Demonstrators with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee gathered at the State Capitol Tuesday to unveil a massive 11,000 patch quilt made in protest against ICE.
Crafted from contributed fabric squares, project leaders explained that the blanket was created to spotlight ongoing local detentions and to pressure Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to sign an executive order restricting sheriff departments from collaborating with federal immigration officers.
MIRAC’s Owen Lubozynski came up with the idea for the quilt.
"I really just wanted to make it visible that people are still being taken," Lubozynski explained. "You know, unique precious lives are still being destroyed by this, and so I was looking for a way to represent that."
Organizers say they plan to deliver petition signatures to state offices next to see if state leadership will implement policy changes in response to their community demands.
Mary Vanderford is Treasurer of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee and said some of the squares came from other states from across the country.
"Some of them were done by children at school, after school programs," Vanderford says. "So you'd have to look at it carefully to see those, but 'no stolen neighbors,' 'ICE out,' things like that."
Demonstrators with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee gathered at the State Capitol Tuesday to unveil a to a massive 11,000 patch quilt made in protest against ICE.
(Audacy / Taylor Rivera)
