Let's stay mobilized.
Find more information & opportunities below.
Upcoming Events ^
The Brave of Us
The Midwest Democracy & Power Summit
- When:
- June 11–12, 8:00am–5:00pm
- Where:
- Minneapolis Convention Center
We are excited to welcome leaders, organizers, advocates, and community members from across the Midwest to The Brave of Us: The Midwest Democracy & Power Summit.
This Summit, hosted by the Immigrant Defense Network, is designed to move us beyond reflection and into coordinated action. Together, we will strengthen relationships and align around a shared vision for advancing immigration reform, human rights, civic participation, and collective power across our communities.
Hands Across the Bong Bridge
A Cross-State, Flag Day Bridge Brigade Joining Duluth & Superior
THE GREATEST BRIDGE BRIGADE EVER!
- When:
- June 14, 2026
- Where:
- Bong Bridge
Expected Flow of the Event:
- 12:30 Start assembling at both entrance ways to the bridge
- 1:00 Participants start marching toward the middle
- When we meet up, Bridge Brigade signs and flags for about one hour
- Safely return off the bridge
- Post-event celebration (details to follow)
- Paddlers welcome in the water, too (stay safe)
On June 14th, Flag Day, join Rise Up Superior, Good Trouble Indivisible, Zenith City Indivisible, Duluth Indivisible, and Duluth 50501 for Hands Across the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge.
We will assemble on either side of the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge between Superior and Duluth (or Duluth and Superior, depending on your perspective) and march with signs and flags across the bridge on the protected pedestrian/bike path. Somewhere near the middle, we will join hands (and hearts and minds) in a demonstration of unity for democracy, for justice and for community. Two States. Two Cities. One Bridge. One Country. Our Country.
The Bong Bridge is 2.2 miles long - we will need about 3,000 people to be able to truly hold hands across the Bong Bridge. This event is set up for the Duluth access to the bike/pedestrian path (W. Michigan and S. 43rd Avenue West). The Superior trailhead is at Susquehanna Avenue, just behind the Quality Inn (46.722970, -92.125832).
Richard I. Bong was a hero (the "Ace of Aces") in World War II and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was born in Superior and raised in Poplar. Learn more about him at the Richard Bong Veterans Memorial Center in Superior.
Unfinished Freedom: 250 Years On
A Free Community Concert
- When:
- June 28, 1:00–8:00pm
- Where:
- Miner's Pavilion
1401 NW 3rd Ave
Grand Rapids
(Road Trip!!)
Join us for a fun community event full of music, food and drink for purchase, and connection.
Free event & parking, food & drinks for purchase. Bring a lawn chair!
Calls to Action ^
Be a walking voter registration booth
Talk to neighbors, friends, family, co-workers — Make sure everyone has a plan to vote.
We have business-size cards you can print & distribute.
Download & print on your own, send a digital version to your contacts, or arrange for us to get you
already-printed cards.
Once you have a card in hand you can help people you encounter use a handy QR code to get straight
to an online voter registration portal.
We've got this!
Call for Writing
Activate your voice — storytellers, poets & independent journalists wanted
Panatrope wants you for the launch their new journal!
They are accepting written work of any genre: Poetry: up to 5 pages
Short Fiction or nonfiction: between 400-5000 words.
5calls
Pick an action & make a call
Mutual Aid ^
New Neighbors Program
Duluth YWCA
The Duluth YWCA provides critical help with utilities, rent & more.
We are grateful for the work being done by the Duluth YWCA. We hope
you will donate to their work if you are able.
We welcome their recent announcement:
"YWCA Duluth has been responding to the evolving needs of our community since 1893. We use data and lived experience to guide our efforts. Our 2025 community assessment highlighted a critical challenge — immigrant communities cannot fully participate in social, political, economic, and cultural life. This participation is essential for the vibrancy and resilience of Northeastern Minnesota.
"In response, we partnered with Justice North and ESHARA to become a social service access hub and launched the New Neighbors Program in 2026. This initiative is supported by state funding. We are dedicated to meeting the needs of our New Neighbors. We believe in the power of collaboration and referrals."
