Good News from Minnesota

Friday, February 13, 2026

• US District Judge Nancy Brasel issued a Temporary Restraining Order calling for an immediate overhaul of detainee treatment at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building requiring ICE to provide detainees with free, unmonitored legal calls within one hour of arrival and explicitly banning transferring detainees out of state for 72 hours.

• Governor Walz sounded like the good guy dad that he is when he said yesterday, “you don’t get to come in here and break things and just leave,” as he called for the federal government to pay for the damage caused here.

• Tim also announced a $10M Relief Fund offering forgivable loans of up to $25K to businesses. This was launched alongside a new “Shop Local, Stand Together” campaign.

• A volunteer-created tracker website, a crowd-funded endeavor, played a pivotal role in ending the surge. This website tracks federal convoys in near real-time as a “civil radar” that served as community defense that can easily be replicated in other sanctuary cities.

• The principal of Liam Ramos’s school has gone way above and beyond his contracted duties as an educator. He organized his teachers and staff to pack 120 boxes of food every week and deliver them directly to families. He coordinated staff volunteers to walk kids to school so that no child walked alone, ever.

• Voices of Neighbors is a community sourced poetry anthology responding to ICE in Minnesota. Submissions are being collected through march 21 with proceeds going to Immigrant Support Organizations.

• Mancini’s Restaurant, a St. Paul business for over 70 years is hosting a pay-what-you-can Italian dinner fundraiser on February 18 at 6pm.

Keep giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