Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh discussed a plan during a podcast interview involving coordination between city leadership and community-based organizations to ensure elected officials and neighborhood groups are informed before potential immigration enforcement activity.
Fateh, a Minnesota state senator and self-described democratic socialist now running for mayor of Minneapolis, said during a podcast interview:
We need to strengthen our separation ordinance. We need to have better communication between the mayor and the chief, and also the city council members, so that whenever we know something is coming down the pike, the city council is alerted immediately because they’re the connection point to the community, and they can articulate that and disseminate that information to folks.
We really have to work really hard to better work with some of those boots-on-the-ground organizations that I just spoke about right now that are already providing the “Know Your Rights” training, legal counseling, multilingual services. They’re the ones that are finding out a lot of times what’s happening on the ground.
Because the city cannot do it alone, and we need to lock arms not just cross-jurisdictionally but with these organizations as well, because things are scary, and it’s going to get scarier as well.
According to a mayor’s update from Jacob Frey, the separation ordinance is described as: “City employees — including police officers and firefighters — are prohibited from participating in civil immigration enforcement.”
Fateh is running on a platform that includes limiting police power, increasing non-police emergency response services, opposing cooperation between the Minneapolis Police Department and ICE, expanding funding for immigrant rights initiatives, and implementing carbon fees approved by the City Council. He previously supported legislation to provide taxpayer-funded college tuition to households earning under $80,000 per year, regardless of immigration status. He accused Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) of “white supremacy” for opposing taxpayer-funded tuition for illegal aliens, and labeled the U.S. policing system “systemically white supremacist.”
Breitbart News has also reported that Fateh opened his campaign office as a support hub during the 2020 George Floyd riots, returned thousands in campaign donations tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme after donors were identified in FBI warrants, pushed Amazon on mandatory prayer breaks for Muslim workers, supported banning tear gas and rubber bullets, cast an “uncommitted” vote in Minnesota’s 2024 Super Tuesday primary over the Biden administration’s Israel policy, and advocated raising the Minneapolis minimum wage to $20 per hour by 2028.
Fateh received the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s endorsement for mayor in July 2025, but the endorsement was later revoked by the DFL’s Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee following verification of voting errors at the convention. Fateh criticized that decision and urged supporters to continue engaging in his campaign. He has drawn support from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in recent months.
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