Melting ICE: The Climate Movement Defends Democracy
A Matter of Degrees
Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Back in December, the Trump administration sent thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Minnesota. They terrorized communities, took people from their homes, and murdered two American citizens. Climate groups helped lead the resistance.
In this episode of A Matter of Degrees, a city stands up to state violence. We bring on Aru Shiney-Ajay, the executive director of the Sunrise Movement, to tell us about leading on the frontlines in Minneapolis. Then we talk to Ben Passer, the McKnight Foundation's Midwest Climate Director, about how preserving democracy is key to climate action. Finally, we chat with Emily Atkin, founder and Editor-in-Chief of HEATED, on the connection between ICE violence and fossil fuels.
Resources mentioned in the episode:
- Read I don't know how to do this and Actually, I do know how to do this by Emily Atkin, and her newsletter, HEATED
- Read Ben Passer's essay in Atmos, Lessons from Minnesota: To Preserve Our Planet, We Must Also Preserve Our Democracy
- Learn more about Minnesota's 100% clean electricity standard in our previous episode, Minnesota's Climate Breakthrough
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | USA, no ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA, no ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA, no ICE. |
| 0:11.0 | Every other people are here, we're up there, every person, welcome you're happy, |
| 0:17.0 | people are here, We are here today. |
| 0:21.6 | We are here today. |
| 0:23.6 | At the Hillton Garden of Hate. |
| 0:25.6 | At the Hillen Garden in. |
| 0:27.6 | We don't need us. |
| 0:30.6 | We don't need us. |
| 0:31.6 | We are going to kill innocent people and disappearing people on the street. And corporations like Helton. |
| 0:39.3 | We were going to get us. |
| 0:49.3 | We started doing these noise demonstrations as soon as ice started to surge its presence in Minneapolis. |
| 0:57.0 | That was in December. |
| 0:59.0 | We would research where our ice agents were staying and we'd show up in the middle of the night, often with only 10 or 15 of us. |
| 1:06.0 | And you just go there and like sometimes people bring like a drum set or like a tubo and play bad |
| 1:12.7 | like it's like a cacophony of music and whistles and like banging pots and pans and whatever |
| 1:18.8 | other noise you can manage to make and it's kind of awesome it feels really cathartic and really |
| 1:24.2 | effective at once that's a rue shiny Shini Ajay, a Minneapolis resident |
| 1:29.9 | and the executive director of the Sunrise Movement. |
| 1:33.2 | You've probably heard of Sunrise as a youth climate organization, |
| 1:37.1 | the one that kicked off the Green New Deal back in 2018. |
| 1:40.6 | But they've also become a leader |
| 1:42.5 | in the resistance to authoritarianism in this country. |
... |
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