Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:
A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment
Immediate actions you can take
Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love
Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.
Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Skill Up resources.
The Update: The violence of the state and its various agents is not new to communities that have persevered through the criminalization of their relationships, the policing of their bodies, the inaccessibility of services and spaces, or the devastation of ecosystems their ancestors once stewarded with intention. But for some of us, the idea that the state—whether that is the government, corporate entities, or other power-wielding bodies—was never built for collective safety and care is a new and difficult lesson to learn. The murder of Alex Pretti, a civilian observer and ICU nurse, by ICE agents in Minnesota this past weekend elevated into our shared consciousness something that more of us are understanding is true—state violence has always been a feature of our society. It is its targets now that have grown.
With our attention focused on the horrifying escalation of ICE’s occupation of the Twin Cities, it is critical to our resistance, stamina, and faith to remember what it is communities have been doing to protect each other from this violence for generations. What we are witnessing in Minnesota is the tip of an infrastructural iceberg that is built on the exploitation, dehumanization, and criminalization of communities that have long found ways to create networks of care in the midst of their struggle to survive. The dots are easy to connect between the ICE occupation of Minnesota, the US government’s illegal invasion and coup in Venezuela, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and the rolling back of land protections for indigenous communities. What our heightened awareness now calls us to do is to learn from, connect to, and locally grow alternative infrastructures of care that are rooted in both the reimagining and cultivation of our collective thriving.
Take Action:
Contact your Senator and Demand they Freeze Funding for ICE
Contact your Senator and demand that they freeze funding for ICE and investigate ICE for human and Constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors. We are specifically focusing energy on Cortez Masto and Rosen (NV), Slotkin and Peters (MI), Shaheen and Hassan (NH), Ossoff and Warnock (GA) Fetterman (PA), Kelly (AZ), Whitehouse (RI), Murray and Cantwell (WA).
Take 1 Action from the ICE Out Minnesota National Call for Solidarity and then share it with 2 other people in your local network
Postcard to Protect Medication Abortion Access with NCJW
Medication abortion — safe, effective, and used in over 63% of abortion care — is under coordinated attack by those seeking to ban abortion entirely, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is poised to roll back approval of mifepristone, which would devastate access to medication abortion. Grab a postcard advocacy kit from the National Council of Jewish Women to help flood HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with postcards and reaffirm that medication abortion is safe, effective, and widely-used!
Resources:
Read about resistance to ICE:
Minneapolis: In a Show of Moral Clarity, UUs Join ‘ICE Out’ Demonstrations in Minneapolis
Maine: Clergy arrests lead to Senator Susan Collins calling on ICE to pause operations. Hundreds gather in Lewiston for 'Ice Them Out' rally and Faith leaders form a human wall to keep workers safe.
Texas: Children protest their own detention, including 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, stood up for their dignity. This is the same camp where Liam and his dad from Minnesota are being held, alongside so many others from across the nation and from many different countries. Support Texas UU Justice Ministry’s work to stop this.
Join:
Green Sanctuary 2030 Celebration
January 28, 2026 at 7:00pm - 8:30pm ET: The annual Celebration is a time for our Active Green Sanctuary Teams to come together to share what they’re working on. It’s a fast-paced, inspirational review of all the good work our congregations are doing. Come to learn how UUs are transforming our congregations through climate justice or share what your congregation is working on in your GS2030 ministry. Join the fun! — Come together for shared learning and mutual support with other UUs transforming our congregations through climate justice.
UU Solidarity Initiative Sessions
Starting February 5, 2026 at 1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET: The UU Solidarity Initiative is a nationally coordinated effort of UU and UU-adjacent organizations to provide resources and opportunities to build strong communities of solidarity with immigrant communities who are under attack. Solidarity Sessions are an opportunity for folks working for immigrant justice to connect with one another and learn about the most recent changes in immigration laws. Join us the first & third Thursdays of the month at 1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET starting February 5th.
Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 5:30pm – 7:30pm CT: Join Repro TLC for a free, virtual, trauma-informed workshop designed for healthcare providers, doulas, and reproductive justice practitioners committed to reimagining care and challenging systems of control. Grounded in Black feminist and abolitionist frameworks, this workshop will interrogate how systems of care are often weaponized as tools of surveillance and control — particularly through the criminalization of Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and disabled birthing people and families. Learn how medical institutions, under the guise of “protection,” reproduce carceral logics — calling police or child protective services, reporting undocumented patients, or pathologizing substance use and poverty, perpetuating generational trauma, family separation, and reproductive harm. Join the training on February 12 to learn how you can incorporate an abolitionist ethics into clinical, community, and institutional work.
Learn:
Side With Love's Minnesota Resource Kit: Supporting and Learning from Minneapolis
Side With Love has created a Minnesota Resource Kit to help Unitarian Universalists and allies respond with clarity, courage, and fierce love. This toolkit gathers trusted reporting, local immigrant justice organizations, organizing and spiritual resources, calls to action, trainings, and guidance for how we understand and message about this moment, including the murder of Renee Good by an ICE agent. This resource kit will be updated regularly as conditions change, new calls to action emerge, and additional resources become available. We encourage you to return often, share it widely, and stay connected.
Watch/Listen:
WATCH: Last week, more than 600 clergy answered MARCH Minnesota’s call to Minneapolis — coming together to learn, to build community, and to deepen shared responsibility. Watch this brief video to be inspired.
WATCH: Our Abundant Future: Visioning & Voicing the Joy in our Pursuit of Liberation. Revel in the queer joy at the center of the closing session of this year’s National LGBTQ+ Task Force’s Creating Change convening.
CREATE: Lean into imagination and creativity with these Immigrant Rights Coloring Pages from Minneapolis artist Ricardo Levins Morales.
LISTEN: The Anti-Authoritarian Podcast on Choosing Democracy with Daniel Hunter of Choose Democracy.
Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.