what happened?
In January 2026, the federal government flooded the Twin Cities with immigration agents in an operation known as Metro Surge. Agents in unmarked cars circled schools, broke down front doors, and detained people outside bakeries and grocery stores, including U.S. citizens. After ICE agents killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, the city stopped waiting for anyone to save it. By February, city officials estimated that 76,000 Minneapolis residents, about one in five, had urgent needs like lost wages, food, or rent.
how did neighbors respond?
whistles, horns, and a swarm
When agents came for a neighbor, the whole block poured out, honking car horns and blowing whistles within minutes. Coffee shops turned tip jars into whistle jars. People took breaks from work to drive the neighborhood and warn each other. As one neighbor put it: "Minnesota is a beehive — and when the bees are under threat, the hive swarms."
groceries to the door
Parents from one elementary school PTO started delivering food to families too afraid to leave home. By late January, their weekend deliveries reached five times as many families as in December. For the first time, boxes were taken off doorsteps before families could bring them inside. "My neighbors are hungry, and I can't help all of them."
neighbors paying neighbors' rent
Rent was still due, even when a family's breadwinner was taken. Neighbors started rent funds and rent-adoption programs, where you could pay the rent of a family down the street. PTAs across the Twin Cities raised money so their students' families could stay housed. Through the Stand With Minnesota network, neighbors paid nearly $40 million in rent, covering 20,000 people for five months.
rides, flights, and care
When Meghan and two friends were pepper sprayed while filming agents, neighbors, some of them strangers, took care of them. Neighborhood group chats coordinated groceries, rides, rent, and bills. Donated airline miles helped reunite hundreds of families. The help came faster than any institution could move it.
Read the full stories, in Minnesotans' own words, at Stand With Minnesota.
what made it work?
- Relationships that existed before the crisis.
- Trusted messengers people already listened to.
- Organizations that already had contact lists and trainings.
- Clear roles, so nobody had to figure it out alone.
- Volunteer groups that could move fast. As Minneapolis's emergency management director put it, they "hear directly from neighbors who need assistance."
what would we do differently?
We'd have built the contact lists before we needed them. One Minneapolis mom's advice to other cities: start collecting your neighbors' phone numbers now. We'd also have set up the money ahead of time. Foundation emergency funds took weeks to reach frontline groups, and new groups waited months for a fiscal sponsor and a bank account, while rent kept coming due. Neighbor-to-neighbor giving moved faster than any institution.
how can my community prepare?
Start with a community safety plan, then set up a rapid response network with a local immigrant-rights organization.
start your village before you need it.
Meet your neighbors