Fresh back from Minneapolis: GRIID interview with Pastor Shannon Jammal-Hollemans

Editor’s Note: GRIID conducted a recent interview with Pastor Shannon Jammal-Hollemans, who spent several days in Minneapolis as part of the invite from organizers in that city to have people come there to be part of the resistance against ICE.

GRIID – What motivated you to go to Minneapolis and be part of the resistance to ICE terrorism?

I went because I am concerned for my neighbors, and my country. A group of organizers called MARCH Minnesota–which stands for Multifaith, Antiracist, Change & Healing–put out a call for clergy and faith leaders to come and stand in witness and solidarity with them in Minneapolis. They had the idea on a Thursday, put the call out the next day, and by Monday more than 650 leaders had registered to go. They had another 700 who wanted to be part of the action but who the organizers could not accommodate them.

I considered the call seriously, and I went to church that Sunday morning still on the Fence about it. But when my congregation heard I was thinking about going, they threw their full support behind me. By the end of the service they had collected more than $700 to send me to Minneapolis and they said a blessing over me to send me off.

Faith leaders have a responsibility to say what is true, especially when lies are being used to justify violence. As many of us know, it is painful to stand by and watch from a distance while this is happening, so I was so grateful to the organizers for inviting faith leaders to join them in faithful witness.

GRIID – What were some of the things happening on the ground that inspired you during the time you were in Minneapolis?

Over the course of our first day together we heard poetry, sang songs, and listened to story after story after story from those working on the ground to protect and serve those who are being impacted by violence right now. We participated in trainings to equip us for the work of faithful witness we would be doing in Minneapolis AND the trained, sustained resistance to authoritarianism we are doing in our own communities.

Minneapolis is a city that is all too familiar with violence. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 changed life there. But something we heard over and over again as we heard from those living in Minneapolis right now is “This feels different.” When the chief of police threatens to fire any officer who does not intervene when ICE is harming people, I know this is different.

I cannot get the stories that I heard in Minneapolis out of my head–the story of a mother and her two children chased by ICE officers to her home, escaping by mere seconds; or the story of a four year-old U.S. citizen, whose mother is a U.S. citizen, who has not left her home since November for fear of being kidnapped by our government because her father is not a citizen; or the story of the mother of a 3 month-old infant whose mother was kidnapped, leaving her child behind. This is horrific.

But the stories of resistance are also staying with me. Women are coming together to donate breast milk to that 3 month-old baby whose mother was kidnapped by ICE. People are mobilizing to help in any way they can–those with disabilities and confined to their homes are watching from their windows and managing communications; trained witnesses are following ICE and recording their activities for accountability; and trained citizens are organizing to are put themselves in harm’s way to protect those who are being kidnapped by our federal government.

Minneapolis showed me that effective resistance isn’t spontaneous—it’s learned, practiced, and disciplined. People don’t just show up brave. They show up prepared.

On Thursday evening, I had dinner at an immigrant-owned restaurant in Minneapolis. When talking with the server, I noticed the whistle she was wearing around her neck. Local resisters wear whistles around their necks to alert people to the presence of ICE. I shared with her why we were in town, and she got choked up. “Thank you….thank you for being here. Thank you for standing witness.”

What I saw clearly while in Minneapolis was that the actions being taken by ICE agents are not about immigration. They are about authoritarianism. They are targeting black and brown communities indiscriminately. Indigenous people with protected status are being kidnapped and held because they are standing witness and offering protection. All of us have the power to respond to this threat to our country in one way or another. Sometimes we need to lend one another the courage to do it.

GRIID – What actions did you take part in and can you describe what that (or those) actions looked like?

Our group of faith leaders and clergy divided up among several locations on Friday to take action. Some went to deliver groceries to families trapped in their homes. Others staged a sit-in at U.S. Bank where they successfully demanded to talk with the CEO to share their concerns. Another group had a “sing-in” at a local Target store to protest the ways Target has been cooperating with ICE agents in the city. And a large contingent went to the Minneapolis airport to pray in protest of the three flights a day that are leaving the city with people being kidnapped by ICE agents. One of my colleagues was among the 100 who were arrested.

I went to a local church in Minneapolis where a group of us rabbis, pastors and priests walked around the neighborhood and sang both as a way to deter the presence of ICE and let the people locked in their homes know that we were with them. As we walked, home alarms went off, and the lights on exterior cameras turned on. We know they saw us and heard us, and we lamented the fear that they live in right now.

When we were back in the church, listening to the stories of those taking immense risks to protect their neighbors, the church went on lockdown because of ICE activity several blocks away. Someone was taken, and people were harmed in the process. The church operates a free medical clinic in its basement since people are not safe going to the hospital. We sat there as the injured were treated downstairs, and the rabbis led us in saying a blessing over the people taking these risks and the people receiving treatment downstairs.

While we were in the church, a group of our clergy colleagues were traveling by bus from the site of George Floyd’s murder to the site of Renee Good’s murder. They did not notice the vehicle of ICE agents that was following them. A group of local organizers began to follow the vehicle of ICE agents, and after a while, the ICE agents abruptly stopped their vehicle, got out, and smashed the drivers side window of the vehicle carrying the organizers who were following them. This is terrorism.

Friday afternoon we were among the 50,000 people who marched through the streets of Minneapolis demanding accountability, transparency, and an end to the use of force that has already cost so many lives in Minneapolis and around the country. It was minus twelve degrees Fahrenheit but the positive energy of those of us who gathered and marched was incredible. We were a diverse group, and our coming together did not erase our diversity, but showed the power we have when diverse groups of people unite for the common good. I consider that sacred and holy work.

GRIID – What was your reaction when you heard that ICE had shot and killed Alex Pretti?

I was driving home on Saturday morning when the other clergy in my car saw on our Signal chat that Alex Pretti had been shot and killed. Because we were connected to the groups on the ground there, we heard within minutes of it happening, before local media had even caught wind of the news. And we were stunned–not surprised–but stunned, and angry. We sat in silence for a bit until I finally said the words that were running through each of our minds,“Should I turn around?”

We considered it together. We stopped for lunch with the other car of clergy we had traveled with, and we concluded that we were where we needed to be in that moment.

The organizers asked anyone who was still in the city to stay if they were able to, to serve as movement chaplains to those impacted by the murder. More than a dozen responded that they were able to stay and offer support.

GRIID – What did you learn about the power of organized resistance while in Minneapolis and what can you encourage people to do/replicate here in West Michigan?

My time in Minneapolis taught me that resisting authoritarianism requires trained, sustained resistance—grounded in truth-telling and faithful witness. Faithful witness means naming what must change, not just what we oppose. The movement in Minneapolis is absolutely breathtaking, and it is working. It is also adaptable and completely replicable in our communities.

ICE agents must be held legally accountable for their crimes. Federal funding for ICE must be cut. ICE should be investigated for human and Constitutional rights violations of Americans and our neighbors. National companies must commit to becoming 4th Amendment businesses, ceasing economic relations with ICE, and refusing ICE entry or use of their property for staging grounds.

Editor’s Note: I would encourage people in Kent County to get involved in the work of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE.