Thawing from a difficult winter, Minnesotans in small towns across the state joined the third wave of nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests Saturday, March 28.
A lot had happened since they protested last October. Over the winter, the Trump administration launched a war with Iran, withheld Medicaid payments from Minnesota, and deployed thousands of ICE agents across the state, including in small towns with immigrant populations like Faribault, Windom, and St. James.
“When I think about this sign I made in October and all the things that have happened since October, it’s just crazy,” said Bobbi Olson at the ‘No Kings’ Protest in Faribault, Minnesota. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
According to local organizers in their respective communities, the protest in Faribault drew a crowd of about 175 outside the county courthouse. In Windom, a small farming town in southwest Minnesota, about 80 protesters lined the county highway. About 60 people assembled in a downtown park in St. James, a town of about 4,700.
‘No Kings’ protesters along a county highway in Windom, Minnesota wave to a passing Amazon semi-truck, which was honking in support. Other photos show protests in Faribault, and St. James, respectively. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)‘No Kings’ protesters along a county highway in Windom, Minnesota wave to a passing Amazon semi-truck, which was honking in support. Other photos show protests in Faribault, and St. James, respectively. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)‘No Kings’ protesters along a county highway in Windom, Minnesota wave to a passing Amazon semi-truck, which was honking in support. Other photos show protests in Faribault, and St. James, respectively. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Some protesters had rallied at ‘No Kings’ events from the very beginning last year. Others were joining the nationwide protests for the first time. For some, Saturday marked their first protest ever.
83-year-old Elaine Larson, left, protesting for the first time in her life in Windom, Minnesota. “I’m very disgusted with what our country has been like lately. I figured it’s time to make my piece known too,” Larson said. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Protesters played music, waved and smiled at counterprotesters and supporters alike, and spoke up about what they say is happening to their communities under Trump.
Communities Reeling From ICE
Protesters in Faribault, Windom, and St. James reported escalated ICE activity in their communities in recent months. Many told stories of neighbors arrested, local businesses shuttered, and fear spreading in their schools and workplaces.
St. James protesters hold anti-ICE signs across the street from a mural celebrating the town’s immigrant communities, and a Mexican-owned restaurant in St. James, respectively. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
St. James protesters hold anti-ICE signs across the street from a mural celebrating the town’s immigrant communities, and a Mexican-owned restaurant in St. James, respectively. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
“Everybody I talk to [in Faribault] has a story about ICE,” said Steevie Brown, who said many of her co-workers at the local textile company Faribault Mill have been impacted.
Michael Nordby, a St. James protester, said his daughter – who is a U.S. citizen originally from Guatemala – has started carrying her passport when she drives in case she gets pulled over by ICE. “There seems to be a racial bias so strong right now that just makes me sick,” Nordby said. “That’s why I’m here.”
Given ICE’s pattern of targeting Black and brown people – even U.S. citizens – despite legal status, Faribault resident Carrie Davis expressed fear for her husband, who has legal status in the country but is not white.
Carrie Davis and Allison Lamminen protest together in Faribault. “This just isn’t what I thought our country was,” Davis said. “I was duped, and I’ve been embarrassed and ashamed.” (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Some protesters wondered what happened to due process, like Travis McColley, a lifelong Republican who joined the protest in Faribault. “People that have been in the community for years that are going through an asylum process are getting grabbed,” McColley said.
Faribault protester Allison Lamminen said she has felt ICE’s impact in the little things. “The kids aren’t playing outside as much,” she said.
Others had witnessed the full extent of ICE’s violence in their community, like Sandy Sunde, the organizer of the St. James protest. Pointing down the street, Sunde recounted watching and filming almost a dozen ICE agents raid a Mexican-owned local business.
Sunde started keeping watch on the streets for ICE when the siege ramped up in January. Her husband Steve Sunde started following ICE cars around St. James and a nearby smaller community, taking photos of ICE license plates and bearing witness to their raids. “We’re really proud of what we did,” said Steve Sunde.
As for ICE, he said, “they didn’t like it.”
Steve Sunde, middle, protests in St. James with fellow residents. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
“The community’s out always keeping an eye on things,” said a St. James resident who preferred to stay anonymous. “That’s the best thing about this community: it supports everybody.”
In Windom, protesters had also been organizing amidst the winter’s ICE invasion. Members of a Mennonite group in Mountain Lake, a small town near Windom with Laotian and Hispanic residents, had been giving rides, rent assistance, and groceries to vulnerable neighbors since last November.
“What they’re doing on a large scale in Minneapolis, we’re doing on a small scale in Mountain Lake,” said John Stace, a member of the Mountain Lake Chapter of Mennonite Action.
Duane Franz with a sign he originally made last November for a rally in support of people detained by ICE in the local jail in Willmar, Minnesota, where Franz said protesters sang, prayed, and “called out in a loud voice, hoping they could hear us, saying ‘you are not alone.’” (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Mountain Lake farmer Duane Franz has also risen to action. About every two weeks since last fall, Franz visits people detained, in his words, “because of the color of their skin,” in the Albert Lea Detention Center through a program called Conversations with Friends.
Faribault residents organized mutual aid for vulnerable families amidst ICE activity in the community. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Though ICE’s siege has seemed to ebb since its peak earlier this year, residents are hesitant to call it over. “[ICE activity] seems to be settling down,” said Bobbi Olson, “but we don’t really know.”
Rather than going to a bigger rally in one of the cities, Faribault residents Sarah and Matthew said they wanted to protest at home to demonstrate solidarity with their neighbors after three months of increased ICE activity in town. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Concerns Over War, Cost of Living, and Civil Rights
ICE was not the only issue concerning protesters.
“I don’t understand why we are in this war,” said a Windom protester and long-time resident who preferred to go by her first name, Renee. Mother to an adult son, Renee worried that Trump’s new war with Iran could bring about a draft.
Norm Kokes, protesting in Faribault, called the war in Iran “a typical disgrace.” (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Faribault protester Norm Kokes, both a ‘No Kings’ protest veteran and a U.S. military veteran, worried about how the war would impact the world economy. “Trump didn’t know what he was doing when he got into this, and he doesn’t know how to get out of it,” Kokes said.
Mark Brodin, right, protests in Windom, where his 150-year-old corn and soybean family farm has been impacted by the Trump administration’s tariffs on China, a major soybean importer. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Windom resident Mark Brodin said the cost of living in rural places already goes up every year, and the war with Iran feels like a twist of the knife. He spent about $150 to fill his diesel truck up with gas that day, the most he had ever spent on gas.
“[It] makes no sense to me,” Brodin said. “I’m not agreeing with the way Iran was governing its people, but I’m also saying I don’t think we should be committing those kinds of resources to fighting that war.”
Economic issues were top of mind for many protesters, including a St. James protester who preferred to go by his first name, Curtis. “I’m dissatisfied that billionaires are trying to run our country, and they’re not going to do anything for the common people,” Curtis said.
Some protesters held ‘No Data Centers’ signs, including Travis McColley, who felt that the Trump administration was making deals with executives that would greatly impact communities without any review. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Trump’s personal conduct was another major concern amongst protesters. Dale Smith, who used to work in gun manufacturing, said he was a lifelong Republican before Trump but now identifies as an independent. Smith said he can’t figure out why “the things [Trump has done] would disqualify him to be on our school board, or the mayor, or on the council, but yet he’s the President of the United States.”
Some protesters expressed concern for LGBTQ+ rights under the Trump administration. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
A Windom resident who identified himself as a transgender disabled person and preferred to go by his first name, Colby, said he was excited to spend his birthday, in his words, “standing up for trans rights, disabled rights, and human rights in general.”
Disability rights were also a concern for a St. James resident who works in home care and has a mother who is paraplegic. Preferring to remain anonymous, the resident expressed frustration with skyrocketing healthcare costs under the Trump administration. “It’s just crazy how much things cost when it should be basic.”
Underlying all of the specific concerns was a general concern over what protesters perceived to be an erosion of civil rights and trend toward authoritarianism under Trump.
Steve Otto, right, protesting in St. James. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
“[Trump]’s not fit to be President of the United States,” said St. James protester Steve Otto. “He’s tearing us apart.”
Chanting ‘No Kings’ in a Red County
Across the street from ‘No Kings’ protesters in Windom, counterprotesters posted up next to a pickup truck with ‘F— Biden’ and ‘Trump’ flags, while another truck drove in circles around the protest with a ‘Trump 2020’ flag flying out the back. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
The country’s divisions were palpable in Windom. Counterprotesters across the street and across the political aisle revved their engines and gave middle fingers. ‘No Kings’ protesters responded with smiles and waves.
No one on the ‘No Kings’ side of the street seemed particularly surprised or daunted by their neighbors. “It’s such a deep red county,” said Renee. At one point, counterprotesters had been standing in front of her house.
Renee said Trump has divided the town over the past ten years since he was first elected. On the bright side, she said, “We finally get to know the depths of our neighbors. And it’s okay to really know each other instead of putting on a facade all the time.”
A ‘No Kings’ protester stands across the street from counterprotesters in Windom. (Photo by Betsy Froiland / The Daily Yonder)
Loren Liepold, who organized the protest in Windom, emphasized that the counterprotesters had a right to be there too. Protester Carmen Brosey said, “they’re going to think what they’re going to think.”
St. James organizer Sandy Sunde said she knows not everyone in St. James would support the protest. “We want people to know that it’s okay,” Sunde said.
But for each engine rev from a counterprotester, there was a supportive honk from a car or semi-truck rolling by, and then some. After one particularly long honk, Allison Lamminen pointed to the street and said, “even in a place like Faribault, there is so much support.”
Dale Smith was heartened to see the turnout. “Up until now I felt alone,” Smith said. Looking around at protesters, he smiled and said, “Now I don’t.”
The post ‘No Kings 3’ Highlights What’s Changed in Rural Minnesota appeared first on The Daily Yonder.
