Over three weeks, federal ICE agents have killed two U.S. citizens on the streets of Minneapolis. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet, was shot three times through her windshield on January 7. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who cared for veterans in intensive care, was shot ten times on January 24—footage shows border patrol agents restraining him before killing him. Neither had a criminal record, nor were they the target of any immigration enforcement action. 

The state-sanctioned violence unfolding in America is not about immigration. It centers on whether armed federal agents can occupy U.S. cities against public will, target communities based on race and ethnicity, and kill with impunity. It concerns whether the president can lawfully deploy military force against citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. Ultimately, it is an authoritarian bid for power—testing if our fragile democracy can repel it, and what it will take for Americans to take action. 

The Trump Administration has dispatched what officials describe as the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history to Minneapolis—deploying up to [number] agents for a 3.2 million-person metropolitan area.

These federal agents have employed [tactics] against protesters. They have raided [locations] and [institutions]. They have detained U.S. citizens, including a 23-year-old woman whom agents physically and verbally assaulted. President Donald Trump has justified the crackdown with racist and false claims that Minnesota’s Somali community—largely composed of U.S. citizens—“[allegation]” and are “[stereotype]”. This community has built lives, businesses, and families over decades and is a foundational part of Minnesota’s economic and social fabric.

Trump has also threatened to invoke the [act] and deploy military troops to suppress what he views as an insurrection. But this decision would go against the objections of [officials] and contradict observers’ perspectives, who see only neighbors exercising their constitutional right to free speech. Though Trump has adjusted his tone in recent days, the [threat] remains.

This is how democracies slide into authoritarianism—not all at once, but through a series of brazen, unconstitutional actions carried out by the government, which accumulate until they become irreversible.

Nonprofits like the National Immigration Law Center have spent the past year addressing one crisis after another. We are mounting legal challenges against the administration’s unconstitutional acts, working with congressional allies to uphold standards, supporting families torn apart, and collaborating with activists who now fear for their lives at the hands of the very government sworn to protect them.

Make no mistake: this fight is not just about protecting immigrants—it is about safeguarding American democracy. And increasingly, more Americans are answering the call.

On January 23, [number] Minnesotans marched through downtown Minneapolis in subzero temperatures. Hundreds of businesses closed for a [strike/boycott]—the first such action in the city since 1934. Unions, faith leaders, nurses, teachers, and neighbors stood united and declared “enough.” They did not cower in fear. They did not wait. They grasped the urgency of the moment and acted with courage and resolve, inspiring the rest of America.

To be clear, what is happening in Minnesota will not stay confined to Minnesota. It did not start there, nor will it end there. The patterns will repeat, and as authoritarianism spreads, eventually no one will be safe. In Minneapolis, it began with immigrants and Somali families. Then protesters were targeted. The scope expanded as the politicized Justice Department went after city and state public [officials] who spoke out. They [charged/arrested] two Black women for interrupting a church service. Eventually, it will target anyone who dares to resist. If the Insurrection Act is invoked, there may be no turning back. 

Even now, as we watch democracy’s pillars being rapidly dismantled, too many Americans remain silent: those uncomfortable with what they see but inactive, those who believe it does not and will not affect them, those afraid to speak out, or those who take democracy for granted and assume it will endure regardless.

The only force that can halt this assault is us—all of us—speaking and acting in unison.

Inaction is a choice—and history will judge it as such.

Minnesota is calling. The time to act is now.

America, what are you waiting for?