Dear Neighbors in Escanaba:

I grew up in Escanaba, graduating in 1988. I now live in Edina, Minn., a first-ring Minneapolis suburb. My family and I have visited the U.P. countless times to see my in-laws in Ishpeming and my parents in Escanaba. I eulogized my mom in 2023 and my dad in 2024 at Bethany Lutheran Church where my dad, Dean, was pastor and my mom, Elaine, lovingly served the church and broader community.

I loved growing up in Escanaba. This community valued education for its young people, the arts, the beauty of nature, and showing up for neighbors.

Now I live in Minnesota, where our responses to Operation Metro Surge are being misrepresented, demonized or just ignored.

Here is what is happening in my Minnesota community:

Two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by ICE agents.

American children and their parents have not left their homes for weeks because they fear being detained.

A 16-year-old girl is caring for her 3-month-old sister because their mother was detained. Their mother was nursing this baby.

My friend, a naturalized citizen for 20 years and federal USPS employee, was questioned by ICE while on the job delivering mail.

U.S. citizens, naturalized citizens, and others lawfully in the U.S. are being detained in cruel conditions, then released in freezing temperatures without coats, phones, or a ride home.

ICE agents are waiting (with tear gas) at preschools and elementary schools.

Helicopters linger over the city, disrupting daily life with noisy whirring.

These actions of ICE, many of them illegal, have not and will not break us.

Our sheriffs, attorney general, governor, and mayors are briefing Minnesota citizens on constitutional and state law, legal rights to protest, and judicial warrants.

Community groups are collecting mutual aid and distributing groceries and other essentials to families, and schools are offering online learning for children forced to stay home for their safety.

A nursing mom donated hundreds of ounces of her own breastmilk for that 3-month-old baby.

Dozens of groups throughout the Twin Cities have formed to keep their neighbors safe, blowing whistles to signal ICE sightings.

Haven Watch formed in January; they meet people released from detention and then provide them with warm clothes, phones, and rides to their home.

Parent groups meet at bus stops and school entrances to escort children to and from schools.

Groups of Minnesotans are organizing singing protests at marches, schools, and other spaces.

I could describe dozens more experiences that my friends, many of them Lutheran clergy, have witnessed.

My parents were both Lutheran to the core. I am, too. They modeled a life of freedom and responsibility that comes with accepting God’s grace. (About grace, Martin Luther said “God does not need your good works but your neighbor does.”)

I am your neighbor.

Minnesotans are your neighbors.

Dear people of Escanaba, please love your Minnesotan neighbors, listen to them, and believe us when we tell you that what is happening here is cruel and illegal. Help us stop it.