MSP 2/4 – Different time same story

Late Monday night, we received a small piece of good news –  a federal judge has temporarily blocked the end of Haiti’s protected status, granting temporary relief for nearly 350,000 of our neighbors. The Trump administration has been attempting to remove legal status from many groups of immigrants, including Haitians, to justify those immigrants being captured and removed.

Haitian immigrants, who have been eligible for this temporary protected status since the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, have experienced a barrage of attacks – the suit against DHS alleges that the decision to try to end TPS for Haiti comes from President Donald Trump’s “racial, ethnic, and national-origin animus towards Haitians.” 

So we join in the relief of our neighbors, who will temporarily keep their legal status and work authorization. But attacks on TPS for Haitians are likely to continue. These community members deserve to live without fear and uncertainty.  

And in times of uncertainty, we can turn to prayer. Join Indigenous leaders in Minneapolis who have planned two prayer gatherings this Saturday, February 7th and are calling on their neighbors and people across the country to stand with them. First, from 10 AM – 12 PM outside the Whipple Detention Center at Fort Snelling, an Indigenous – Led Civil & Human Rights Rally called “Not on Native Land” will gather community members to reckon with the long roots of current violence. Organizers write, “What we are witnessing on this land has been experienced before. Different time — same story.” They will be shining a light on the long history of violence at Forth Snelling, which was one of the largest prison camps for Indigenous people in US history in 1862, and refusing the repetition of harm on this land.

Then, First Peoples of Mni Sóta Makoce are hosting an official public memorial ceremony for Renee Good and for all people lost in this occupation. The memorial ceremony is open to all and will be in Powderhorn Park from 1-3pm. The toolkit for public grief accompanying the event proclaims “We are not defined by where we have been, but by how we show up today. To grieve together is to refuse erasure. To witness together is to protect life.” In that spirit we invite you to join us in prayer on Saturday. 

If to grieve together is to refuse erasure and protect life, we must pay close attention to whose lives are deemed worthy of grief. You may have seen the statistic that eight people have been killed by ICE officials so far in 2026. Which of their names do you know? Just Alex Pretti and Renee Good? 

Other than the two white people killed, do you know their names? 

Herber Sanchaz Dominguez, Victor Manuel Diaz, Parody La, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos 

And Renee Good and Alex Pretti are not the only US Citizens who have been killed – a third US Citizen, a 43 year old Black father of two named Keith Porter, was killed by an off-duty ICE officer on December 31st, 2025. Can we hold grief for all of these victims, and grieve for a world that deems some people more worthy than others of our grief? 

Can you choose another name from this list and insist that they too be included in our collective mourning? Can our grief affirm the humanity of all of our neighbors? And can we trust that the God of justice will transform our grief and desire for a world free of violence into powerful collective action?