When Mennonite Action formed to oppose the U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine, they never imagined they’d soon be opposing occupation in their own backyard. As federal immigration forces descended on Minneapolis and other cities across the nation, Mennonite Action worked to defend their neighbors, oppose unjust immigration policy, and educate Anabaptist participants on the connection between Christian Zionism and Christian Nationalism.
Since establishing itself with just seven volunteers meeting virtually, Mennonite Action has grown to five paid staff members, four volunteer leadership teams with dozens of volunteer leaders, and now holds national leadership retreats annually. After its November 2024 retreat following the presidential election, the group felt that public action against new immigration enforcement would be necessary. Sarah Nahar, the staff supervisor and a member of the Mennonite Action steering committee, said the leadership team and staff worked on solidifying organizational language while remaining steadfast in their commitment to public action in support of Palestinians.
“There are deep, intertwined mechanisms of power and oppression operating in the U.S.-Israeli occupation of Palestine, and many of us in the room knew that,” Nahar said. “One of the things that we worked really hard to do in that meeting was to talk about how this wasn’t a transition or a shift.”
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Since December 2025, Mennonite Action’s organizing in Minnesota has taken on a heightened urgency as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and other immigration officials filled the state’s epicenter. The group has been taking public action in large city protests, collaborating with local activist organizations, and offering mutual aid support like food delivery and ride shares.
Rooted in Anabaptist values of nonviolent resistance against oppressive church and state institutions, Mennonite Action has been naming its opposition to Christian nationalism since its early days. While everyone at the retreat determined that anti-ICE public action would be necessary, the challenge was mobilizing their 25 chapters across the country to take up anti-ICE activism.
Jonathan Brenneman serves on the Christians for a Free Palestine national leadership team and is a member of the Mennonite Action steering committee. He said the connection between organizing for a ceasefire in Palestine and for immigrant protection in the U.S. is clear: “Christian Zionism is the foreign policy of Christian nationalism.”
Brenneman said that when he and Nahar conducted trainings for Mennonite Action in Minneapolis, participants were frequently asking about nonviolent responses to the Israeli occupation in Palestine. “It’s because they are seeing military occupation in their cities,” he said.
In January, Mennonite Action’s mass call informed its more than 600 attendees about the connection between anti-ICE activism and Palestinian liberation in the digital toolkits for its most recent action campaign: Sing Down the Doors at Target. “Palestinians in the U.S. are migrants themselves who can become ICE targets,” the resource reads. “Israeli Defense Forces and ICE and [Department of Homeland Security] collaborate strategically.”
The January mass call also allowed for Minnesota chapter leaders, organizers, and Mennonite church pastors to share about their action experiences.
Candace Lautt, the co-chair of the Mennonite Action Minnesota chapter and a member of Faith Mennonite Church, spoke about some of the activist collaborations she and other chapter organizers have been participating in.
Lautt said Mennonite Action and others from Faith Mennonite Church have been using their love of hymn-singing to collaborate regularly with Singing Resistance Twin Cities, a decentralized mass movement of singers taking nonviolent action in the face of “rising authoritarianism.”
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Before the large Operation Metro Surge protest in downtown Minneapolis on Jan. 30, organizers of the Minnesota chapter gathered for prayer and read scripture before heading to the protest. The organizers held a white flag that read, “Pray for Peace / Act for Peace,” in green letters.
“We are taking part in larger action, but we still have an identity amongst ourselves,” Lautt said.
On Feb. 7, the Minnesota chapter brought soup to over 250 protesters outside the Whipple Federal Building. The “Not on Native Land Rally” was organized by Indigenous clergy from Minneapolis.
“The rally corresponded with our values of nonviolence, so we wanted to contribute,” Lautt said.
A member of Faith Mennonite Church and participant in the Mennonite Action Minnesota chapter, whose identity Sojourners is withholding because she is a green card holder, said she is seeing ICE officers “daily” in her neighborhood not far from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Despite a regular ICE presence in her neighborhood and across the city, she is struck by the success of the “extremely decentralized” movement to protect neighbors.
She reported that at least 70 people in her neighborhood have committed to patrolling schools and providing rides to students. “I see immigrant kids getting picked up by white women, like me,” she said. “You see them getting friendlier and friendlier with each other over time.”
Andi Kuenning, a Mennonite Action Minnesota chapter participant and retired schoolteacher, has spent her days volunteering at a community food shelf. She noticed that many immigrant visitors were afraid to come in for their grocery shopping appointments. The shelf then established a food and grocery delivery service for those who need it. Kuenning also attends Faith Mennonite Church and has been giving rides to and from immigration appointments to a Honduran woman who is a fellow congregant. When the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program summoned a check-in for the woman, Kuenning, her husband, and their pastor went with her to the appointment and waited outside the ISAP building all morning until she returned.
“They have been taking people when they go in for court appearances or ISAP check-ins. So we were worried and did not want the same thing to happen to her,” Kuenning said.
To Kuenning, activism against ICE and in support of Palestine is one and the same. “Well, it is Black and Brown bodies that are being oppressed,” she said. “It’s a war against people of color.”
Other chapters of Mennonite Action across the country are also working to increase their immigrant protection work. Jonny Rashid, a pastor for West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship and part of Mennonite Action’s pastoral team, organized the Mennonite Action Philadelphia chapter rather quickly. Anabaptist war resistance and their commitment to nonviolence is what brought Rashid to the tradition. Since he began pastoring at West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship in May 2023, his sermons and Bible studies have focused on understanding how the Bible connects to today’s political issues.
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“We are doing a study of Corinthians, and the problem in Corinth is that the church is stratified by its wealthy, oppressing and dividing the church,” Rashid said. “That speaks clearly to the issues we face now.”
Rashid and others in the Philadelphia chapter have been active in No ICE Philly. Recently, the organization published a petition calling on Sheriff Rochelle Bilal of Philadelphia to take action against ICE abductions that have happened at the Philadelphia courthouse and the Criminal Justice Center, both of which are under the security of the sheriff’s office.
No ICE Philly and the Mennonite Action Philadelphia chapter also participated in the Sing Down the Doors at Target demonstration inside and outside of a Target store in South Philadelphia on Feb. 5. The protest resulted in 40 arrested protesters in Philadelphia.
Throughout February, local chapters in Virginia, Iowa, California, North Carolina, Kansas, Colorado, and Indiana have participated in the Sing Down the Doors at Target campaign. The group has launched Season Two of its podcast, Front Light. Nahar also said they are beginning to plan a divestment campaign.
“If rights don’t count right now, we are still going to be out there because testimony and witness matter,” Nahar said. “We were created to mobilize, and we are building to stay.”
Editor’s note: This article was corrected on March 16, 2026, to reflect that Mennonite Action has four leadership teams, not four volunteer leaders as originally stated.
“We are doing a study of Corinthians, and the problem in Corinth is that the church is stratified by its wealthy, oppressing and dividing the church. That speaks clearly to the issues we face now.” —Jonny Rashid
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