While the President of the United States attempts to intimidate his way towards receiving a Nobel Peace Prize, which includes receiving an actual Nobel trophy from a Venezuelan dissident political leader currying favor with him, Minnesota continues to be recognized for its work to protect and promote democracy and human rights before, during, and after Operation Metro Surge.
As Unidos Minnesota has been at the forefront of the fight, so too have they received much of the attention from international organizations who bestow awards on individuals, organizations, and movements. This speaks to the tragedy of the Trump administration’s invasion of Minnesota with 3,000 federal agents kidnapping US citizens, disappearing legal immigrants with no criminal background, violations of due process and basic human rights with undocumented immigrants, withholding evidence of agent wrongdoing from local prosecutors, and the shooting deaths of two US citizens: Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
We spoke with Luis Argueta, communications director for Unidos MN, about how the organization is grateful for the recognition; but they want to keep its focus on the people.
“I think about the mother who went and organized a school pod to make sure that every morning there were observers showing up as kids were being dropped off,” said Argueta. “I think about the parents that stayed up and made sure that there was communication that there were people to wait for kids at the buses. We think about even the parents or grandparents that started showing up to every organizer meeting even after they were working or after they had to plan around everything else around light. There are so many people that just won’t be acknowledged.”
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Through their awards, these various organizations continue to highlight exactly what the Trump administration did and how to resist and respond to it. This includes the Kettering Foundation who will award the Twin Cities as recipients of the 2026 Kettering Democracy Prize, alongside Hong Kong political prisoner and free speech advocate Jimmy Lai.
Both Unidos MN and local collective Smitten Kitten will jointly accept the Aachen Peace Prize in Aachen, Germany, on September 1st. The award recognizes efforts to respond to state violence and militarization and in this instance through nonviolent civil resistance and grassroots solidarity.
Argueta emphasized that while recognitions like these awards matter, it’s a community working in solidarity, and not individual organizations, who make possible what these foundations want to highlight: democracy and peace.
“We understand that a lot of organizations are going to be named and a lot of different people are going to get to have their names spoken aloud from stages,” Argueta said. “But what we wanted to make sure was super clear [was] that there are so many people that actually have done the work that will probably never get to hear their name read aloud on a stage or won’t receive an award.”
German Observers Saw Operation Metro Surge For What It Was
As Trump’s invasion ramped up, Argueta spoke with a journalist from the German newspaper “Der Speigel” who traveled to Minnesota to cover the authoritarian actions.
Argueta said the journalist told him, “This is incredible in the sense that what is happening here should not be happening. When you think of America, you think about freedom, democracy, it’s a bastion around the globe. And to see what is happening here, it is a little frightening and alarming.”
Argueta learned that in Germany the education system deliberately includes curriculum to teach citizens how to identify fascist and authoritarian actions. It was through this that so many Germans recognized the truth of what was happening in Minnesota so quickly. And why their journalists would travel thousands of miles to cover it.
And traveling to Aachen, Germany is not without its difficulties. Without disclosing what, for the sake of privacy, Unidos MN is taking precautions to ensure the safety of their staff as they enter and exit the the US.
In addition to the Kettering and Aachen prizes, Unidos MN was selected, alongside La Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana, to receive the 50th annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Domestic Award from the Institute for Policy Studies on October 8 in Washington, D.C.
From Observer Training to Democracy Defense
Argueta noted that Unidos MN’s work has had to evolve from training community members how to observe federal agents and document abuses of constitutional rights to a broad defense of democracy.
“We started it out with the constitutional observer training, making sure that people had a role,” he said. “People knew what to do when federal enforcement happened here in the cities. And as we continue to evolve that work into democracy defense… at the end of the day, we’re still talking about the constitution. It’s just the many rights that we have to continue to acknowledge and defend.”
Argueta directs individuals wanting to join these efforts to Unidos MN’s website at unidos-mn.org and to the Monarca rapid response network at monarcamn.org. The Monarca Rapid Response Line operates at 612-441-2881 for witnesses to report federal immigration enforcement activities.
