Indigenous-led rally serves ICE symbolic eviction notice

Indigenous activists held a demonstration Saturday outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis to protest immigration enforcement and detentions at the site, according to MPR News. The “Not On Native Land” rally was organized and led by Indigenous clergy from Minnesota in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity tied to Operation Metro Surge.

Jim Bear Jacobs, program director of environmental justice with Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, said the building’s namesake, Henry Whipple, advocated for Dakota people during the U.S.-Dakota War. Jacobs read a statement from Craig Loya, bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, calling it a “painful irony” that a building named for Whipple now houses immigration enforcement, according to MPR News.

Speakers and performers, including members of Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, addressed the crowd. Kate Beane, executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, said the land where the building stands was never ceded by Dakota people, according to MPR News.