Join LNENA and Sign-On to the Eviction Moratorium

For almost 6 weeks, thousands of immigrants have been sheltering in place and on lockdown. Countless people have had their family and community members taken from them. On January 7, a community observer was murdered at the hands of ICE while doing ICE-Watch in her neighborhood, and a parents waiting for their children outside of Roosevelt Hight school were tear gassed, leading to Minneapolis Public Schools cancelling all school activities for the remainder of the week.

It is abundantly clear that kids aren’t safe to go to school, parents aren’t safe to go to work, and families are struggling to pay rent. As ICE and other federal agencies escalate their threats to immigrant families, our neighbors are missing work or losing hours because it no longer feels safe to leave home, or losing income because the working members of their household are in detention. Small immigrant owned businesses are losing workers and customers, or closing altogether. The mental and emotional toll of grief is building and financial stresses are compounding.

Rent, however, is still due. When income disappears, eviction follows. Large-scale instability and economic disruption is being pushed onto communities through racist “immigration enforcement,” while housing courts and eviction processes continue operating as if nothing has changed. If we go on this way, families will be forced out of their homes in the middle of winter. School communities will fracture. Children will miss class. Families will double up or fall into homelessness.

We are calling on the Minneapolis Mayor and City Council, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners and Governor Walz and the State of Minnesota to immediately enact a temporary eviction moratorium, paired with emergency rental assistance, throughout this occupation of Minnesota by federal agencies targeting and threatening immigrants.

Our local governments may not yet be able to force ICE out of the state. But they DO have the power to care for our communities and mitigate cycles of harm. This is a concrete step that would protect families from displacement while our communities face the economic disaster created by federal terror. Minnesotans are acting collectively to protect their neighbors. Parents, tenants, and community members are doing everything in their power to keep families safe and housed. As immigration enforcement continues to tear families apart without accountability, a temporary eviction moratorium is the clear next step the state can take to stand with its communities.

An eviction moratorium is a reasonable and necessary act of leadership. People around the country are looking to Minnesota right now, to see what we will do in the face of this federal terror, to support our neighbors and keep each other safe. Let’s show them how it’s done.