🚫🧊📰💪612 ICE-OUT News — January 1st, 2026
In 2025 our city came under federal occupation and thousands of neighbors got involved in ICE Watch, Rapid Response, and Mutual Aid efforts across the city. One month in and we begin 2026 under occupation. Resolve to begin this year by organizing ICE Watch on your block, joining patrol in your neighborhoods, showing up when a need comes up, and having deliberate conversations with your friends to get them involved!
📰 Yesterday agents forced entry into a care facility, harassed a person undergoing intensive care, and caused them to have a medical episode. That person was brought to the HCMC emergency room downtown, only to have ICE follow and place them under 24/7 armed guard and handcuff them to their bed.
Because of the tireless work of community members and aligned elected officials over the holiday, we can now announce that the community member received legal support and that as of this afternoon the abductors have been escorted OFF of HCMC property! When we organize, we can move mountains.
📢 NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:
➤ The Sheriff has been personally responding to concerned neighbors calling and texting her on her Cell phone! Call and email Sheriff Witt today using the information at the event link above.
➤ January 7th, 5pm: Community Defense and ICE Watch – This training will share important skills for documenting ICE activity and supporting neighbors in your community
➤ Abolish ice shirts for sale. A fundraiser for Defend 612 and future localized ice defense needs https://www.eaglescreenprint.com/printshop/p/defend-612-abolish-ic3
➤ Ongoing Vest Fundraising: There are so many places to offer support to people in need right now. If you additionally want to donate to get ICE Watch vests in Minneapolis, donate here: https://defend612.com/donate/
🙋♀️ GET INVOLVED:
➤ Invite your Minneapolis neighbors to fill out the form at https://defend612.com.
➤ When they hit submit, they will be directed to the local Neighborhood and School Rapid Response and Community Defense groups you can work with to protect Minneapolis from abductions.
🚗💨LOCAL PATROL & ☎️ DISPATCH:
1. 🚗💨 Join your local Rapid Response neighborhood group and sign up for mobile and stationary patrol.
📝 Best Practices Guide for Neighborhood or Area Patrol, Monitors, and Verfiers: https://drive.proton.me/urls/NQBEQE8K60#CljXjBjfCxDo
2. ☎️ If you know your area well, can stay calm while tracking multiple vehicles and map locations, and quickly switch between windows on your computer, AND you’ve done ICE Watch on the streets – then you may want to volunteer as a dispatcher for your local area Rapid Response signal thread.
🤝🫂 MUTUAL AID:
➤ Neighbors in North, in the Southwest, the Southeast and across the city have organized to support affected families with rent and food assistance.
🗂️📍🗺️ DATA & MAPPING:
➤ Latest Maps of ICE raids/abductions that have been tracked: https://airtable.com/appAmfaJz2c5aR2zA/shrdNwC4kBImQEeDZ (See the 3rd “Files” Tab)
➤ Sunrise Twin Cities has started publishing weekly lists of Twin Cities hotels housing ICE. Community members are calling these hotels to say that they don’t support these hotels collaborating with agents. And it works! Check out the most recent list of hotels in the posts on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DS6PNpIEZ_h/
➤ ACLU-MN is investigating unlawful conduct towards ICE observers and protestors by federal immigration agents in Minnesota. Fill out this form to help them investigate unlawful conduct: http://aclu-mn.org/ice-feds-form/
🗣️🗫💪💪 UPLIFTING STORIES AND NEWS:
➤ The actions taken on hotels housing and giving shelter to ICE agents are working! Because of clear community discontent expressed through noise demonstrations and call-in campaigns, and negative online reviews multiple hotels have opted to kick agents out. Other hotels are refusing to extend their stays. Local hotels see that collaborating with ICE is not popular, so some hotels are refusing to house ICE agents at all!
➤ Powderhorn / Phillips Rapid Response has over 1,000 neighbors involved! On Tuesday a hero community member was behind a confirmed ICE vehicle and honking to warn others. Local neighborhood chats activated, 2 other cars joined in, and neighbors came out to the streets. ICE ran away from the organized community by going the wrong way down a one-way. Right after that ICE stopped and pulled out the AR-15s on the ICE Watch Commuters but their attempt at intimidation didn’t work and they left the neighborhood!
➤ Over 150 dispatchers have been trained in the last two weeks to assist their communities within the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs with rapid response. We encourage those who are tech-savvy, often remote, and comfortable with moderating calmly in tense situations to inquire about dispatch training. Trainings are held every other day at noon.
☎️ KEY UPDATES ABOUT ABDUCTOR ACTIVITY:
➤ Many new vehicles have been delivered to local ICE HQ over the last week, and we continue to experience the ICE surge throughout the Twin Cities. Carry your whistle and be ready to defend your neighbors!
➤ Remember to not depend only on known license plates. When in doubt try to get confirmation by seeing the passengers.
📈🦋 An amazing community protection force is organizing and growing across the Twin Cities, and we love to see it! ❤️❤️❤️
🫀 Defend the 612 Community News crew
PS: got content to share? Send it to d612news@proton.me