A so Minnesotan tale

I am writing this post slightly off the bike trip theme so I can tell you an enlightening and encouraging story that is not my own. Since I’ve been home from my bike trip.I have experienced the aftermath of a shooting at a Catholic school in town and now what I will describe as an occupation by immigration agents.

Less than a mile from where I live is where 5-year-old spiderman hat Liam was detained with his father. Four other students from my local school district are presently still in detention as well. The ICE agents have been patrolling outside our local school before and after school. One teacher of color reported he had been stopped by ICE four times in one week even though he is a US citizen carrying around his passport.

All over the Minneapolis area, people of color with legal status or citizens are scared to leave their houses to go to school or work. ICE agents are using 

illegal and overly aggressive tactics to detain so many people that are here legally.

At the same time, I am very proud to be associated with the citizens of Minneapolis and the entire state of Minnesota. We have come together to take care of our neighbors, and the sense of community is, unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Without any central coordination the Minneapolis community has come together to provide whatever help is needed by the people of our community that have been affected by the ICE Metro surge in Minnesota. The deployment and illegal tactics have not let up or slowed down in the past few days as has been reported.

It is in that light that I share a story. It is about a couple of ladies that explain Minnesota. These two ladies were brave and compassionate. Their response to their situation was exceptional and yet at the same time their story is also typical Minnesotan. It is about Tippy Amundson and Heather Zemien and is told from their accounting of the incident. It is copied and edited from The Minnesota Star Tribune and MPR News. 

It started when Amundson’s middle school neighbor called her and asked if her home would be a safe place to run to if ICE was following him. He was worried that if he ran to his own home, his parents could get detained. The two women would watch the kids as they got off their bus to make sure they got home safe and felt safe. On Jan 22, they were watching from an apartment parking lot when ICE agents pulled up. ICE did not like  what the women were doing and though there was no altercation they were detained by ICE and they had started to transport the women to the detention center (Whipple Building).

The ICE vehicle had barely made it two blocks when something went wrong. The women were sitting handcuffed in the back seat of a three-row SUV in Brooklyn Park, MN. heading toward the Whipple Federal Building. The third row had been folded down. One ICE agent sat behind them without a seat belt. Two others were in front. They were stopped at a light when the agent in the front passenger seat said out loud that he wasn’t feeling well. Then his body began to tilt. His arms flailed. His words dissolved into sounds that didn’t make sense.

“To us, it was obvious,” Amundson said. “It wasn’t obvious to them.”

Amundson and Zemien were the only ones who recognized that the man was having a seizure. They spoke up immediately, telling the driver to pull over and telling the agents to call 911. When nothing happened, they repeated it, louder and more urgently.

The SUV lurched over a curb and came to rest at an angle on the sidewalk. Amundson could hear the agent’s tongue and fluids blocking his airway. She asked to be uncuffed.

“He’s going to stop breathing,” she told them.

Amundson, a kindergarten teacher who has received CPR and first-aid training through school emergency planning, moved without hesitation once the cuffs came off. The agents stepped out of the vehicle, leaving the driver’s door open, the engine running and the keys inside. Weapons were still in reach. Amundson ran around the car and knelt beside the agent, trying to turn him onto his side. She spoke to him calmly, telling him he was safe and that help was coming. She said she was aware that people having seizures can often hear what’s being said around them. When he began to lose consciousness, she moved his gun from its holster so she could position him properly. She cradled his head as another seizure came.

Zemien, a personal care attendant, grabbed one of the agents’ tactical vests from the ground, rolled it up and slid it under his head to keep his airway open. She told the agents to shut the car doors so he wouldn’t lose body heat.

“He had two more seizures after that,” Zemien said. “We had to tell them every step of the way what to do.”

By the time emergency medical responders arrived, the women had been holding the agent steady for several minutes. They were detained but acting as first responders to the man who had detained them.

Once the agent was transferred to medical care, Amundson and Zemien were placed into another vehicle and driven to Whipple anyway.“I asked if we could just go home,” Amundson said. “I said, ‘We just saved his life. Is that cool with you?’ And they said no.”

On the drive, Amundson asked when they would be allowed to call a lawyer. An agent told her they “should” be able to at 

Whipple but said he didn’t really know the policy. After a pause, he added that because they had helped one of the agents, 

they could call one person. Zemien called her attorney. By then, their support network was already mobilizing. Using a voice command to text a message during the detention, Amundson had managed to alert her husband, who contacted their state representative. Legal paperwork was already being gathered. A meeting at Whipple was already being arranged.

A commanding officer eventually approached them.“We’re releasing you to your counsel and to your state representative,” the officer said, according to Amundson. “But you need to tell everybody that we treated you kindly.” They were driven to the front of the Whipple Federal Building and released into their representative’s car.

What stayed with Amundson most, she said, was not the adrenaline of the moment but the realization that came while she was holding the agent’s head in her hands and keeping his airway open.

“I was hit so hard with the fact that this man would not do this for me,” she said.

“We would like everyone to look at everyone as humans, and that’s not what we’re seeing with a lot of people.

“It’s important for people to know how ill-prepared they are,” Amundson said. “And how untrained.”

My city of Columbia Heights and Minneapolis in general is suffering under what I can only call an ICE occupation. The heavy handed aggression of the ICE agents and their tactics, many of which are not legal, to me can only be described as an occupation. Some of you readers may be put off by my descriptions. However, what I have seen personally, the personal accounts of friends and other people that I know telling me stories have told me what is going on. That makes me say that I was blown away at hearing about the things that federal employees of the United States are doing. 

I value stories and hearing people’s stories. I hope you also seek out other people’s stories. I heard my neighbors stories and that is why I shared this one. Mostly, the stories I have heard have made me do what little I can to stop the ICE surge in Minneapolis. We can deport people in this country illegally in a better way. I encourage you to seek out people’s stories and let them affect you. That was my goal this past summer and what I continue to do.