FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]
January 22, 2026
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.
A group of righteous organizers mobilized to confront “Pastor” David Easterwood of Cities Church, who disgustingly moonlights as acting director for ICE in St. Paul. His dual role is the ultimate hypocrisy: a pastor who proclaims to follow the teachings of Jesus while the federal agency for which he works is as evil and devilish as they come. This Constitutionally protected and biblically ordained act was criminalized by the Trump regime, with Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering the arrests.
We know that what fascism fears most is people who take our own freedom. They use every tool to quash those who refuse to submit. And…we shall not be moved. Our courageous freedom fighters who put themselves on the line to protect humanity deserve our gratitude. Black Lives Matter Grassroots – and all of our 52 chapters and thousands of organizers worldwide – is committed to protecting and supporting our righteous resistors at all costs. #AbolishICE
Black Lives Matter – California and each of the state’s eight chapters condemn the passage by the state legislature and signing into law by Governor Gavin Newsom of the unconstitutional and undemocratic bill AB 715 and its weak companion legislation, SB 48.
Leimert Park, Los Angeles – Black Lives Matter Grassroots now has fifty-two chapters, including three led by imprisoned folks and one in Stockholm, Sweden. The now-international organization, whose mission is to end state-sanctioned violence, convened this past weekend to celebrate twelve years since the founding of the birth of one of the largest racial justice movements in the history of the world and the very first Black Lives Matter chapter on this same spot, Leimert Park (aka Africa Town), the heart of Black Los Angeles. The organization was sprung into being after the murderer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was acquitted by a legal system that never served Black people.
“BLM Grassroots, Local Organizers, Justice Families, and Student Activists Warn of Alarming Trend of Black Students at Predominantly White Institutions BeingTargeted by White Supremacists and Cops.”
