"Shut Down ICE!" 30 Arrested in Civil Disobedience at Bloomington Facility
There's a signless pinkish building at the corner of American and Metro in Bloomington Minnesota. Like US immigration policy, this building is hidden in plain sight--visible to immigrants and their allies but ignored by the rest of the nation. This is the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, anondescript place where deportees are held on the last night before they're driven to the airport and sent away. Sometimes they leave behind families and children; sometimes they return to countries they last saw while still too young to remember. One woman left her autistic and medically vulnerable son.
"My father would never get to see me graduate high school," said Nick Espinosa, one of the activists who spoke at today's action in front of the ICE facility. Espinosa's father came to the US at the age of 18. Despite years of ordinary employment and participation in society, he was taken away by immigration agents in front of his family. ICE "sees immigration as a statistic," said Espinosa. "Immigration has a human face."
"If people don't listen to these words then we must act," Espinosa continued. He would later be arrested during a blockade of the facility.
MN Immigrant Rights Action Coalition | Related: Workday Minnesota Video | Photos from May 1 March for Immigrant Rights | Community Members Call for Protest at ICE HQ | Statement of Support from OWO Workday Minnesota: Supreme Court Bans Key Tool in Immigration Raids
Immigrant rights activists and allies took action today at ICE headquarters, holding a conference just after 7am to demand that Obama sign an executive order to end all raids and deportations pending the passage of a just immigration reform act. Veronica Mendez described the climate of fear created by immigration raids: undocumented workers afraid to go to the police when robbed or assaulted, employees unable to fight back against employers who cheat them of wages or create unsafe working conditions, families whose children are citizens but whose parents are deported. "We in Minnesota have our own dark secrets of raids,...the times that in the middle of the night or in a parking lot you are simply rounded up and taken away," said the Reverend Loren McGrail.
After the press conference the legal demonstration continued while those who planned to commit civil disobedience moved into place.
About 30 activists were arrested as they blocked the entrances to the Bloomington Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility as a support rally took place nearby. After activists had blocked all four driveways, Bloomington police clad in helmets and carrying extended batons, marking rounds and chemical canisters congregated around the activists at the east side of the facility. As activists from the initial blockade were arrested one by one and loaded onto a city-owned bus, others came from the other blockades to take their place. On the bus activists chanted and rocked vigorously. After the approximately twenty activists were arrested, the full bus was driven to the police station, returning thirty minutes later when the remaining activists were arrested.
As one protestor lay on the ground, detained activists called for medical assistance. Police refused the assistance of one of the activist medics over her protests that she held medical certification. A police paramedic got the protester up and loaded into a squad car. According to police he was driven to the Bloomington police station for booking. Another arrestee screamed from inside the bus for a medic to cut the plastic handcuffs off of another arrestee. Jail support is currently taking place. Check back to Twin Cities Indymedia later today for a longer story, photos and any updates.
Update 6:45pm: Four arrestees are still in jail. One arrestee seems to be facing a felony trespassing charge for no clear reason. Two arrestees are vegan and aren't being given vegan food, which means they haven't eaten since before the demonstration very early this morning. The legal collective has requested calls to the jail at 952-563-4900 to demand release and vegan food.
Update 8:08pm: All arrestees out!
MN Immigrant Rights Action Coalition | Related: Photos from May 1 March for Immigrant Rights | Community Members Call for Protest at ICE HQ | Statement of Support from OWO Workday Minnesota: Supreme Court Bans Key Tool in Immigration Raids
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Comments
what needs done in terms of
what needs done in terms of solidarity? phone calls, bail money?
Jail vigil? Rides home?
Do we know:
- if people are being held or cited/released?
- where people are being held
- if people need rides home.
Have car, will travel to Bloomington.
jail update
at 12:45 in the afternoon -
6 of the 30 arrestees have been released so far. there are plenty of folks at the jail, but more would be welcomed. the address is 1800 west old shakopee, bloomington.
please leave a comment if you know more!
