To Witness is an Act of Love. To Grieve is an Act of Resistance.
A Reportback From the Minnesota Frontlines
By: Stephanie Guilloud, Project South Movement Organizing Senior Strategist, February 2026 Newsletter
Since December 2025, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis–Saint Paul have represented the epicenter of an aggressive federal immigration enforcement campaign known as Operation Metro Surge. This operation, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other Department of Homeland Security agents, has deployed thousands of armed federal officers into the region to target immigrant communities. This violent federal occupation and siege has resulted in at least 4,000 abductions and detainments, multiple shootings, and two murders.
On January 7, 2026, Renée Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis community member and mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent while she was supporting her neighbors. Another Minneapolis community member and nurse Alex Pretti, was murdered later in January by federal officers while actively protecting others.
Their violent deaths, both captured on video, became flashpoints for public outrage and collective resistance, made all the more urgent by ongoing violence and deaths happening inside immigrant detention centers. Despite the attempt to intimidate and frighten people, grassroots solidarity surged among immigrant communities, legal observers, activists, abolitionist organizers, and community members across the county.
Communities showed incredible courage and participated in mass demonstrations, expanded mutual aid networks, and provided direct support for people facing these abductions and occupations.
Across the country people held vigils and memorials to honor Renée Good, Alex Pretti, and recognize the many others killed and harmed by ICE operations. On behalf of Project South, I was invited into a core organizing team with Minneapolis organizers directly supporting the family of Renée Good. We organized the Public Memorial and Ceremony in Remembrance and Witness on Saturday, February 7, 2026, a day dedicated to honoring Renée Good’s life and all those lost to ICE violence.
In 15 days, we organized a massive Indigenous-led ceremony and public memorial in Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis with 5,000 participants on the one month anniversary of Renée Good’s murder and just two weeks after Alex Pretti’s murder.
The public memorial was an invitation and offering from NDN Collective in collaboration with the Good family and their supporters to remember, to witness, and to grieve as an act of resistance.
“When we grieve together, we turn mourning into witness—and witness into protection. As we learn from the community practices in Minnesota, we prepare our home communities to build the necessary infrastructure that supports, connects, and protects our neighbors and our families.” — From the Public Grief Toolkit
What I witnessed in Minneapolis was a vast coordinated system of response and resistance, with activated roles at every level of public life, and interconnected webs that will remain available to them after this siege lifts. It is critical to recognize that much of the infrastructure was building on the lessons from the racial justice rebellions and organizing after George Floyd was killed just blocks away from these recent murders.
Minnesota is building on the immense social movement work of the first 25 years of the 21st century and leading us courageously into the second year of the Trump regime, and we have much to learn.
I offer these reflections, lessons, and insights from my experience working with groups on the frontlines of organizing in Minneapolis, not in any way complete or comprehensive. I am grateful for the glimpse of what it looks like to practice humanity, creativity, and tenacity in the face of brutal and unforgiving conditions (and I’m talking about the icy weather and the state repression). One measure of our collective power is based on how we metabolize the lessons and apply them to organizing our work to confront this regime and to build infrastructure that lasts.
SYNTHESIS OF LESSONS
1 – Relationships are the fuel to successful organizing and infrastructure building. Relationships are the foundation to collaboration and include long-term, long haul relationships tested by time as well as the fast, necessary relationships forged in the fire of crisis. Vetting and vouching for people entering an organizing process requires accountability in alignment with agreements we make and principles we hold.
2 – Parallel infrastructure means we are building systems – the engines of resistance. Just dropping off a bag of food at a house is a form of support, but it does not build power if that action is not connected and expansive. Indicators of power-building systems include: food distribution systems coordinated by neighborhood to neighborhood; allied stores know their customer base and can provide culturally relevant grocery bags based on where families are from (so as not to rely on white people guesses); resources like money and other contributions can be received; addresses and drop-off routes are databased and systematized to avoid duplication; there are easy entry points for new people to learn and participate in the systems; and there is a process for decision-making to expand or contract the system.
3 – There is a role for everyone and everyone has skills to share. It is important to name the roles needed and then match the skills to those roles in clear terms. In crisis, rapid response, and large scale organizing, it is critical to identify point people who can coordinate across teams and stay in consistent communication with the core team. It is also critical to name and describe in solid, succinct detail what the role requires and allow people to find their way to different levels of risk or contribution. (It sounds easy, but this is often the hardest part – determining the roles, describing them, and trusting that someone can take it on.)
4 – Tactical and technological skills are imperative. The systems of dispatchers, patrols, plate-readers, mesh networks, text capabilities beyond cellphone towers, and anti-surveillance devices are being tested and refined in the field as communities show us how to block and push ICE out of cities. All teams need training and to identify key point people who are confident with digital and technological communications.
