With the “drawdown” in Minnesota of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol agents last month, media attention has turned toward other issues. But the lessons of the resistance by Minnesotans continue to be drawn as ICE targets immigrants in communities across the country.

Writing for World-Outlook, Minneapolis residents Bill Scheer and Sandi Sherman noted in their February 20 article Minnesotans Keep the Heat on Despite ICE ‘Drawdown’, “The largest anti-immigrant operation in U.S. history has officially ‘ended’ — beaten back by a massive, sustained, and well-organized resistance…. The fight in Minnesota, which has drawn thousands of working people, youth, and others into action — many of them for the very first time, is an example of where we need to begin.”

Among the many important lessons that can be drawn from the Minnesota experience is the role that organized labor can play in struggles for social justice. Unions from the Minnesota Education Federation to the Service Employees International Union and the Amalgamated Transit Union helped organize some of the multitude of protest actions in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Not only did their participation help broaden the fight, but it is also proving to have strengthened the labor movement and individual unions.

One example is outlined in a column by Minneapolis letter carrier Emmett Bongaarts first published by Labor Notes, “a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979,” according to the group’s website.

Bongaarts’ branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) organized two protests during the ICE siege to demand that its agents stop using postal property to stage their raids; individual members of the local also participated in activities to help defend their immigrant neighbors.

“Our actions have forced debate within the union about what the role of a union should be,” Bongaarts notes. “Should we be concerned only with bread-and-butter issues like wages and working conditions? Or should the labor movement also play a role in mass social movements?” The postal worker points out that organizing around immigration spurred a number of union members to start attending local NALC meetings for the first time.

World-Outlook is publishing Bongaarts’ column for the information of our readers. The headline, text, and photos that follow are from the original.

— World-Outlook editors

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Postal Workers Demand to Kick ICE Off Postal Property

March 05, 2026 

By Emmett Bongaarts

As federal agents laid siege to the city of Minneapolis, rank-and-file postal workers in the Twin Cities organized two anti-ICE rallies.

The first, on December 15, was held in response to ICE agents using the employee parking lots at the Lake Street and Powderhorn Post Offices to stage their operations.

The second demonstration was held on January 18, after the killing of Renee Good. This was a much larger affair with around 250 participants, and involved other local unions such as the teachers, communications workers, and bus drivers.

As workers who serve our community and are out walking every day, we wanted to make it clear to our customers that postal workers are not associated with ICE, and that we want them off of postal property.

ICE operations in Minneapolis have made our working conditions unsafe. The chaos and violence they bring to our streets puts letter carriers at risk: unmarked cars flying through neighborhoods at high speeds, tear gas and flashbangs deployed wantonly, and deadly shootings.

We organized not only for our own safety, but also to stand in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters who are most impacted by this state violence.

Our actions have forced debate within the union about what the role of a union should be. Should we be concerned only with bread-and-butter issues like wages and working conditions? Or should the labor movement also play a role in mass social movements?

We believe we should do both, and that doing so will strengthen our union as well as strengthening movements for justice.

Indeed, our organizing around this issue has helped bring people into the union who hadn’t been involved before. Workers who had never attended a union meeting turned out to these demonstrations, and in the weeks following, several of them came to their first meeting.

Safety hazards

As federal agents continue to swarm our streets, Branch 9 passed an “ICE Makes Delivery Unsafe” motion at our January membership meeting.

Our contract and federal labor law already give us the right to safe working conditions. This motion is meant to educate members who may not know we have that right, and to give them the confidence to enforce it by filing a safety hazard form and refusing an unsafe assignment.

This knowledge and confidence will also facilitate our organizing around other hazards that make our job unsafe, such as extreme weather and wildfire smoke.

Rank-and-file letter carriers in Minneapolis continue to demand that national NALC leadership come out in support of getting ICE off of postal property, and that they fight to ensure that ICE cannot use postal parking lots or facilities for its operations.

We also demand that the Postal Service, and the Postal Inspectors, cut their ties with ICE and stop providing them information or cooperating with them in any way.

Emmett Bongaarts is a letter carrier and member of NALC Branch 9 in Minneapolis.

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