Minnesota mutual aid groups are gearing up as anxiety about the 2024 election grows

Last election cycle Yolanda Roth was overprepared. The organization he was working with prepared a crisis plan that he wasn’t supposed to use. But this election, the situation is bleaker. Roth, who now works for the black liberation organization Black Visions, is concerned about the targeted violence on Election Day.

“I would say the danger is now,” Roth said. “Now you feel like you can touch it, smell it, taste it — it’s just there.” Depending on the outcome of the election and its aftermath, Roth knows the black community will be able to rely on the network of mutual aid organizations that Black Visions is connected to.

As the days until the Nov. 5 election, those involved in Twin Cities mutual aid and legal aid groups say they’re witnessing anxiety in their communities. Activists are gearing up for the next day, regardless of who wins the presidency, to fill the gaps in access to resources and services.

“We’re seeing the same horror movie again,” Pablo Tapia said of Donald Trump’s first presidency. Tapia founded the religious group Asamblea de Derechos Civiles (ADDC) 20 years ago and organized the Latino immigrant community under the Trump administration. Once again, he witnesses anxiety among his peers.

“It’s hard to organize people when they’re afraid,” Tapia said. “But it’s a window to organize more effectively once you get over the panic; sometimes you can get something good out of it, which is the courage of people, who stand in solidarity with each other and try to fight back and win.”

Intensive courses, legal aid

Ahead of the elections, ADDC has stepped up its driving license for all classes. If the DFL loses its majority in the Minnesota Legislature, the program could be canceled. The organization also hopes to pass a bill to curb rents and other unfair practices in mobile home parks, where many immigrants find housing.

If Trump wins and carries out his threat of mass deportations, ADDC will build on strategies used by activists in 2016. Tapia wants to establish rapid response teams for deportations by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) , to contact white churches for support. and continue to tell the story of Minnesota’s immigrant communities.

Legal aid groups and immigration attorneys say they are seeing an increase in calls about asylum cases, temporary protected status, refugee cases, DACA, family-based green card petitions and other immigration issues that could leave people vulnerable to deportation.

Abigail Wahl, an attorney and owner of the Puerta Grande law firm, said business has been brisk and she’s noticed clients are more nervous when they come in for consultations.

“It’s something that happens more frequently in election years,” she said. “Especially because people have already lived through four years of a Trump administration. So there’s definitely an anxiety about that.”

During the Trump administration, Wahl said processing times for immigration cases have been delayed. Consulates and embassies abroad were also closed, so it took longer than expected to get back to normal after the election of President Joe Biden.

It wasn’t until 2023 that case processing times returned to a pre-Trump norm, Wahl said. For that reason, she said she’s worried about what immigration policies might look like under a Kamala Harris presidency.

“I wouldn’t say Harris is the most progressive person on immigration,” Wahl said. But she added, “as an immigration attorney, I would prefer to practice under the Harris administration.”

Wahl said he hopes the Biden administration will approve a TPS designation for Ecuadorians, but thinks Harris may be more open to granting or expanding TPS, which could benefit immigrant communities.

Other local organizations also plan to support a TPS designation for Ecuadorians if Democrats return to the White House. Erika Zurawski, co-founder of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), wants to put pressure on Biden in the months before he leaves office.

“The vast majority of immigrants that I’ve seen come to Minnesota are from Ecuador,” she said. “This is a Minnesota question, not just a national question.”

At the state level, Zuraswki said she’s never been more frustrated than last legislative session, when the DFL had a trifecta in the House, Senate and governor’s office but failed to pass North Star Act. The bill sought to make Minnesota a sanctuary state for immigrants and prevent police from cooperating with ICE on deportations. This is already the practice in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“If Trump wins and they (DFL) don’t have the trifecta,” Zurawski said, “they are personally responsible for every immigrant that is deported from Minnesota in that Trump presidency.”

Post-election information sessions

At Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, administrative attorney Danielle Hendrickson said her staff is preparing for what’s to come.

Until the outcome of the election is clear, her lawyers are reviewing the cases, seeing which ones could be affected by a new administration and “trying to gauge what moves and actions we should take” before January.

Hendrickson said clients still have time after the election to consult with an immigration attorney.

“The law of the land remains the law of the land until that new administration comes along. And so the election is in November, but the new president isn’t sworn in until January, so any new policy changes can only happen after the new president is in place,” she said.

Even after the new president is sworn in, policy changes can take time, she said.

Wahl also said some of her clients were reassured after consultations when she told them that even in removal proceedings, they have legal defenses.

“I don’t think people need to be hysterical about mass deportations. I take Trump’s threats seriously, but I don’t think they would be able to follow through on it,” she said.

Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, along with other immigration legal service providers, has already scheduled post-election information sessions in the community, Hendrickson said.

During these sessions, community members will be able to learn more about how the president-elect’s policies could affect them. Hendrickson said those sessions will begin Nov. 13 and that at least one will focus on immigration court.

But Zurawski says some changes since Trump’s presidency have made immigrants more vulnerable. More immigrants entered the country through legal ports of entry and were processed at the borders. Some have also benefited from programs such as humanitarian parolepromoted by the Biden administration. Zurawski said this helped identify and map newly arrived immigrants, making deportation easier for a future Republican administration.

She condemns the anti-immigrant rhetoric of both parties, but will organize differently depending on who is elected.

“Under a Democratic presidency, we’re trying to be more proactive about proposing certain legislation that could benefit people,” Zurawski said. “But under a Trump presidency, we’re always reacting to the next bad thing that happens.”

Impact on other vulnerable communities

Even as Minnesota remains blue, activists fear the impact of a Trump presidency locally. Sean Lim, an organizer based in the Twin Cities, notes that the current climate and housing crisis, as well as the war in Gaza, occurred under a Democratic administration. However, a Trump presidency comes with its own dangers.

“The danger of a Republican presidency is a right-wing supreme court,” Lim said. “And the court could come out with decisions to criminalize the homeless.” Federal rulings could also allow local municipalities to crack down on protesters, he fears.

Rae Rowe, co-founder of the Paper Lantern Project, which advocates for gender and reproductive justice, worries about access to resources and services for members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and the impact on their mental health.

“When you consider reproductive justice from a Minnesota perspective, we’re a trans refugee state, but these rights are being removed from all the surrounding states,” Rowe said. “And at the same time, clinics are losing funding.” Regardless of who wins the presidency, Rowe believes it’s urgent to organize.

Red states may also feel emboldened to clamp down on trans rights regardless of the election’s outcome, noted Andrea Coleman, a member of Twin Cities Trans Mutual Aid. And in Minnesota, there will still be a need after the election to provide financial support to trans people and to continue organizing.

Whatever the landscape, activists say they have resilient networks that will allow them to continue pushing for justice and looking out for each other.

Mutual aid is “inherently anti-fascist,” Lim said. “It is anti-authoritarian, it is abolitionist, it is effective, it is powerful and it is beautiful. It allows us as neighbors to come together in the absence of the state doing its job.”