People find ways to help as ICE surge continues in Twin Cities

St. Paul resident Skot Rieffer patrols a day care every morning and afternoon in St. Paul, keeping a lookout for ICE. Like many who have joined in community efforts, he’s sad and exhausted.

“I wanted a reason to smile right now,” said Rieffer, 38, who co-owns the northeast Minneapolis bar Bumbling Fools Mead.

On Jan. 17, Bumbling Fools hosted a community day, where people ate chili, donated to a food drive, danced and made posters.

As Minnesotans deal with the surge of ICE agents, they’re finding ways to come together. They’re organizing food-donation drives, community days and comedy fundraisers. They’re pitching in on mutual-aid efforts or creating their own tight-knit community-support groups. They want to help immigrants who are afraid to leave their homes.

“It feels weird to say it like this, but a community still needs a party,” he said. “We need happiness and light. We fight for bread but we fight for roses, too.”

Minnesotans are helping in ways big and small. Sometimes it’s an event, sometimes it’s a ride.

Independent food critic Kirstie Kimball, 34, teamed up with Moona Moono cafe and shop owner Angie Lee. From Jan. 11-13, Moona Moono was a drop-off site for an emergency food drive.

“We filled an empty basement three times, and we were moving a car every 15 minutes,” Kimball said.

They sent food to nine locations across the Twin Cities metro area, including Dios Habla Hoy Church (DHH), La Viña Burnsville and even a pet shelter on the North Side.

Kimball was homeless in her teen years. Now she does a lot of organizing around food justice, homelessness and addiction.

“I’m sober now and really happy to be able to pay it forward,” she said.

She hopes people will give cash to help people make rent.

After getting involved during the George Floyd protests, he said he learned some “hard lessons about organizing and being connected to community.”

Hairdresser Justine Lineburg works by day at a salon in Edina. In her free time, she created her own tight-knit mutual-aid group — a community-based network that connects people in need with resources.The group has raised $17,000 for people being affected by ICE, helping them with rent, food and household supplies.

Her group focuses on aid and delivery, ensuring that kids have clothes and parents can get some sleep knowing that their refrigerators are full.

Realtor Betsy Bissonette, who lives in southwest Minneapolis’ Kenny neighborhood, is at home on her phone nonstop checking mutual-aid groups on Signal.

She helps coordinate supply drop-offs to places like Smitten Kitten in Uptown.

Mutual-aid networks on Signal are anonymous for safety reasons. No one is a leader.

Her neighborhood learned how to help organize during the uprising after Floyd’s murder, giving as much time as they could whenever they could.

“It’s been the only thing keeping all of us going ― that the community is freakin’ stepping up,” she said.

Bissonette added that the community is “using our whiteness however we can ― for the South Side and the North Side and more diverse neighborhoods. We’re using it for good, to protect.”

“This is not like those COVID Zoom shows,” said comedian Laurie Kilmartin as she introduced a Zoom comedy fundraiser on Jan. 15. All proceeds benefited the nonprofit Foothold Twin Cities.

Comedians Margaret Cho, Carmen Morales, Solomon Georgio, Jared Goldstein and others shared jokes. The show raised over $2,300.

“I’m a gay Black immigrant from East Africa, so it’s been fine,” Georgio joked. “I look back a year ago when the fires were happening [in L.A.] and I was like, ‘This can’t get any worse, right?’”

Duluth-born comedian Maria Bamford has been creating Cameos (short on-demand videos) for fans. She raised over $1,000 for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

Local comics are also taking it to the stage.

“It’s very easy to feel helpless, especially right now,” said comedian Luis Uz, 33, of Minneapolis.

Comics can tell jokes, stories, rants or whatever they want. They hope to raise $500 or more for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

“It’s a fun name, and I think it is very Minnesota coded from the catchphrase,” he said. “Like, now you forced us to do something.”

For a full list of Minneapolis mutual aid resources, visit linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid.