(This article appeared in the March/April 2026 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)
I saw a social media post that perfectly explains what every member should feel for our brothers and sisters in Minneapolis right now. It asked the question, “What radicalized you?” One commenter replied, “Nothing. Caring about people isn’t radical. Wanting clear air and water isn’t radical. Calling out cruelty and corruption isn’t radical. This should be the basic, not the rebellion.”
For the past several months, working people in Minneapolis have been occupied by thousands of federal agents who have terrorized, maimed, and murdered their neighbors. It is not just “violent” criminals or undocumented immigrants who have suffered the brutality of this unprecedented operation, but law-abiding U.S. citizens whose only crime was exercising their freedoms of speech, press, and the right to peacefully protest – rights we often exercise as union members!
On Jan. 7, an ICE agent named Jonathan Ross killed U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good, who was a 37-year-old mother. Just two weeks later, another citizen, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse and AFGE member protesting Good’s killing, was shot from behind and killed by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.
I have spoken with APWU members and leaders across Minnesota. I’ve heard that postal brothers and sisters are scared to leave their homes for fear of being profiled by ICE because of their national origin. Many have no food to eat because they can’t go to the grocery store. Their children can’t go outside and play because ICE has turned their neighborhoods into war zones. They are afraid that the Postal Service is going to provide employee data to help ICE carry out its campaign of cruelty.
I’ve heard stories of how ICE agents are randomly beating up neighbors of APWU members and destroying the peace and solidarity of their close-knit communities. I’ve heard the heartbreaking stories of parents explaining to their young children why there is chaos in the streets, and they tell me they are honestly at a loss for words. In a story that brought tears to my eyes, I heard about one little girl who said that she wants to move to another country if this is what America stands for.
I hope you noticed that I didn’t use any members’ names in this article, not even those of the union representatives, for fear of retaliation both inside and outside the post office. Their stories are why I had to write this article; I knew I had to be their voice in this crucial moment.
Is this what we want our country to look like? A place where the government has the license to shoot our neighbors without recourse?
As a union, we must protect our First Amendment rights. The essential actions we take to publicly advocate for better conditions, such as organizing demonstrations and picketing workplaces, like our Wells Fargo action, are possible because of the First Amendment. Now we are seeing legal, peaceful protests met with hate, bigotry, violence, and the unlawful detentions of members of the public and press, in what can only be described as an unfettered disregard by federal agents for the constitutional rights of our family in Minneapolis.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” To APWU members in Minneapolis, we stand with you to say no to excessive force, no to racial profiling, and no to invasion of schools and places of worship. We cannot ignore or absolve these bad actors, because if we do, this policy of cruelty will be repeated in your community next.
This is what solidarity and democracy look like!
The post Why Is ICE in Minneapolis an Issue that Concerns the APWU? first appeared on APWU.