We are making a difference

Can't stop, won't stop

Last week, I shared the story of an international student who had been wrongfully detained by ICE. That article was read over fifty-five thousand times, and the combined social media reach of the original post is just shy of one million.

I’m so grateful that Joseph’s story resonated with so many people. Thank you for reading and sharing, but more importantly for caring enough about the injustice that we are all witnessing to do something about it. I received private messages from people who donated to non-profits in Minnesota, signed the World Relief statement, and called their representatives and senators—some for the first time ever. Others shared that they had hard conversations with loved ones, and that in some cases they felt truly heard and understood.

We are making a difference!

We did this…

On Friday (1-30-26), the Senate passed the budget resolution, but stripped out the DHS spending bill. “Today, the Senate voted to pass five funding bills that invest in working families and reject President Trump’s catastrophic cuts—while splitting off the DHS funding bill and forcing Congress to take action to rein in ICE and CBP,” said Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. (US Senate Committee on Appropriations) It’s just a two-week continuing resolution that will give them time to renegotiate the bill, but: they listened to us. Take a moment to soak that in. It’s a win and we’ll take it.

And on Sunday (4-1-26), Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian, were released from Dilley detention center and returned to Minneapolis. Praise the Lord! Of course, there are thousands more children still in custody—we can’t forget about them—but one released is better than none. Now we get to work on the rest:

A previous Marshall Project analysis found that ICE has booked at least 3,800 children into detention since Trump took office last year. At least 1,000 children were held longer than 20 days, a court-ordered limit on child detention.

“Every single day that a kid is in a place like this, they deteriorate,” Hidalgo said. “I’ve seen [them] withdraw. They lose weight; they just get physically worse.”

Children being detained with their families as part of immigration raids has become a common occurrence across the country. According to school officials in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, four children, including Liam, have been detained from their district during recent raids.

Why is this happening to us? Daily number of kids in ICE detention jumps 6x under Trump (The Marshall Project)

Also on Sunday, I made signs for a pro-immigrant rally in my blood red, small Iowa town. I’m in shock. Will there be only five of us there? I don’t think so. Just the fact that this rally is happening is a huge win, and I can’t wait to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my neighbors and friends.

And this coming Wednesday (2-4-26) there will be a bilingual gathering of worship and prayer in our community to stand with our hurting brothers and sisters in Christ.

The tide is turning. Do you feel it, too?

Omar El Akkad famously tweeted: “One day everyone will have always been against this.” It feels very true right now as people who “held their nose” and voted for Trump are finding the stench unbearable. It’s never too late to do the right thing. (BTW, that tweet turned into a book that won the National Book Award last year. I highly recommend you pick it up from Bookshop and support an independent bookstore in Minnesota with your purchase.)

While I want to celebrate the wins, I don’t want a bit of good news to make us complacent. Now is not the time to breathe a sigh of relief and retreat. We are still the helpers, and we are so needed. As Melissa Dalton Bradford says: “Stop waiting for someone else to fix it. You are going to be it.” Here are some things we can do this week:

• Keep calling! The House is scheduled to vote on the new funding package today (2-2-26) so make your voice heard!

• Support our friends in Minnesota! GiveMN is a website that allows you to find reputable organizations that support the causes you care about the most.

• Show up! If you’re local, I hope to see you at the rally tonight and/or the prayer service on Wednesday. If you’re not local, I guarantee there are opportunities in your area to stand in solidarity with your neighbors. I know you’ll find yourself surrounded by big-hearted people who care deeply about their communities and who want to make a difference.

• Offer what you can! Prayers, courage, presence, a listening ear, hand warmers, hot drinks, warm wishes, love.

• Be there! For your neighbors, for people who are sacrificing much, for friends who are scared or hurting, for anyone who needs a smile, a kind word, the gift of encouragement.

And because so many of our conversations happen in a digital format, I want to give you all some tools to respond to the most common clap-backs I see on immigration-related posts. You’re brilliant and articulate and perfectly capable of forming your own responses to weak or faulty arguments (much better than mine, I’m sure), but we’re busy people and have more important things to do than fall down rabbit holes online. HOWEVER, the amount of just plain wrong information that’s circulating is absolutely infuriating, so here are some clearly stated facts and links that you may feel free to copy and paste if it will help you in any way. We want people to change their minds because flexibility of thought is neither wishy-washy nor bad; instead, it’s a sign of intelligence, growth, and adaptability. And while a well-worded argument isn’t likely to shift someone’s perspective 100%, hopefully the incremental introduction of truth into a siloed perspective will begin to chip away at long held, erroneous beliefs.

