By Sandi Sherman

On March 8, 2026, Minnesotans active in the fight against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) siege in their state traveled to Selma, Alabama, to join a commemoration of the day in 1965 known as “Bloody Sunday.” On March 7, 1965, police — some on horseback and armed with billy clubs and tear gas — attacked civil rights demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they attempted a 50-mile march to the state capital of Montgomery.

The decision by the Minnesota Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) to take 100 immigrant rights leaders from the upper Midwest to Selma is a sign of the connections being made as a result of the fight against the ICE “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota since the beginning of this year. Those who mobilized for over three months to defend immigrant communities are looking for lessons of the past that can help strengthen their struggle. They are making connections with others involved in the struggle for social justice — today’s activists and veterans of past resistance. 

In addition to participating in the commemorative march, the delegation visited the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, the site of a bombing in 1963 that killed four girls, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the victims of racial terror lynchings.

In a March 15 email to its supporters, the IDN reported on the experience:

“In Selma, we walked across the same bridge where courage changed the course of history, and we learned firsthand from the leaders and foot soldiers who came before us.

“And we at the Immigrant Defense Network aim to bring that spirit of courage back home with us to Minnesota, because the arc of justice does not bend on its own. It bends when communities organize, show up, and choose to walk in solidarity.” 

This underscores the importance of making these connections and of linking up with and learning from other fights for justice.

Below is the full text of the IDN letter.

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Immigrant Rights Defense Network Letter

Dear Immigrant Defense Network:

Last Sunday [March 8, 2026] nearly 100 leaders from across Minnesota, South Dakota, and the upper Midwest made the journey to Selma, Alabama to commemorate the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” — the day in 1965 when peaceful marchers demanding the right to vote were brutally attacked as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. During our stay in Montgomery, we took time to visit museums, monuments, and important sites steeped in the rich history of the Civil Rights Movement. 

As we retraced the steps of Civil Rights leaders across the historic bridge under the banner of the Immigrant Defense Network, we are both profoundly inspired by the courage of those who came before us. It was March 7, 1965, when a group of about 600 unarmed demonstrators gathered at Browns Chapel to demand the right to vote. They marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were attacked by more than 50 state troopers and vigilante groups. When the demonstrators refused to turn back, they were brutally beaten. At least 17 were hospitalized and 40 others received treatment for injuries and the effects of tear gas.  

The attack, which was broadcast on national television, caught the attention of millions of Americans and became a symbol of the brutal racism of the South. Two weeks later, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and 3,200 civil rights protesters marched the 49 miles from Selma to the Alabama capital, Montgomery. This massive march prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act later that same year. 

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed a few months after Bloody Sunday and the subsequent marches. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states during Reconstruction including literacy tests as a prerequisite to registering, poll taxes, and other bureaucratic restrictions that limited access to voting. It also outlawed the harassment and violence that African-American voters faced when they tried to exercise their right to vote. 

But the movement did not stop there. The momentum of the Civil Rights Movement also led to the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act), another landmark law that aimed to dismantle systemic discrimination in American life. The Hart-Celler Act abolished the racist national origins quota system that had shaped U.S. immigration policy for decades, applying the same principles of equality, dignity, and non-discrimination to immigration law that the Civil Rights Act established for civil rights at home. 

These victories remind us that the struggles for civil rights and immigrant rights have always been deeply connected. Our IDN delegation traveled to Selma not only to honor that history, but to carry its lessons forward. Today, immigrant communities across the country are facing aggressive enforcement, family separation, and policies that attempt to silence participation through fear. The decades may be different, but the struggle is the same: the fight for dignity, democracy, and human rights. 

And just as the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement pushed this country toward justice in the 1960s, our nation once again faces the urgent need for meaningful immigration reform that upholds the principles of equality, protects families, and ensures that our laws reflect the values of fairness and human dignity. In Selma, we walked across the same bridge where courage changed the course of history and we learned firsthand from the leaders and foot soldiers who came before us. 

And we at the Immigrant Defense Network aim to bring that spirit of courage back home with us to Minnesota, because the arc of justice does not bend on its own. It bends when communities organize, show up, and choose to walk in solidarity. 

In solidarity, 

Immigrant Defense Network Team

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