Ice

Thousands march along Lake Street to protest DHS ‘Operation Metro Surge’ in Minneapolis Arrests top 400 as enforcement enters third week; organizers say fear is emptying stores and streets MINNEAPOLIS — In bitter cold Saturday morning, thousands of people marched more than a mile down the Lake Street corridor to protest stepped-up immigration enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security as its Operation Metro Surge moves into a third week. The event — organized by COPAL, Unidos and local union groups — drew families,…

Somali Activist Omar Jamal Freed From ICE Custody in Minnesota, Says He’s Confident He Won’t Be Deported MINNEAPOLIS — Somali community advocate Omar Jamal walked out of a southern Minnesota jail this week after a month in federal custody and used his first public appearance to do something unusual in a high-stakes immigration case: praise the jail that held him. “What I have seen is people doing their job with professionalism in a humane way,” Jamal told reporters in Albert Lea, standing beside Freeborn County Sheriff…

Prominent Somali American advocate detained by ICE in Minneapolis, unsettling a community he helped build MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Omar Jamal, one of Minnesota’s most visible Somali American civic voices, in downtown Minneapolis on Friday, federal officials and his attorney confirmed. He was later transferred to the Freeborn County jail in Albert Lea, a facility that holds federal immigration detainees. What we know Jamal, 52, was taken into custody by ICE on Friday…

Listening for the first time to an album by Wasis Diop, poems of speech and sound, is to experience. As with Leonard Cohen, Kate Bush or Joni Mitchell, the feeling of entering a temple. A feeling so rare that each new record represents an event. He has done six in almost thirty years: Hyenor 1992, No Sant ("Your name?") 1994, Toxu ("Moving") 1997, Juddu Bek ("Joy of living") 2007 and Séquences 2014 The latter, a compilation of his many film music, presents his international hit, Everything is Never Quite Enough,…