Stand Up for Your Neighbors

Dear Neighbors,

We are a collective of neighbors, community advocates, and north Iowans. We stand in solidarity with our immigrant and refugee neighbors here in Iowa. We are heartbroken, alarmed, and angered by the continued actions of ICE in Minnesota, Iowa, and across the country. 

We are united by a commitment to human dignity and worth that we ALL share, regardless of where someone comes from, what they look like, or where they live. We are ALL neighbors here in north Iowa. Be it on Main Street and the housing market, or in our schools and churches, we ALL make up and contribute to the vibrancy of our communities.

In 2024, undocumented immigrants in Iowa contributed over $124.3 million in state and local taxes. With aging rural populations, our immigrant and refugee neighbors, undocumented and documented, are essential to the growth and economic vitality of our towns. We don’t need policy that traumatizes families and our communities; instead we need policy that creates legitimate pathways for work visas and citizenship.

We ask our fellow neighbors to reflect on who your neighbors are. We don’t all look the same, and we certainly don’t all agree on politics, religion, or farming practices, let alone sports teams, but we all live in rural Iowa and we all contribute to the character of our communities. Singling out people as different and “less than” is not who we want to be. 

As Paul Wellstone from our neighbors to the north famously said, “We all do better, when we all do better.”  

As neighbors, we are stronger together. Stand up for your neighbors and our communities. Take action. Contact our state representatives. Let them know that you are not okay with this injustice toward fellow Iowans, toward your neighbors.

Sincerely,

Members of North Iowa Food and Community Care Network: 

Jan Libbey, Kim Roberts, Nancy Strub, Kathy Deimerly, Becky Ahrendsen, JoAnne Olson, Rev. Le Anne Clausen de Montes, Luanne Krabbe, Nancy O. Huisinga, RN, Erica Lindaman, Lianne Hovden, Shannon Walker, Kathy Schnell, and Mary Beyerhelm Huey

Submitted by Jan Libbey, Kanawha