5 – Emotional stamina is required as traumatic incidents are happening multiple times a day to multiple members of the team. These abduction or violent incidents are compounded by even higher level violence, including incidents of shootings or murders that shift the attention and consciousness of the country. Emotional stamina does not mean slipping into dissociation, endurant resilience, or unfeeling desensitization. It means finding a pace and a stride that allows everyone to remain in their humanity and integrity. Rotational leadership is critical. It is important to set up co-leads and name people who can take up particular tasks if someone needs to step away.
6 – Symbols are important to identify allies, establish real-time connections, and practice collective action. Whistles around people’s necks, attached to coat zippers, and inside grocery bags are a mechanic for calling attention and drawing a crowd and also a signal about who is working together. Like the keffiyah, a symbol shows solidarity and allows us to link into something bigger than our individual actions.
7 – Bold choices encourage and provide cover for others. Modern Times café made a significant choice to stay open but to give away meals for free as a statement against the federal government’s occupation of Minneapolis and a refusal to pay taxes. That is a bold and risky choice that demonstrates a practical way to confront the state and provide for people at the same time.
8 – Balancing flashpoint attention with ongoing horror is a challenge we have to contend with. The challenge is compounded by racism, media, and movement tendencies to create celebrities and icons. The attention to the murder of Renée Good and then the murder of Alex Pretti within a few weeks, two white people in a list of Black and Brown people murdered by state agents, is complicated and requires careful analysis. There is meaning in their murders that represents an escalation of state violence and impunity, and their deaths do not weigh or value more than any other death at the hands of the state.
9 – Public grief is necessary and complicated. Our collective decision to witness and memorialize Renée Good in Minneapolis was an organizing decision. In the context of a federal regime unleashing paramilitary troops in our cities and towns, we recognized that creating a space for public memorial was important to see our power, our connections, and our humanity. The memorial organizing, as a collaborative effort with neighbors, frontline defenders, Indigenous leadership, and national, local, and regional movement organizations, incorporated spiritual ceremony, cross-racial and cross-community connections in a time of division, and diverse cultural practices. We wanted to create something big enough and significant enough so that the grief and memory could carve paths forward in this escalating fight to defeat fascism.
10 – Making meaning of significant moments in this time is necessary and difficult work. We have a responsibility to pay attention to the specific details of a place or a kind of response while also paying attention to the global patterns and national stakes. These moments require a political acumen and a narrative strategy that does not exceptionalize or romanticize but can name and note the escalations and distinctions at play. We do that best when we do it collectively.
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One of the biggest lessons to remember as we build out protection and noncompliance strategies in our communities: EVERYONE HAS A ROLE TO PLAY.
Coordinated movement resistance looks like geological layers or a living ecosystem of different kinds of organizing – systems, roles, and coordination across areas of work:
- Grassroots first responders, witnesses, observers, ICE chasing and blocking
- Whistles and risk taking to confront and push ICE out of spaces
- Dispatchers tracking and monitoring ICE motion
- Hubs that receive intel; send out verified reports to neighborhood teams and chats; supports the patrolling shifts and aggregates the data
- Legal support systems at federal buildings, and detention centers
- Lawyers and people with legal training working to access information and get people released as quickly as possible
- Mutual aid distribution systems
- Providing groceries within neighborhoods and family residencies; supporting people getting at detention centers as they are released; offering food, coffee, supplies for first responders
- Caregiving systems for fatigue, trauma, and nourishment
- Creating space, skills, and cultural offerings for people to receive care, process grief and emotion, and get rest
- Public and private institutions refusing to comply and posting signs that federal agents are not welcome
- Organizing to secure agreements with stores and churches and schools that train up staff to prevent ICE and federal agents from entering spaces
- School patrols and accompaniment of children and parents
- Systems of parents, teachers, and allies to create safe drop off and pickup points and practice noncompliance
- Resource redistribution and fundraising systems
- Coffee shops, cafes creating consistent hubs ready for drop-offs and pickups; thoughtful systems to collect and distribute funds without creating unnecessary liabilities
- First responders trained to treat gunshots and assault survivors
- Basic patient assessment and triage support when folks are harmed is critical
- Communication and narrative strategies
- Media engagement, social media posts, and video documentation have been important to sharing accurate information and growing participation
- Public, physical memorials in sites of violence to hold space, witness, and care
- Hundreds of people visit the memorials and there are active caretakers, tending fire, providing hot beverages, sharing resources, and connecting with people
As we face a bombardment of attacks, it is important to make sense of what is happening so that we are not just reacting to crisis but acting as powerful participants in shaping history.
These lessons are offerings built and learned in collaboration with relationships that span thirty years. It was a gift to work alongside Minneapolis neighbors and to witness the practice of radical kindness and love.
Additional Resources:
- Message from the Frontlines: NDN Collective
- Public Grief Toolkit
- Memorial invitation & details
- Rapid Response Networks in the Twin Cities: A Guide
