The Women Holding Minneapolis Together

[Ocelot II]

“This is a movement of women here in the Twin Cities,” says middle school teacher and content creator Mandi Jung. “That is why it can’t be put down, that is why we cannot be intimidated, that is why it cannot be stopped.”

Since Operation Metro Surge, the ongoing operation by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), began in Minnesota in December 2025, the headlines out of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been violent and disturbing. Photos that look as though they’re from a war zone: masked officers with guns drawn, smoke from tear gas and other irritants on the ground. Two citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, killed by federal agents on the city’s streets. A five-year-old boy detained in his Spider-Man backpack and a floppy-eared hat.

But amid the despair and brutality, there is another important narrative: on the front lines, a community coming together to push back against ICE and support their neighbors. And it should surprise no one that much of this work is being led by women. They come from all backgrounds and walks of life—immigrant women, mothers, teachers, healers, Black and Brown women, queer and trans women, grandmothers, young girls, women of faith, women who are simply fed up—to get involved, organize, support, nurture, fight, love, protect, and contribute in whatever ways they can.

“Women play an instrumental role in every movement,” says Christine Harb, DO, a physician who’s part of a network of health care providers meeting patient needs while they shelter in place. “The vast majority of the people I work with are women and queer people. Folks are raising rent-relief funds for families, delivering groceries, giving folks rides to their appointments, driving their neighbors and colleagues to work and back, protesting, patrolling, contacting state representatives in the hopes that they will listen—the list goes on and on.”

https://www.glamour.com/story/the-women-holding-minneapolis-together

[Blue Owl]

1. If nobody fixes a sandwich for the ICE men

Maybe they’ll starve and die. Wouldn’t that be a shame.

[spooky3]

2. They'll just find a Mexican or Thai restaurant. And get kicked out, I hope. Nt

[Deuxcents]

3. Been watching some documentaries on PBS about Black History and it's always been the women

who have been the leaders behind the scenes, keeping the flame but it’s been the men who are most visible but it’s the women holding it all together. Just like in Minneapolis, the women are on the frontlines but the men making the decisions. Time to let the women lead and clean up this mess. My comments are not intended to offend anyone..just my observations.

[erronis]

4. Time to let the women lead --- I agree! But the men should get down on the floor and clean up their own mess(es).

[GiqueCee]

5. It will be...

... the courage and resolve of the women of America that will save this country from the unspeakable evil of people like Russell Vought, the Orange Gargoyle, and all the lowlife Republican scum that support them.

[mysteryowl]

6. Nice to see women honored.

Way to go!

[flashman13]

7. This video Behind the Numbers from Rick Wilson has a lot to say about women's role in the resistance.

[AverageOldGuy]

8. My experience with ladies

First -- back in the mid-1950's when I was a pre-teen growing up in a crossroads cotton picking town in South Mississippi, I used the word "women." My grandfather corrected me and told me to use the word "ladies." So I do.

At age 80, I learned a looooong time ago to not mess with ladies. Just don't do it.

My sainted grandmother (1899-1983) was an uppity lady. I learned later that as s teenager she marched with the suffragettes.

My mother was an uppity lady. I was with her one time when a big White guy raised hell with a tiny Black lady. My mother launched on him, chewed his ass, and sent him packing. We moved from Mississippi to an city in East Tennessee where there was a Black ghetto. She went into the Black neighborhoods twice a week -- me and my little brother in tow -- to teach Bible school lessons to the little Black kids. Every so often, someone would give her a ration of shit because she was "going into N####rtown." Remember the Bible story about how Jesus made a whip out of a piece or rope and drove the money changers from the Temple? No one messed with her a second time. At her funeral service in 2007 nine Black professionals who grew up listening to her Bible lessons came to say good-bye.

My wife and daughter are smart-ass, loud-mouthed uppity ladies. Just don't mess with them. My daughter is a trial lawyer -- she wears a pin on her lapel -- a Great White Shark.

And it should surprise no one that much of this work is being led by women.

Because that's the way they are. It's the Momma Bear syndrome -- just don't mess with their cubs. The ladies of Minnesota appear to have adopted the people of Minnesota as cubs.