This week’s edition covers stories
from December 8th to December 14th, 2025.
Today’s issue is 540 words, a 4-minute read
Hey folks, Isabella here.
It has been a couple of weeks since we last spoke. I find myself writing to you in a climate of profound local despair, at a moment when the rhythms of our community are being dictated by fear. Just as we convince ourselves we have witnessed the nadir of this crisis, the horizon shifts to reveal something bleaker.
Minnesota is currently the subject of an unprecedented — and, many argue, unconstitutional — incursion. Since the launch of “Operation Metro Surge” in December, our streets have been transformed into a theater for Department of Homeland Security agents. We have seen the machinery of federal power turned against the quiet exercise of speech: masked agents deployed in numbers that suggest a state of siege, enforcement actions encroaching upon the sanctuary of schools and hospitals, and firearms leveled at the unarmed.
protestors in Minneapolis 📸
On January 7th, the abstraction of “enforcement” became a tragedy when a U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, was shot and killed by a DHS agent. Her death has catalyzed a new wave of mobilization, born of a fury that is as much about the present violence as it is about the policies that invited it. While the legislative forecasts of 2024 and 2025 left us far from oblivious to the possibility of friction, few of us truly anticipated this depth of escalation. We are left to wonder if we are witnessing a climax or merely an overture.
Legal recourse has begun. On Monday, Attorney General Ellison, alongside the leadership of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed a federal lawsuit against the DHS alleging that Minnesota is being targeted for its voting habits and political dissent. The suit argues a violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition against viewpoint discrimination, as well as a breach of the “equal sovereignty” of states—the principle that the federal government cannot punish a geography for its beliefs. It is a plea for the Administrative Procedure Act to protect us from actions that are, in the literal sense, arbitrary and capricious.
Today, we ask you to hold space for those we have lost — for Renee Good, for Keith Porter, and for the families left in the wake of this winter’s unrest. We ask also that you remember those who remain, currently living in a state of suspended breath: the neighbors who fear to leave their homes, and those for whom the arrival of a stranger at the door represents a potential severance from their community and their kin.
In times of such institutional overreach, our strength remains local. We encourage you to seek out and support the grassroots resources, like the mutual aid networks and community organizations, that continue to anchor our collective well-being. It is in these quiet acts of neighborly persistence that we might find a way through.
Here are a few local mutual aid groups and movements to recur to for more information about your rights and how to get involved and take action:
- MIRAC – Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee.
- Defend 612 – Block organizing, ICE watch and rapid response, and school protection groups.
- Neighborhood House MN – food housing, and essentials for immigrants and refugees.
- Minnesota ICE Watch – autonomous collective reporting, documenting, and resisting ICE. Uses funds for mutual aid.
- Unidos MN
- COPAL
- MIM – Minnesota Immigrant Movement
Stay informed, stay connected.
See you next week!
–
Isabella and the NewPrensa team
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Hi, friend: Isabella here!
I’m a Communications Specialist by day and shoveling my car out of the snow by night!
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