Religious Leaders in Minnesota Say It's Their Duty to Resist ICE

[Coventina]

In the days after President Trump called Somali migrants “garbage” in December, people started visiting a mosque in Minneapolis. Evangelical Christians, other white Minnesotans and some Trump voters started knocking on the door. They’d find Mowlid Ali, an imam there.

“They would come and tell me, ‘What the president said doesn’t reflect us as Americans, as your neighbors,’” Ali said last week when we spoke by phone. They wanted him to know that his congregation, full of Somali Americans, was welcome in Minnesota. “The evangelicals would say, ‘We are conservative, but we don’t really agree with what the president said.’”

When ICE agents arrived in the city a few weeks later, Ali told me, a rabbi showed up with a few of her friends — and shovels. They cleared snow before Friday prayers, and they stayed outside for hours after. They’ve been coming back every week.

This is one of many stories I heard from Minnesota’s clergy members in recent days. They told me their houses of worship had become gathering places for religious and nonreligious people. They also said that their networks — text groups, weekly meetings and email chains — were helping people give and receive support in a time of division.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/briefing/religious-leaders-in-minnesota-say-its-their-duty-to-resist-ice.html?

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