03/06/2026
Congratulations and well deserved Twin Cities.
Here's the link:
Sources:
JFK Library Foundation — 2026 Profile in Courage Award honorees: https://www.jfklibrary.org/events-and-awards/profile-in-courage-award
https://www.youtube.com/live/trl7aatglAw?si=01hvgzAGGRfO6-Rn
Star Tribune — Twin Cities residents honored with JFK courage award: https://www.startribune.com/what-to-know-as-twin-cities-residents-receive-prestigious-jfk-courage-award-tonight/601851126
KARE 11 — Award ceremony recap: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/jfk-profile-in-courage-award-presented-to-twin-cities-residents-for-ice-surge-response-mn/89-817cbf10-3535-4f82-b6a2-87e601df1d58
WHYY — Delaney Hall hunger strike and conditions: https://whyy.org/articles/delaney-hall-ice-facility-tensions/
NBC New York — Congressional tour of Delaney Hall: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/delaney-hall-hunger-strike-protests/6506125/
American Immigration Council — Senate reconciliation bill: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/senate-pushes-70-billion-funding-ice-cbp-accountability-measures/
Take action — Indivisible's national campaign to stop unconstrained ICE funding: https://indivisible.org/get-involved/take-action/
Find an Indivisible chapter near you: https://indivisible.org/get-involved/find-a-group/
Last night, a tent went up outside the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.
The crowd was too large for the building.
That has happened only twice before, when Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi received the same honor.
Last night, the people of Minnesota joined that list.
Four Minnesotans walked onto that stage to accept the 2026 JFK Profile in Courage Award on behalf of everyone who stood up last winter.
Imam Yusuf Abdulle, who looked at what was happening to his Somali neighbors and refused to stay silent.
Natalie Ehret, who watched people released by ICE walk out of the Whipple Federal Building with nowhere to go, no belongings, no coat in a Minnesota winter, and decided she could not walk away. So she built Haven Watch.
Carolina Ortiz of COPAL, who helped build a network of more than 100 organizations that trained 30,000 Minnesotans to stand watch in their own streets.
And Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, who found herself explaining to teachers how to protect students from federal agents — including five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained alongside his father.
They accepted the award, but everyone in that room understood who it was really for.
Because last winter, something extraordinary happened here.
More than 3,000 federal agents descended on the Twin Cities in the largest immigration enforcement operation in American history.
They came masked.
They entered neighborhoods.
Renee Good and Alex Pretti died in encounters with federal agents. In both cases, doctors trying to reach them were blocked.
What happened here was presented as enforcement. But it felt like something else: a demonstration of power meant to produce fear.
The regime thought it would work.
Then Minnesotans answered.
Teachers showed up.
Nurses showed up.
Faith leaders showed up.
Retirees, parents, students, and neighbors stood on street corners in January cold and said no.
Not in our communities.
Not in our name.
That refusal spread far beyond Minnesota. The political calculations in Washington changed. Elected officials who had been prepared to look away found they no longer could. The surge was eventually drawn down.
Last night, that story was written into the permanent record of American courage.
At the end of the ceremony, the crowd received one final surprise. Bruce Springsteen appeared on screen with a message for the award recipients.
"When things were darkest, you gave us hope."
He was right.
But the fight that brought those Minnesotans to Boston is not over.
Today, hundreds of people remain on hunger and labor strike inside the Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey.
Members of Congress who toured the facility reported rotten food, delayed medical care, and conditions they described as deeply disturbing.
When New Jersey's governor and U.S. Senator Andy Kim arrived at the gate, ICE turned them away — and pepper-sprayed the senator on the sidewalk.
That is what power without accountability looks like.
And Congress is about to decide whether to provide a great deal more of it.
Last year, lawmakers approved roughly $75 billion for ICE through 2029. Now congressional Republicans are attempting to add another $72 billion through reconciliation, a process that bypasses the Senate's normal 60-vote threshold and requires only a simple majority.
No new guardrails.
No new accountability.
No new limits.
The same movement that helped force a national reckoning last winter is being asked to show up again.
The demand is simple: not one penny more without real constraints. No masks. Body cameras. Warrants for home entry. Independent oversight. Meaningful consequences when agents abuse their authority.
Call your member of Congress.
Tell them what Minnesota showed the country last winter.
Power without accountability is not safety.
The central question has not changed.
How much power should any government agency have?
What limits should exist when that power is used?
And who is willing to insist on accountability?
Last winter, Minnesotans answered those questions with their actions.
The people on that stage in Boston were an imam, a school superintendent, a community organizer, and a mother who refused to walk away.
They stood there as representatives of thousands of ordinary people who decided that citizenship is not a spectator sport.
There is more work ahead.
There are more fights to come.
But Minnesota now has something few movements ever receive: proof.
Proof that ordinary people can change the course of events.
Proof that showing up matters.
Proof that courage is contagious.
And proof that when enough people stand together, even the most powerful institutions in the country have to listen.
The action link is in the first comment.
Because courage is not something that happened in Boston last night.
It's what happens next.
