How Minnesota faith communities are resisting aggressive immigration operations
Samantha Heaton and her son Elliot Heaton, 7, light a prayer candle during service at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church as Samuel Hesla holds a sign marking an abduction by ICE at the church in Minneapolis on Sunday. Evan Frost for NPR
By Jason DeRose
MINNEAPOLIS — At Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, Pastor Martha Bardwell gathered congregants outside the church on Sunday to plant a sign in the snow. The marker notes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a man at that spot just days earlier.
Standing on the sidewalk, Bardwell led a prayer, asking for healing amid what she described as "the pain and the violence and the terror in our streets."
Church member Aneesa Parks helped create the sign. She began making them with a group of friends as immigration detentions surged around the Twin Cities last month. The Department of Homeland Security says more than 1,500 people have been arrested during the operation.
