Opinion | The strength our community needs is already here

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Minneapolis is back in the national spotlight for reasons we wouldn’t choose. Most headlines amplify fear and federal crackdowns but miss what those of us who live or work here already know: This community is stronger than the forces working against us.

The threats are real and significant. Immigrant families — especially within Somali and Latino communities in south Minneapolis — face raids and removal of legal protections. Native families confront federal cuts to essential services, intensifying a crisis of violence against Indigenous people, especially women. Families living with economic precarity face disruptions to SNAP and other lifelines, making children and adults more vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation.

It’s overwhelming, and anyone paying attention is right to feel alarmed. So, what do we do? We name injustices loudly and fight back. We are unequivocal: Families must be protected from ICE raids and policies that destabilize community. At the same time, we build on the deep roots already here, strengthening what has carried us through similar and worse.

I lead the Family Partnership, which has served Minneapolis families since 1878 through pandemics, depressions and wars. What nearly 150 years has taught us: Families know how to protect each other, adapt and survive. They carry cultural knowledge and practices that have endured for generations. What they need is community support to keep building on these strengths.

This begins by protecting children, who hear fear in their parents’ voices as families grapple with uncertainty about food and housing. They can see ICE activity from their classroom windows. Long after today’s events fade, children will remember. Whether their parents disappeared or they feared their parents disappearing — what could be more terrifying?

This matters in Minnesota, where we have some of the nation’s worst opportunity gaps that begin before age 5. These gaps follow children through grade school, affect whether they graduate and shape their economic futures. In neighborhoods facing today’s crises, children in our preschool achieve 100% kindergarten readiness, compared with 60% statewide. The gap can be closed, changing what’s possible for an entire generation.

Buffering children is only half the equation. When families lose access to nutrition programs or affordable housing, when they fear detention or deportation, their stability is shaken. That’s exactly what traffickers exploit. As raids increase, sex trafficking is pushed further underground. People being trafficked become isolated because seeking help feels more dangerous. Survivor-led programs like ours are vital. Survivors use their lived experience to reach people who’ve been convinced there’s no way out.

Raids and policies that strip families of support are both forms of violence. One is visible and immediate, the other structural and ongoing. Together, they create the desperation traffickers exploit.

All neighbors should be able to walk to the bus stop or pray together safely. All families should have access to food, housing and the chance to build economic security. This is what strengthens both this generation and the next, and this is what’s at risk.

Strengths to help counter this moment are all around us, if we are paying attention. Your investment in the community is urgently needed, and there are specific ways you can show up.

This era of intentional crisis looms large, but our roots run deeper. We rise together when we invest in what makes us strong.