A Quaker Resisting ICE
Betsy Raasch-Gilman, a Quaker activist in Minneapolis–St. Paul, is part of a growing movement using nonviolent resistance to confront federal immigration agents. Through school patrols, rapid response networks, and direct intervention, she and others are working to protect families at risk. Guided by her faith and the belief that “God is a verb,” Betsy embodies a form of resistance rooted in spirit, courage, and community.
Transcript
Betsy
I don’t particularly want to be the next person shot by a federal agent. And it doesn’t scare me enough to make me stop. In fact, the resistance just got a whole lot stronger after each of those killings. A whole lot more people jumped on board, out of. Again. It’s this just a one, two. Wake up video. Quick video.
Right now in the Twin Cities, ICE agents, border patrol agents, FBI agents—3000 of them on our streets acting like thugs. This was an invasion. And we have been working on civilian-based defense. For two and a half months now, we have been sheltering people, supporting people who are very likely to be abducted, interrupting abductions when we see something happening, trying to get in the way and chase the agents away, which we’ve done successfully on a number of occasions.
I’m actually more interested in heightening the conflict than in de-escalating the conflict in the service of justice. When there’s an injustice, it needs to be pointed out, and that’s not comfortable. The Quaker testimony that most informs my justice-making is a testimony to equality. Quakerism is important to me in the context of a life that has been devoid of political action.
When I was in ninth grade, there was a little booklet by an American Foreign Service committee called In Place of War, and I read it from cover to cover, and I argued and argued and argued in the pages—there’s my handwriting—and it made a pacifist out of me. My lifetime partner died two weeks before the isolation began, and I jumped right into the resistance. Now, I could have—nobody would have liked me for saying this—but that’s my life. That’s what I do. So it wasn’t really a question for me of sitting this one out.
God isn’t a noun. God is a verb. We are God’s hands in the world. We are God’s voices in the world. We are God’s eyes and ears and hearts. It isn’t so much about God’s will; it’s about God’s work in the world—and am I available to do it? That came to me in worship.
Voices of our children will be our guide. They cry freedom, so now we rise. Voices—voices of my children will be our guide. They cry freedom, so now we rise. Voices for our children locked inside, we will abolish ICE. Thank you, thank you.