It Could Happen Here – Minneapolis' Anti-ICE Rent Strike

Host: Mia Wong (Cool Zone Media)
Guest: Tara Raghavir, Director of the Tenant Union Federation
Date: February 23, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the unprecedented tenant organizing effort underway in Minneapolis, where a city-wide rent strike is being organized in direct response to an ongoing federal ICE occupation. Host Mia Wong speaks with Tara Raghavir—reporting live from the Twin Cities—about the rapid emergence of tenant power, alliances with labor, and the realities and demands facing tenants under occupation. The episode explores both the acute crisis and the new possibilities for long-term change, emphasizing solidarity and disciplined organizing as a model for social transformation.

Key Discussion Points

1. Context: How Did We Get Here?

• Crisis Conditions:

  • The rent is unaffordable everywhere—“The rent is too damn high.” (01:36, Tara)
  • Tenants across the country, not just in urban centers, increasingly find themselves with nowhere left to go as they are priced out of successive cities and towns: “When you get priced out of Raytown, Missouri, there is no place else to go.” (02:31, Tara)
  • Landlords of last resort exploit desperate conditions, providing worse housing at ever-higher prices.

• Pre-Occupation Organizing:

  • Years of tenant organizing, especially by groups such as Inquilino Sunidos and other neighborhood and building-based efforts, laid the groundwork.
  • The federal occupation and ICE’s presence radicalized organizing and mutual aid, accelerating “spontaneous” union-building: “Every building has a group chat right now...mutual aid to take care of their neighbors.” (03:30, Tara)
  • The formal Tenant Union for the Twin Cities assembled in only four and a half days—a process that “might have otherwise taken months.” (04:23, Tara)

2. Unprecedented Labor–Tenant Solidarity

• Historical Collaboration:

  • Minnesota’s unique history of cooperation between labor and community organizations set the stage for swift, unified action.
  • Labor leaders actively welcome community organizers into daily “war room” planning, a dynamic rarely seen elsewhere: “Labor leadership...is not only aware of that, but pulling them into these kinds of war rooms.” (08:24, Tara)

• Why Was Labor So Eager to Join?

  • Many union members are themselves facing March eviction and unaffordable rent:
    “Local 26 has 200 members that cannot make the rent on March 1st.” (16:24, Tara)
  • The crisis feels urgent and personal, catalyzing labor to risk a shared strike and call for “additional leverage.”
  • Quoting Mia: “How fast this came together is astonishing. The willingness and speed with which labor is mobilizing is astonishing. This is really fucking cool.” (09:53, Mia)

3. The Rent Strike: Demands and Strategy

Main Demands (10:40, Tara)

1. ICE Out:

   • Challenge ICE’s claim the occupation is for “economic recovery”—prove the real economic devastation.
   • “ICE has devastated the economy...what actual economic disruption looks like if tenants exercise their economic power.”

2. Eviction Moratorium:

   • Stop all evictions during and after federal occupation.
   • “Eviction court is running as normal during a time where there are 3,000 federal agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

3. Real Rent Relief:

   • Not just a bailout for landlords, but meaningful, accessible funds for tenants—attach higher standards of tenant protection to any assistance.

• Moderate and Familiar Demands:
  • Modeled on pandemic-era rent and eviction policies; organizers are “borrowing and stealing from our past selves,” leveraging lessons from COVID-19 organizing. (13:21, Tara)

4. The Scale and Severity of Crisis

• Economic Devastation:

  • “Conservative estimates show over $47 million in lost wages among people who have not been safe to go to work in the last three months.” (15:27, Tara)
  • Organizers emphasize that $47 million is for the community, not from corporations: “It’s not $47 million coming from Google. It’s $47 million coming from people like you. And that is an unfathomable humanitarian crisis.” (17:35, Mia)

• Impact of Mutual Aid:

  • Communities have mustered mutual aid on an impressive scale ($6 million raised), but this is dwarfed by total need—“we cannot GoFundMe our way out.” (16:56, Tara)
  • State intervention is required for lasting relief.

5. Unconscionable Conditions and State Violence

• Evictions as Violence:

  • February/March evictions in Minnesota endanger lives: “We’re sending a bunch of people out into whether that will kill them and then also just into the arms of a federal occupation...it’s like evicting people into the hands of the Gestapo.” (19:24, Mia)

• Mundane, Systemic Cruelty:

  • Everyday evictions are “so boring, so bureaucratic, so taken for granted that the state treats us like this.” (20:49, Tara)
  • “Every eviction is an act of violence. The normalcy and mundanity of that violence...is practiced every day and in front of our eyes right now.” (20:49, Tara)

• Will the Movement Endure Post-Occupation?

  • Tara expresses a rare optimism: “I have more faith than I’ve ever had in my life that the people of the Twin Cities...are showing up and will continue to show up even after...the agents are gone.” (22:09, Tara)

6. Lessons, Possibilities, and the Work Ahead

• Avoiding the Fade of Prior Movements:

  • Learning how to maintain the rupture into lasting change: “The ability to turn the rupture in these moments of crisis into an actual change...is the thing that we failed to do after 2020.” (22:42, Mia)

• How Listeners Can Support:

  • Phonebanks are open through March 1st at twincitiestenants.org
  • Tenants everywhere encouraged to organize and learn via Federation’s union school (virtual training upcoming).
  • Stay connected via social media for updates and models of discipline and strategy: “This is not a vibes-based organizing drive...we mean that shit.” (24:22, Tara)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The rent is too damn high. People cannot afford the rent in any corner of the country.”
  — Tara Raghavir (01:36)

• “When you get priced out of Raytown, Missouri, there is no place else to go.”
  — Tara Raghavir (02:31)

• “Every building has a group chat right now. Every building has someone distributing whistles and zines so that people get information about how to spot ICE.”
  — Tara Raghavir (03:30)

• “A process that might have otherwise taken months to align all the various entities organizing tenants in the Twin Cities took a matter of four and a half days.”
  — Tara Raghavir (04:23)

• “Local 26 has 200 members that cannot make the rent on March 1st.”
  — Tara Raghavir (16:24)

• “This is not a vibes-based organizing drive…we mean that shit.”
  — Tara Raghavir (24:22)

• “You too can do tenants organizing, and you too can do incredible things when the moment calls for it.”
  — Mia Wong (25:23)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:43 – Tara Raghavir introduces pre-crisis tenant conditions
• 03:30 – Mutual aid and ICE-specific community defense
• 04:23 – Rapid formation of citywide union
• 06:53 – Labor–community coalition background
• 10:40 – Strike demands (ICE out, eviction moratorium, rent relief)
• 13:21 – Crisis parallels with early pandemic years
• 15:27 – Economic impacts and scale ($47M lost wages)
• 19:24 – Human cost and violence of winter evictions
• 22:09 – Hopes for future endurance of movement
• 23:24 – How listeners nationwide can support

Concluding Message

This episode highlights a rare convergence of crisis, mass organizing, and cross-community solidarity. What’s happening in Minneapolis is “an experiment...that I personally feel extremely invested in” (Tara, 06:10), not just for its local impact but for the precedent it may set—a disciplined, collective challenge to systems of state violence and economic injustice. The hosts encourage listeners: tenant organizing is essential, needed everywhere, and possible—especially when “the moment calls for it.” (25:23, Mia)

For more or to get involved: twincitiestenants.org

(Advertisements, intro/outro, and non-content sections have been omitted for clarity and focus.)