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This past winter, we saw firsthand the horrific violations under Operation Metro Surge, an unprecedented federal immigration enforcement effort that impacted communities across Minnesota. There were widespread arrests, aggressive tactics, and massive disruptions to daily life and community trust, building on a long pattern of violence and abuse against immigrants and people of color.

Women were not exempt.

ICE has been present outside of Planned Parenthoods and hospitals, impeding women's access to health care.

In detention, migrant women reported denial of medical care during pregnancies and threats to separate them from their children.

Migrant women have reported sexual assault, intimidation and harassment in detention. There are reports that authorities have groped women during searches, watched them while showering or dressing, and forced women to have sex for money, goods, or promises of help with their immigration cases.

Women protestors are also vulnerable to violence at the hands of these state actors. ICE agents have shot and attacked women protestors, using sexist and misogynistic language. The killing of Renée Good, an unarmed legal observer, is emblematic of a broader pattern of targeting by ICE agents that disproportionately affects women and LGBTIQ+ people.

This violence against women is not something that surfaces only in times of conflict and human rights violations but is a part of the longstanding, historical legacy of discrimination against women. In times of chaos or massive human rights violations, the violence women experience does not arise solely out of those emerging conditions. To quote Rehn and Sirleaf, "it is directly related to the violence that exists in women's lives during peacetime. Throughout the world, women experience violence because they are women, and often because they do not have the same rights or autonomy that men do."

Yet despite this legacy of discrimination, women have risen-as they always do-to the forefront of activism. Let's take a look back in history:

1848: The Suffragette movement in New York takes off;

1851: Sojourner Truth demands inclusion with her speech "Aint I a Woman?

1929: Nigerian women protest unfair market taxes against them - getting the government to withdraw the proposed tax;

1945: Irish laundresses strike to call for better work conditions and wages - reaching victory for their demands;

2022: Ukrainian women coordinate to record war crimes with their phones for prosecution.

When you look at this activism-who do you see at the forefront? Women. Minnesota is no exception. ICE agents are predominantly men, while women are at the forefront of resistance.

We see women across the spectrum leading resistance efforts: women running food distribution networks, coordinating with schools for student drop offs and family preparedness kits, women-influencers pivoting their social media platforms to activism, coordinating donations and fundraising - we have seen firsthand the central role that women play in resistance and activism.

We will be documenting these tactics as the operating partner of the Governor's Truth Council to create a public record of the harm AND the resilience of Minnesotans across the state under Operations Metro Surge and PARRIS.

Within this effort, we will investigate women's rights violations and women-led activism through a gendered lens-creating a historical record of what happened in our state and advancing recommendations for change.