Justice North
Where help meets hope
Justice North is a nonprofit civil law firm dedicated to the principle that equal access to justice is a basic human right, regardless of background or circumstances. We open the doors of the legal system to the most vulnerable in our community by providing critical legal assistance to preserve our clients' safety, security, and stability.
Stand with Minnesota
A directory of places to give to as Minnesota defends itself from ICE occupation.
Neighborhood Mutual Aid groups
Grassroots organizing
There are many neighborhood mutual aid groups forming across
our region. Find one near you!
Training Opportunities ^
Schedule your own training
Twin Ports Rapid Response
- When:
- You decide
- Where:
- You set up location & logistics
We now have a training team in place that can offer:
- informal, low-tech trainings for small groups —
please contact us at training@twinportsrapidresponse.org
with a proposal for your organization, venue, neighborhood group, or small business.
- in-person, large-scale, media-rich trainings that closely follow
the Immigrant Defense Network format.
We have gone through a "train-the-trainer" mentorship with
IDN and will use these training opportunities to closely follow their
slides & other presentation materials
Contact us to set up a training for your organization. Send an email to:
training@twinportsrapidresponse.org
287(g) Community Education Summit
Do you know folks that live in the Brainerd Lakes Area? Spread the word.
- When:
- June 9, 6:30–8:00pm
- Where:
- Brainerd, MN
Register to get location
"In Minnesota, sheriffs' departments in 6 counties (Kandiyohi, Crow Wing, Cass, Mille Lacs, Itasca, and Sherburne) have formalized, illegal 287(g) agreements with ICE to carry out “show me your papers” immigration enforcement, detention, and processing. We can organize our communities to end these agreements — that's why we're bringing activists, organizers, and concerned Minnesotans together in Brainerd for a statewide roundtable on 287(g)."
Major Win for Asylum Rights
District Court Strikes Down Restrictions in Biden-Era Rule that Severely Limited Asylum
"'Today’s decision is a critical step in peeling back the illegal asylum restrictions at the border,' said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. 'Unfortunately, as a country we have forgotten the historic commitment we made after World War II to never turn our back on people fleeing persecution.'"
However:
Five takeaways from inside Fort Snelling Immigration Court
It’s one of 70 immigration courts across the U.S. where asylum denials have skyrocketed and secrecy is growing.
"During Operation Metro Surge, many of the people detained ended up in a nondescript government building at Fort Snelling where immigration judges decided their cases.
"At the peak of the surge in January and February, judges inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building ruled on more than 980 asylum cases. They granted it only two times, according to a data analysis by the Minnesota Star Tribune."
STAC Trainings
States at the Core
"A running list of upcoming trainings from States at the Core" — Ice Watch Related.
Learn about Voting Rights
Get Prepared for the Elections
There are several organizations in MN that are building out strategy
to make voting safe & accessible. Several have also provided Constitutional Observer
and Upstander Training in the past. We will keep you posted
on this work. We are hoping to get some training opportunities
up in the area. Stay tuned to TPRR & to:
Strategy: Public Assemblies
Strengthen Community Resistance to Rising Authoritarianism
A couple of folks on a recent regional organizing call boosted this strategy &
offered this introduction. It is really good & worth a listen.
Special topics
Democracy Defenders
Our friends at Democracy Defenders Indivisible gather information on a variety of
issues that come across their desk.
You can access these links below.
Recent additions:
Freedom Trainers
Register for free online trainings
Today, Freedom Trainers is a decentralized network of experienced educators and organizers, including leaders from the Horizons Project, Beautiful Trouble, and Free DC. Together, we work to counter democratic backsliding by equipping people with the skills and strategies of strategic noncooperation.
Our trainings are grounded in three core pillars:
- Know the authoritarian playbook — Understanding how authoritarians consolidate power.
- Understand the pillars of support — Develop a sense of how authoritarian power is vulnerable.
- Build noncooperation skills — Developing the noncooperation practices that fracture authoritarian support.
Inspiration ^
This May Well Be the Most Consequential Case in the History of Humanity
from Meditations in an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)
"How this decision came into being might be one of the all-time great David and Goliath stories. Because this case that ended in the world's highest court began with 27 law students on the small South Pacific Island of Vanuatu who in 2019, asked themselves what they could do about climate--and it's not hard to imagine a 'what can we do, we're only students' or 'what can we do, we're in a tiny remote nation most people have never heard of' attitude, but instead they set out with the audacious ambition to ask the highest court in the world to render a verdict on the obligation of nations to address the crisis.
"Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's special envoy for climate, said of the decision: 'I choose my words carefully when I say that this may well be the most consequential case in the history of humanity.' Christiana Figueres, who presided over the negotiations that created that Paris Climate Treaty declared, with jubilation, on her podcast Outrage and Optimism: 'this is without a doubt, the most far-reaching, the most comprehensive and the most consequential legal opinion we've ever had.'"
Minnesota Senate Passes ICE Accountability and Justice Bill
"The Minnesota Senate passed an ICE Accountability and Justice bill responding to the unprecedented violations of civil, human, and constitutional rights endured by Minnesotans during Operation Metro Surge by federal immigration enforcement officials."
"'Minnesotans have endured unprecedented abuse, violence, and chaos from federal agents ignoring state and federal law throughout Operation Metro Surge, and these agents must be held accountable for their conduct,' said Senator Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park), chief author of SF3699. 'This legislation provides critical safeguards and protections for the people of Minnesota, while providing strong accountability measures that will let people get justice for the abuse they endured.'"
Gaelynn Lea
Inspiring book by local musician makes it big!
Gaelynn Lea published an autobiography that is beautiful & full of stories about
the place & people we hold dear up here in the northland.
Not only is she a brilliant, beloved musician & composer but she
is a wonderful writer. This book is hard to put down for sure.
Written under collapsing ceilings, typed on phones
the poetry bringing Palestine to the world
"Poetry may not be the best response to aerial bombardment, but for many Palestinians it has become a line of defence amid the rubble and ongoing killings in Gaza.
"'Poetry keeps hope alive. Even in the darkest moments, Palestinian poetry continues to imagine a future,' Nazmi al-Masri, professor of languages at the Islamic University of Gaza, says at an online poetry event held by his students.
"'Poetry gives people a language to express collective grief,' he says. 'In Gaza, poetry documents what cameras cannot always reach and what numbers can never explain. When destruction erases physical spaces, poetry becomes a witness to history.'"
All Roads Lead to the South
"On March 7th, 1965, a few innocent children of God, some carrying only a bedroll, a few clutching a simple bag, a plain purse or a backpack, were inspired to walk 50 dangerous miles from Selma to Montgomery to demonstrate the need for voting rights in the state of Alabama.
"
— John Lewis
from a speech he delivered March 7, 2015 to commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the Selma March
On May 16, a broad coalition of organizations converged on Selma & Montgomery
for "All Roads Lead to the South: National Day of Action for Voting Rights."
Thousands & thousands of people showed up from all over the country.
Get inspired. Take a look at some news clippings from the day that we posted on our bluesky channel.
We have the power. We have had it all along.
If we want candidates to reject big money, we have to provide a better way for them to get votes. We can do that.
"Demonstrations and strikes and calls to elected officials use our voices to influence the actions of people currently in power. This is about using our voices and skills to determine who gets put into power in the first place. If every volunteer generates (at least) ten votes, we could set as our goal the recruitment of enough volunteers to equal ten percent of our vote goal. Zorhan Mamdani had about 104,000 volunteers and received about 1,036,000 votes. That’s about one in ten.
"We have had somewhere between 8 and 9 million participants in #NoKings rallies. The largest number of votes ever received by a presidential candidate was just over 81 million (Joe Biden in 2020). If every participant in a #NoKings rally generated 10 votes, we could win the biggest election in the country. I know that this doesn’t automatically translate to winning elections in particular states or districts, but it does give you a sense of the scale. We have reached critical mass. Now, we just have to develop our political capacity: the best way for each of us, individually and collectively, to help generate votes for the candidates we support."
Contact us
If you see or experience ICE activity or have
urgent information, you can call our
hotline at: (218) 213-5009. We can show up, document, follow up.
For other communications with us please reach out to:
hello@twinportsrapidresponse.org.
If you haven't already, sign up for future communications &
invite your neighbors.
We post topical news stories on our bluesky account. You do not need a bluesky account to read our posts.
