An update from Open Circle Church: Immigrants struggle to pay bills while under threat

By Janet Westenberg

This is an update from Open Circle Church of the Brethren in Burnsville, Minn., following the Jan. 30 article titled “Open Circle Congregation Mobilizes to Support Minneapolis and Surrounding Communities” (https://www.brethren.org/news/2026/open-circle-mobilizes/):

It has been in the news that “Operation Metro Surge,” as the federal administration has branded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invasion of Minnesota, as if it is a war campaign, is coming to an end. However, Minnesota community members have come together to record ICE vehicles they see in their neighborhoods and at the Whipple Building, where the federal agents are holding the people they abduct, and they have not yet seen evidence of a reduction of ICE presence.

While MPR News quoted White House “border czar” Tom Homan saying the operation will conclude [www.mprnews.org/story/2026/02/12/tom-homan-federal-immigration-operation-minnesota-news-conference], he conditioned the withdrawal upon “future cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE” and he insisted agents will remain to “investigate fraud and continue immigration enforcement.”

Minnesotans and the communities Open Circle Church serves are skeptical that ICE will be leaving them alone. Fear and mistrust are the predominant feelings of our immigrant neighbors.

While immigrants, including those with legal status and citizenship, stopped going to work and going to buy food in fear for their lives, their bills didn’t stop coming. Eviction notices skyrocketed. Can you imagine feeling the only safe place for you is your home, and then being told you must get out?

Open Circle Church rents out church space to the Spanish community Iglesia Misión Elim. This January, Iglesia Misión Elim notified us that they would not be using the space for an undetermined period because their members feared for their safety. Open Circle’s organizing team agreed to provide the church with a reprieve of several months’ rent to help them through this difficult time.

*The Open Circle Church’s community putting scripture into action. Photo courtesy of Janet Westenberg*

Open Circle has received donations for our community support efforts, and the organizing team is distributing those donations for food, essentials, rent, and bill support. The need is still great! And it will take some time before our immigrant neighbors feel it is safe to resume their lives.

These are dark times for our society, but it is not without light! Open Circle began our Feb. 15 service with these remarks:

“We meet today during challenging times.
Here in Minnesota, we have seen the strain of policies and enforcement that unsettle our communities.
Across the country, we see power used in ways that deepen fear rather than ease it.
And around the world, war continues to threaten the land itself—forests, rivers, creatures, and the people who depend on them.
And yet, even in the midst of all this, something else is happening too.
People are supporting each other quietly and consistently.
Neighbors are showing up with food, rides, advocacy, presence.
Communities are refusing to let cruelty define who we are.
There is a kind of hope that grows not from ignoring the world’s pain, but from tending to each other within it.”

Several church members have joined “Singing Resistance” church groups to sing for change and are inviting “resistance singers” to come to our church to teach us their songs.

If you are moved to donate to our “Love Thy Neighbor” efforts, you can donate on our church website www.opencirclechurch.com or send donations to Open Circle Church, 2400 Highland Drive, Burnsville, MN 55337. For any monetary donations, please note that the donations are for “Social Justice.”

— Janet Westenberg is a member of Open Circle Church.

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