Request for more support at jail
More support is needed at the jail, especially people with cars to give rides. 1800 W Old Shakopee, Bloomington
i don't get it- what's all
i don't get it- what's all the hub-ub? didn't you all WANT to get arrested? now you're surprised when you do and need "jail support"?
it's always nice to have
it's always nice to have extra supporters, to have hugs and food and festive-ness outside the jail. and no, people did not WANT to get arrested, they wanted to stop deportations today. the cops decided to arrest them. the activists figured this might happen.
don't hate! :)
((HUGS))
You have my support. I feel inspired to rally something up like this here in Nashville. You go!!
update from an arrestee
two of us were arrested and released around 11:30 this morning--we've been charged with misdemeanor trespassing and misdemeanor disorderly conduct and have our first court appereance scheduled for june 15th.
This shit aint never gonna
This shit aint never gonna shut down ICE...
"This shit aint never gonna
"This shit aint never gonna shut down ICE..."
Agreed.
But this is definitely refreshing to see. In the future, up the tactics.
Great video of protest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGe6FkZkSwo
This is the way forward!
Great Job Minnesota! This is the way forward for the immigrant rights movement! We need to spread this example to dozens of other cities. Change will come through building a movement that confronts state power and forces the politicians to make reforms.
Time to stop being nICE.
Tom Burke www.frso.org
Blmngtn Police conspire with ICE, Thanks for support
We send much thanks and love to everyone who supported us and the
other arrestees on Wednesday following the action at I.C.E. headquafters in Bloomington. It was so reassuring and inspiring to hear the chants, cheers, and clapping of those in the other holding tank through the vents, as well as of those outside the jail who communicated
with us when we were in the holding cells. Hearing and talking to people
through thick smoked glass in the holding cells kept our spirits up.
We also felt so much support with the jail phones ringing off the hook
with supporters demanding our rights as we were booked. Many people
called in demanding that we be given vegan food, which is fantastic. What
wasn't communicated clearly, though, was that we were all denied food, not
just the vegans. (Only because of solidarity, one of us finally received a bag of chips and some juice after nearly 10 hours of detention, right before being released). Our captors said we couldn't have food or make phone calls until we had completed the booking process.
But what is important here is that we were insisting that we provide information that they did not have any right to ask, such as our social security numbers and
location of birth. These questions were designed to
identify potential undocumented immigrants to report to ICE, so we didn't
want to participate in that system. As a result, some of us "failed" the
booking process and were sent back to the holding tank or to holding
cells. We were all released eventually, though, most of us without
providing that information.
Blmngtn Police conspire with ICE, Thanks for support
We send much thanks and love to everyone who supported us and the
other arrestees on Wednesday following the action at I.C.E. headquafters in Bloomington. It was so reassuring and inspiring to hear the chants, cheers, and clapping of those in the other holding tank through the vents, as well as of those outside the jail who communicated
with us when we were in the holding cells. Hearing and talking to people
through thick smoked glass in the holding cells kept our spirits up.
We also felt so much support with the jail phones ringing off the hook
with supporters demanding our rights as we were booked. Many people
called in demanding that we be given vegan food, which is fantastic. What
wasn't communicated clearly, though, was that we were all denied food, not
just the vegans. (Only because of solidarity, one of us finally received a bag of chips and some juice after nearly 10 hours of detention, right before being released). Our captors said we couldn't have food or make phone calls until we had completed the booking process.
But what is important here is that we were insisting that we provide information that they did not have any right to ask, such as our social security numbers and
location of birth. These questions were designed to
identify potential undocumented immigrants to report to ICE, so we didn't
want to participate in that system. As a result, some of us "failed" the
booking process and were sent back to the holding tank or to holding
cells. We were all released eventually, though, most of us without
providing that information.
how do you find ICE?
I live in KC. I have no idea if one of these ICE facilities exists here, but I'm sure one does. How do you find out about it? This shit should be confronted as much as possible.
I'd be nice to melt some ICE
Heat it up
http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/dwnmap
ooo
crap. the detention center near me is Ft. Leavenworth, a hot-bed of right wing reactionaries.
sounds fun/tricky.
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