“But we have to get the hardened criminals off the streets.”

According to the (checks notes) US Government—the Department of Justice, to be exact—the undocumented immigrant offending rate is significantly lower than the US-born citizen rate. “Undocumented immigrants had the lowest offending rates overall for both total felony crime and violent felony crime compared to other groups. US-born citizens had the highest offending rates overall for most crime types, with documented immigrants generally falling between the other two groups.” (Read the entire study analysis here.) In other words, you are far more likely to be the victim of a crime at the hands of an American-born citizen than an undocumented immigrant.

And according to ICE’s own public data (as reported by The CATO Institute): “…by mid-November [2025], 69 percent of current ICE detainees who were arrested by ICE had no criminal conviction and 40 percent had no criminal charge. The number of people in detention who were convicted of a crime and had no pending charges increased a staggering 2,370 percent since January from fewer than 1,000 to over 21,000.” So, yeah, hardened criminals don’t seem to be the target.

“Where are your posts screaming for justice for the families who've lost loved ones at the hands of illegal immigrants?”

Comparing the overwhelming, large-scale ICE raids on immigrant communities in Minnesota (irregardless of status or criminal history) to specific crimes done by individuals is a false equivalency (i.e. apples to oranges). Two things can be true at the same time: 1.) It's horrible that a handful of undocumented immigrants have caused harm in our communities and they should face justice for what they have done (as anyone who commits a crime should); and 2.) It’s completely illogical to demonize an entire people group because of the actions of a few. Ever heard the saying: “not all men?” Yeah, like that. Or maybe the following is a more apt comparison. Using the same logic of “because Laken Riley was killed by an immigrant, all immigrants should be deported,” we can also say “because the majority of mass shootings are done by white men, all white men should be deported.” That logic falls apart real fast, doesn’t it?

And here’s the thing: people who experience violence at the hands of an undocumented immigrant often (almost always?) receive justice. We have an entire justice system set up to arrest, prosecute, try, and either convict or exonerate anyone charged with a crime, no matter their immigration or citizenship status. It’s called due process and it applies to all people in the United States.

Which leads me to…

“Obama deported more people than Trump. You must have Trump Derangement Syndrome if these ICE crackdowns are making you mad.”

We’re back to due process.

The people that ICE are kidnapping are also entitled to fair treatment under the law. This includes key provisions like due process and equal protection.

But none of that is happening.

Instead, ICE agents violently (and seemingly gleefully) detain refugees who are legally in the United States on humanitarian visas, immigrants who have gone through all the legal steps to live and work in the US, and even American citizens who happen to be black, brown, or indigenous. They routinely smash windows, kneel on people’s backs and necks, rough up peaceful protestors, throw tear gas into crowds, point weapons at children, and leave behind a path of destruction and trauma wherever they go. The people they detain are often denied access to a lawyer and imprisoned in conditions that are inhumane with no accountability and no oversight. It’s unconstitutional and goes against everything the United States is about. That’s why people are so upset.

“We’re being overrun by Muslims! Christianity in the US will soon be a minority religion because we’re importing other religions through immigration.”

Except for the inconvenient fact that most immigrants in the United States are Christians. “Migration into the United States makes the country more religious (emphasis mine), according to a recent Pew Research analysis on worldwide immigration. Roughly 70% of U.S. citizens embrace religious faith, but 87% of immigrants are part of a faith tradition.” (Most Immigrants in the United States are Christians, Good Faith Media) The overwhelming majority of immigrants (70%) are Christians, and the most common origin country for Christian migrants is Mexico. When we deport immigrants, we are often deporting our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let it be plainly said (again and again and again): Christ is not in this. You cannot baptize the current ICE agenda with a bit of religious rhetoric and declare it good. It’s evil. And if you want to support that evil, at least be honest with yourself about who you are and where you stand.

“Well, you have to crack some eggs to make an omelette.”

If you looked at little Liam Ramos, in his blue bunny hat with his Spiderman backpack, and that was your first thought… Well, we are not the same.

If you watched ICE officers remove Alex Pretti’s legal handgun then empty a magazine into his back, and you shrugged it off… Well, we are not the same.

If you are still trying to make excuses for the violence and excess of this immigration policy, if you are okay with masked men smashing windows, shattering skulls, detaining children… Well, we are not the same.

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Eyes open. Hearts steady. Hands ready.

Thanks for reading. xoxo - Nicole

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