Andrea Ritchie – Writer, Lawyer, Organizer and Researcher

We are grateful for the courage, vision, sacrifice, and power of Black Lives Matter Grassroots Twin Cities lead Chauntyll Allen, courageous comrade Nekima Levy Armstrong, and other principled organizers for their righteous resistance to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal invasion and fascist repression in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Rather than submitting to an unparalleled evil that murders mothers in their own vehicles, explodes chemical weapons upon infants, kidnaps and imprisons preschoolers, brutalizes children, separates families, and terrorizes communities, grassroots organizers in the Twin Cities are putting their own bodies, freedom and livelihood on the line to secure community.

On New Year’s Eve, as the world thirsted for celebration, Black father, son, neighbor, and community member, #KeithPorter stepped outside his front door to celebrate. Like many around the nation, he fired his gun in the air to celebrate the coming of 2026. An ICE agent who lived in the same complex moved as if Keith was no more than a target in a game. He went inside his own unit, put on his tactical gear, grabbed his ICE-issued firearm, stepped back outside, and shot this Black man dead in front of his own home.

Black Lives Matter Grassroots vehemently condemns the United States’ military strikes on Venezuela, the unlawful kidnapping of President Nicholás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and the threats against Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and the Venezuelan people. These actions have brought death and injury to civilians, desecrated the land and seas, and violated the nation’s sovereignty. Not only are these actions illegal according to international law and the United States Constitution, we know these to be war crimes and crimes against humanity.