPLS, the Alex Pretti memorial bike ride is massive. It’s been passing near my house, and the riders just keep coming. It’s a beautiful tribute, here and around the world.
a tribute to everyone who hasn’t forgotten how to love their neighbors 💙
www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...
Jason, Jamael and Carlos Mariani taking a photo in the house chambers
Jamael, Carlos Mariani, Robert and Jason in a committee hearing
A photo of Jason, Carlos Mariani and Jamael in a committee hearing.
This morning, federal agents arrested my friend Jamael Lundy for exercising his first amendment rights along with members of the media.
He was violently awakened by federal agents, and I’m disappointed to see the Trump administration weaponize the justice system. 1/
