Last week, my sister-in-service Ilhan Omar invited me to Minnesota. I went to bear witness, to listen, and to help people process their grief and their trauma.

I visited the sacred space where Alex Pretti was executed in broad daylight.

I met immigrants who make this country, and the state of Minnesota, great. Those who fled authoritarian regimes in Colombia, Venezuela, Syria, and Nicaragua. Who came here for a better life and to make positive contributions. Who are so traumatized to be seeing in real time, the very authoritarian, fascist, and cruel actions that they fled, showing up here in Minnesota and in this country.

I braced myself for feeling defeated. But in each moment where my heart would feel broken, it would be restored by the people of Minnesota and the community of care they’ve created, despite the campaign of terror reigning.

We have an occupant in the Oval Office who traffics in hate. He has governed with malice and used ICE agents to terrorize our cities and rip families apart.

ICE’s attacks on our neighbors have traumatized children, hurt our communities, devastated small businesses, and left beloved people like Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Keith Porter dead on our streets. They’ve left many more dead in detention centers, awaiting medical care or better conditions.

To be clear, none of it has kept anyone safe because it has nothing to do with public safety. Not in Minnesota, not in Massachusetts, not anywhere these escalations have been happening. It has everything to do with power, control, intimidation, and oppression.

I felt compelled to stand in community with the people closest to the pain, to join them in choosing community over chaos and cruelty. And that’s exactly what’s happening in Minnesota: they are writing the blueprint for the power of radical love and solidarity.

They are built different.

And they know that while there can never be true justice, there must be accountability.

The agents who brutalized and executed our neighbors cannot walk away freely. They must be investigated and held accountable for their crimes.

That means passing my bill to end qualified immunity for federal law enforcement, including ICE agents.

It means impeaching Kristi Noem, who is as incompetent as she is dangerous.

And it means abolishing ICE and dismantling the systems of oppression that have gotten us to this point.

I thank Ilhan Omar, my sister-in-service, for her courageous leadership, for the invitation to return to Minnesota to stand shoulder to shoulder with my movement family, to seek justice, and to defend the oppressed.

In solidarity,

Ayanna