As Portsmouth, Tiverton and Little Compton State Representative Michelle McGaw sat down for breakfast at the High Hat restaurant in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. Friday morning, a waitress overheard her and a colleague discussing the region’s political and social turmoil, walked over and burst into tears.

“She wanted to tell her story,” said McGaw, a Democrat who with two Rhode Island senators traveled to Minnesota last week to represent the Ocean State in a 27-state legislative discussion on the federal government’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) presence in Minnesota, and how other states might learn from what is happening there.

“They want so much to know that people are seeing what is going on and are hearing about what is happening,” McGaw said. “They’re all just so raw. They take one gut punch after another, day after day. And having been doing so for so long, when someone asks them how they are doing it’s very emotional.”

Listening and learning

Friday’s breakfast was less than a week removed from the Saturday, Jan. 24 death of nurse Alex Pretti, 37, a United States veteran shot multiple times by ICE agents. And it fell just over three weeks since the death of Renée Good, also 37, who was shot  by an agent.

McGaw and state senators Tiara Mack (Providence) and Meghan Kallman (Pawtucket and Proidence) left for Minneapolis Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the invitation of State Futures, a non-profit policy organization that seeks to empower state-level action and “values-aligned” public policy through the sharing of information, model legislation and collective action that together can accomplish what “no single state could achieve alone,” its website states.

Over two days in Minneapolis, McGaw met with lawmakers, visited the state Senate building and spoke to dozens of locals in organized and impromptu meetings. And she learned how regular citizens are helping each other.

What she saw and heard was both heart-breaking and inspiring, she said: a Somali Lyft driver who told her he never leaves home without his United States passport and other immigration paperwork; members of the southeast Asian community who cooked dinner for legislators and spoke of the fear they feel every time they go out in public; and community organizers who are using tactics developed by World War II partisans, to resist.

At a record store, T-shirts  were being sold to help provide food to residents who don't want to leave their homes. At the Needle and Skein yarn shop, she learned about  new interest in the ‘red hats’ worn by Scandinavian freedom fighters in World War II. The pattern for those hats is being reproduced and sold to support the immigrant community, and employees told her they were sold out of red yarn and were having trouble getting more from distributors.

Despite much of the rhetoric, McGaw said, she heard from multiple Minnesotans that they “aren’t out there because they don’t want ICE keeping their community safe from rapists and murderers,” she said. “They’re out there because the tactics that are being taken by the federal government are making the good people of Minnesota, the law-abiding people, feel unsafe.”

At home, it’s simple

McGaw returned Friday evening both exhausted and hopeful, she said.

On the legislative side, she learned about policies that if enacted by states can help protect residents from federal overreach, something Rhode Island lawmakers are already considering. A bill being drafted by Rhode Island Rep. Brandon Potter (Cranston) “would allow for local citizens to hold accountable federal agents if they violate Constitutional law. Right now, agents have absolute immunity (but) we need to amend that because if they’re violating constitutional rights, they should not have immunity.”

And while there are others, she said her talks with Minnesotans convinced her that the most powerful  agent for change starts next door.

“People need to know who their neighbors are and watch out for them. I strongly encourage people to get to know their neighbors better.”

She is already seeing that happen in the Portsmouth and Sakonnet areas, she said.

“People are creating text and messaging groups where they get alerts if something is happening, and they’re organizing to keep each other informed. They’re speaking out about the injustices they see and they’re active,” McGaw said.

“Join together, be kind to neighbors and help them when they need help. That’s my key message.”