Vic Mensa is on the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota, joining communities as they protest ICE’s growing presence in the Twin Cities. The actor and rapper took to his Instagram to share what he’s seeing on the ground and share a poignant call to action.
“I’m here at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where ICE is stationed, people are being abducted, detained, and sent out of here, subverting due process, judicial process,” Mensa shared. “They sent in the National Guard. The National Guard is basically running cover for ICE, and also playing both sides, pacifying people with donuts and coffee.”
“Man, Minneapolis brought out 100,000 people for a general strike on Friday, and the only tool we really have to fight back against ICE terror is to expand and extend that general strike to a nationwide general strike. This Friday, no work, cut it all off,” he continued.
As reported by the Minnesota Daily, a day before Alex Pretti’s death, the second fatal shooting by ICE agents in the state, hundreds of businesses closed, and thousands joined the state’s “ICE Out” general strike. In the days that have followed Pretti’s shooting, the existing outrage surrounding immigration raids and border patrol taking over cities has amplified and spread across the country.
“Are you participating in the strike against ICE [on]Friday? nationwide. no work. no school. no shopping. shut it down,” Mensa wrote in the post’s caption.
In addition to calling people to action, the “Chi” star paid a visit to Pretti’s memorial and honored not only his life, but also the many lives that have been lost at the hands of federal and state officers in Minnesota.
“We’re out here at the memorial for Alex Pretti, at the site where he was executed by ICE just ten days after Renee Good was killed. 24 hours after the largest protests in the last 80 years,” he shared in a separate video. “Clearly, a very emotional moment and an act of deliberate intimidation by the state. ICE being the weaponized arm of state terrorism. I mean, this is a very revolutionary city; it has been an epicenter of global shifts in the last five years. So in the memory of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, George Floyd, Philando Castile, and so many others, we out here.”
