I appreciated the article about Friends’ responses to Operation Metro Surge [Quakers Respond to ICE Deployment in Twin Cities By Sharlee DiMenichi, Friends Journal, February 12, 2026]. There were, of course, other quieter responses that occurred among Friends.

Quakers were among those who contributed to mutual aid. We also reached out beyond the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” to our out-of-state connections. Monthly meetings in the Midwestern United States and countless Friends sent funds; still others made donations to trusted nonprofits like the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

People who couldn’t give funds or do ICE patrols, or who couldn’t safely intervene when ICE was breaking down doors without proper warrants, instead made thousands of whistle kits to distribute; dispatched rapid responders; translated papers; did groceries and delivered diapers; drove neighbors to critical appointments; facilitated meetups to build community and to share how best to meet neighbors’ needs; repaired and secured the busted doors battery-rammed by ICE; jump-started cars during what was already a brutal winter; used their notary public credentials to sign the heartbreaking paperwork known as DOPAs that would delegate parental authority of children to a trusted adult if the parents were deported.

Not all of us were protesters but all of us were protectors of our neighbors.

I’ll never know all the ways that we showed up for one another.

One more example: I wept as my Iowa-based monthly meeting invited the entire yearly meeting to a morning worship one First Day; my video screen was filled with Friends across the region who knew that Minnesota was hurting. They too were part of showing up.

Liz Oppenheimer

Published in Friends Journal https://www.friendsjournal.org/forum-june-july-2026/