SATURDAY AFTERNOON, as a raw northwest wind swept down Minnesota State Highway 60, I stood side-by-side with others at a busy intersection in the heart of downtown Faribault. I stood in solidarity over concerns about ICE enforcement locally, across the state and country. I stood in solidarity over concerns about the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7. I stood in solidarity over concerns for our democracy. And I stood in love and support of my neighbors.
Neighbors like Bashir, a long-time Faribault resident whom I met shortly after arriving at the gathering to the sound of bagpipes. My interaction with him nearly broke me emotionally after Bashir reached inside his jacket and pulled out his passport. “I carry this with me everywhere now,” he said. It’s one thing to hear and read about this in media reports. It’s quite another to meet a U.S. citizen “forced” to carry his passport by a president who has publicly stated he wants Somalis out of the country.
My humanity, my compassion, my heart and soul and spirit call upon me to support individuals like my new friend, Bashir, in this moment. My humanity also calls upon me to support the Latino and Hispanic communities who comprised the majority of the 25 or so of us gathered during the quickly-organized protest on Saturday.
Organizer Sonia mingled among us, protesting, passing out hot chocolate and later distributing educational information about Constitutional rights, alerting others to ICE’s presence and more.
ICE IN FARIBAULT
In conversations, I learned that ICE has been especially active in Faribault recently. I’d heard this previously from multiple sources. Protester Travis, who works in the school system, confirmed this, noting that student attendance is down. He watched for ICE vehicles during the rally and had every right to be worried given ICE activity along Lyndale Avenue in Faribault earlier Saturday. That resulted in multiple 911 calls, including one from a caller claiming they were “about to get shot,” according to a media release from Faribault Police Chief John Sherwin. Officers responded to ensure public safety. ICE was there. But no shooting occurred.
We are a state and community on edge following the killing of Renee Good. We are a state and community under incredible stress as the federal government relentlessly targets Minnesota and the people who call this state home. It is unfathomable to think that those of skin tones other than white must fear they will be taken by masked agents. It was not lost on me that I am (at least for now) exempt because I am white.
Another new friend, a young Hispanic woman named Christina, shared how ICE agents are patrolling the Cannon River Mobile Home Park, home to many Hispanics and Latinos. Residents are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being taken by ICE. Doesn’t matter if you are here legally or not.
OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE SUPPORT
As I stood with Bashir, Sonia, Travis, Christina, Hannah, a high school senior and a mix of multi-aged Latinos, Hispanics and white people like me, I felt empowered. Our numbers may have been small. But for a last-minute protest and the first in Faribault, turn-out was encouraging.
Even more encouraging was the overwhelmingly positive response we got from passing motorists in honks, friendly waves, thumbs up and more to counter the few middle fingers, thumbs down and venomous words spewed by one especially angry young female driver. How anyone can hold such hate toward immigrants is beyond my understanding.
I felt only love in the presence of my new friends. Many thanked me for coming. I hugged several, offered words of encouragement. Words matter. And so do actions. A Somali couple arrived to distribute hot tea. I’d been protesting for 1 ½ hours and felt chilled to the bone by the estimated zero-degree windchill. That offering of Somali tea warmed my body and my heart. As I reached for a cup of the hot beverage, I was overcome by emotion. The message I carried—“I LOVE my immigrant neighbors”—reflected back on me as I, too, felt loved in that moment.
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NOTE: I moderate all comments on this, my personal blog. I will not publish comments which express hatred or are otherwise offensive, include intentional false information and/or do not meet the standards of decency I expect here.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
“Love your neighbor,” Part I from Northfield November 17, 2025
Tags: Adan Nunez Gonzalez, Bridge Square, candlelight prayer vigil, commentary, faith, ICE detainee, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, injustice, Minnesota, neighbors, news, Northfield, prayer, Scripture, the bible
MY SUNDAY BEGAN as most Sundays do with morning worship at my church. The sermon highlighted sections of Mark 12, which includes this verse: Love your neighbor as yourself. That would theme the rest of my day.
Hours later I found myself gathered with others for the annual Rice County Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign Kickoff. Again, the focus was on neighbors, specifically helping our neighbors in need.
Shortly after that event, Randy and I were on the road to neighboring Northfield for a 5 pm candlelight prayer vigil at Bridge Square. That, too, was about loving our neighbors. This time the gathering focused on supporting the family of Adan Nunez Gonzalez, a 41-year-old father of four snatched by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at gunpoint on November 11 in a residential neighborhood of Northfield. That incident has sparked outrage in this southern Minnesota college town and beyond.
Several family members and others witnessed Nunez Gonzalez being pulled from the passenger side of a vehicle while he was arriving at a job site along Washington Street. He’s a painter, originally from Mexico, with reportedly no criminal record who has been living in the US for 11 years. The entire incident was captured on video by his teenage son, called to the scene, and has been widely-circulated on social media. Nunez Gonzalez is now being held in the Kandiyohi County Jail. That county is among eight in Minnesota assisting with various aspects of ICE enforcement efforts. My county of Rice is not among them.
HEAVY, YET HOPEFUL, HEARTS
The mood at Sunday’s prayer vigil felt heavy, yet hopeful, as some 200 of us gathered in the town square for this event organized by the Northfield faith community. As the sun set, as the nearby Cannon River roared over the dam, candles were distributed, lit and the crowd pressed together around a monument honoring Civil War soldiers. In late September, football players from Carleton College, blocks away, met here to turn the eagle atop the monument toward their college after defeating across-town rival St. Olaf College. It’s an annual celebratory tradition for the winning team.
Bridge Square has long been a community gathering spot, a place to celebrate, to peacefully protest, to meet one another for local events.
On this mid-November evening, it felt right and necessary to be here. To pray. To sing. To hear scripture quoted. To contemplate the gravity of ICE actions that have traumatized, torn families apart, instilled fear in communities across the country, raised the ire and concerns of many Americans like me who care about our neighbors and how they are being unjustly treated. Taken by armed, masked ICE agents and Border Patrol. Confined. Deported. Without due process of law.
A COMMUNITY RESPONDS
I felt the unity of a community determined to raise their voices and to take action. Northfielders have fed the family of their detained neighbor, organized activities for his children, started a GoFundMe to cover legal and other expenses, emailed support, expressed outrage and much more.
Love your neighbor as yourself was emphasized by clergy leading the vigil. One after another they stepped up to the mic, the first pastor leading us in The Lord’s Prayer. One referenced the biblical parable of the mustard seed and how we are to plant seeds of hope, faith, advocacy that will grow sturdy and strong among us. Another spoke of Jesus and his family fleeing to Egypt after his birth following threats from King Herod to find and kill all first-born males. It was fitting.
A BIBLICAL DIRECTIVE
And then there was the well-known scripture from Matthew 25 in which Jesus asks us to care for one another—when hungry or thirsty, in need of clothing, when sick and in prison. It is as strong a directive as any in the bible to love our neighbors and to show that love in kind, caring and compassionate action.
The 25-minute Sunday evening prayer vigil closed with singing of “This Little Light of Mine.” Voices rose clear and strong in the darkness, arms stretched high, each hand grasping a single candle. A light. Many candles shining lights of support, hope, protest, resistance, outrage and more in a community that cares deeply about its neighbors.
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NOTE: Please check back for a second “Love your neighbor” post, this one on the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign Kickoff. Also, note that the vigil images in this post were taken with my smartphone, thus the quality is not great compared with pix I would have taken with my 35 mm Canon. I left that at home, opting to be in the moment.
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling