"We Are Not Garbage!"

On Wednesday December 3rd, 2025, I attended a protest rally at the light rail station of the Humphrey Terminal of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport which began shortly after 10 a.m. It was a union-sponsored action to protest the latest anti-immigrant, anti-Somali policies of our new president, as well as to support undercompensated Uber/Lyft drivers. There was a sizeable group of more than 25 protestors at the entrance of the light rail station. Several activists from The Turn the Tide Players (one of the cultural arms of the resistance movement), as well as a friend of mine from Walker Church, led us all in singing several protest songs. These included This Land Is Your Land, as well as revised versions of We Shall Not Be Moved and America the Beautiful. People also added pro-union, anti-fascist chants that were in solidarity with the Somali immigrants who are being threatened by ICE with arrests and deportations to internment facilities in Louisiana. At the rally, I saw a great number of signs and placards protesting ICE and other Trump policies. There were chants which decried the Gestapo methods unleashed by our federal government to reign in our democratic rights and freedoms.

After about half an hour of singing, our group began marching past the light rail station to the Humphrey airport terminal chanting pro-immigrant slogans along the way. As we slowly made our way in the bitter cold, more people joined the march until I counted over 40.

At one point our group stopped to listen to several impassioned speakers who included a Jewish rabbi, a Protestant minister, and a young Somali activist. The latter spoke of the deplorable conditions many immigrants and refugees faced after being apprehended by ICE operatives, many of whom wore masks to disguise their identities. He then went on to describe how the apprehended were rounded up, herded into unmarked airplanes, handcuffed and shackled so they could barely move, and shipped off to detention facilities in places like Louisiana. There they were often subjected to inhumane conditions for which they had no recourse. I was profoundly moved by this Somalian organizer who spoke so eloquently about the dilemma facing the entire Minnesota Somali community who were demeaned by a president who claimed they contributed nothing to our society and called them garbage.