“Minnesota ICE/Minnesota Nice”: a poem on social justice

Note: This poem was written in response to the 2026 deportation surges in the Midwest.

At the borderlands of life, they live. A place distanced by blinded views, where the North Star is clouded by ICE. Closer than you may know. The in-between, the terrified, the never recorded. Called “illegal” for lack of paper. Many are overlooked and forgotten, or worse… recognized and oppressed.

Our neighbors cry out for an ounce of empathy, or better yet: solidarity, equity, aid. Voices, brittle, choked and strained. Burdened by the injustice of our times.

Cast away like items lost behind a fridge. Grape, breadcrumb, Lego, dust All terrified of the day the vacuum will come to deport them. Lost in the dark of a kitchen, a country.

There needs to be a pathway through life’s maze. The Statue of Liberty needs restoration like the world, she needs maintenance. ICE and partisan rust disregard her structure. They thrive in her cracking, widen her fissures, erode her foundation. Tears of a loving God fall.

But what can I do? Go forth in peace and love? Pause and pray? Stand up or fight? Don’t stall in the planning of what to do… Be a hand that reaches, kindness is ours to share. Fishing just one grape at a time, show them justice right there.