Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
ICE Invasion Messing With MN Kids
Operation Metro Surge is fucking up everything for all kinds of people in the Twin Cities: immigrants, small business owners, and especially immigrant small business owners. But there's one group we haven't heard a lot from yet, and they're struggling: kids.
“There is not a single student who is not impacted by this,” Juli Montgomery-Riess, lead middle school counselor for St. Paul Public Schools, tells MinnPost's Andy Steiner. Kathy Lombardi Kimani, director of St. Paul Public Schools’ office of school support, adds that the persistent fear and stress can make it tough for kids to regulate social-emotional skills, and that their learning, along with their physical and mental wellbeing, are being affected.
Unlike adults, kids might lack the language to express what they're experiencing and feeling. And another thing: Studies of student mental health were finally beginning to show improvement after the 2020 pandemic lockdown increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
“We’ve spent hours and hours doing assessments, connecting with kids, getting them connected to outside treatment, keeping them safe and alive," Montgomery-Riess says. "But the current unrest has changed everything, As someone who cares about kids and their outcomes, I am so angry that this is happening to them.”
When Home Becomes a Prison
There are some truly harrowing tales of what Minnesota immigrants are going through in this story from James Walsh and Jp Lawrence for the Star Tribune, which details the lives of people trapped at home, living in fear of ICE. Many haven’t left the house in over a month, with kids unable to attend school and adults unable to pay the bills, let alone work.
“The kids don’t sleep. We don’t sleep. We are even afraid to take out the garbage,” says one Mankato mother.
“I am hiding in the shadows, not because I have committed a crime, but because the streets of Minnesota have begun to look terrifyingly similar to the war zone I escaped,” says K, who is a legal resident seeking asylum from genocide and civil war in Ethiopia. “This is not the freedom I sought. This is a prison of fear.”
The New York Times recently posted a video following a Minnesota midwife who checks in on pregnant people too scared to leave their homes for doctor appointments, dropping off supplies and discussing birthing plans. “My biggest worry is that we’re going to miss something,” she says. Online appointments and visits from health professionals have their limits. But if detained, the consequences could be even more dire, as ICE detention centers are woefully understaffed.
Mpls Council Approves $1 Million in Rental Assistance
So, about those Minnesotans now in hiding. They can’t work and, as a result, they can’t pay rent. You’ve certainly seen and probably contributed to the many renters’ funds circulating online. But you know, one reason we have a government is that it can step up and take care of financial emergencies rather than leaving the rest of us to scramble around. As Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley stated Thursday, “There is no way you’re going to GoFundMe out of this crisis.”
This afternoon, by a vote of 9 to 4, the Minneapolis City Council voted to appropriate $1 million from the city’s cash balance for emergency rental assistance, to be distributed through a county program called Rent Help Hennepin. The council also unanimously approved an additional $500,000 for legal assistance to immigrants. These appropriations now await approval from Mayor Jacob Frey.
How to Help: A Mega-List of Options From Bring Me the News
Shoutout to Dustin Nelson of Bring Me the News for making our jobs easy for this "How to Help" installment of the Flyover.
Beginning last month, Nelson began compiling a "non-exhaustive roundup of fundraisers, donation drives, and other initiatives where purchases will benefit people in need." You've got lots of options—sambusas at Angry Line Cook, the "Woman's Day Supply Drive" at Broken Clock Brewing, donations at Pow Wow Grounds Coffee, even a raffle organized by local punk vets the Suicide Commandos. On tap for Sunday: a coloring event at Bauhaus Brewlabs in northeast Minneapolis that'll benefit the Immigrant Law Center of MN; we stress this one, in particular, because Bauhaus recently reached out to the public about its own financial concerns (see below).
Add Nelson's growing list to your favorites. Hopefully you can remove it real soon.
