People protest against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in downtown Minneapolis, Sunday, Jan. 25. Photo by Adam Gray/AP More than a dozen Vermont faith leaders traveled to Minneapolis last week to see the impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown first-hand and bolst er the ranks of people there who have protested against the government’s actions. The group of 14 clergy were invited on the trip by local religious leaders. Some of the Vermont leaders were on their way to Minneapolis when federal agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti, according to Vermont Interfaith Action, a group that helped coordinate the visit. Pretti’s killing sparked a wave of new protests across the city two and a half weeks after agents there shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good.  A total of 3,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were operating in the city this past weekend, a force roughly five times the size of the Minneapolis Police Department, according to CBS News. A top ICE official told CBS on Sunday that federal agents had carried out about 3,400 arrests in and around the city, though did not say how many arrestees had criminal records. Trump’s crackdown in Minnesota appeared to be subsiding somewhat as of Tuesday, though, with the expected departure of Greg Bovino, the controversial commander of U.S. Border Patrol, along with some agents, according to multiple news reports. Border Patrol is the roving law enforcement arm of Customs and Border Protection. The Vermont clergy joined local organizers tracking federal immigration operations around the city and provided counseling support to those people and others watching nearby, they said. The clergy also joined an estimated tens of thousands of others marching in Friday’s “ICE Out of Minnesota” protest against Trump’s crackdown. “What we saw was a city under occupation. It was a city being occupied by the federal government — and a government that has turned violent,” said Jeannie Alexander, a reverend at EarthFire Abbey, an interfaith community in Pownal. “So, that was horrifying to see.” Alexander said it was especially concerning to see how scared some people were to leave their homes. Some organizers the clergy worked alongside were tasked with bringing food and medicine to people who didn’t want to venture out, she said. Karen Johnston, senior minister at First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, recalled hearing about a colleague’s visit to a shopping center that serves as a hub for the city’s large Somali community. The Trump administration has pointed to a sweeping fraud scandal in Minnesota that prosecutors allege largely involved Somali people as a justification for launching its immigration crackdown there at the end of last year.  “It’s a ghost town, because people cannot exercise their livelihood for fear of being abducted by ICE,” Johnston said of the complex. Several of the clergy said they also used the trip as an opportunity to learn strategies for community organizing and nonviolent resistance that would help Vermonters document and respond to federal actions if there was a large-scale immigration crackdown here.  “I know Vermont is small — and we shouldn’t think that we’re next on the list, because there are plenty of places,” Johnston said. “But, we should not think that we are going to be immune.” According to Vermont Interfaith Action, the other Vermont clergy on the trip included: Rev. Ava Bilton, First Congregational Church of Burlington, UCC Catherine Bock, Burlington Quaker Meeting House   Rev. Jessica Derise, College Street Congregational Church in Burlington Rev. Laura Engelken, former minister at Mallets Bay Congregational Church in Colchester Rabbi David Fainsilber, Jewish Community of Greater Stowe  Rev. Joan Javier-Duval, Unitarian Church of Montpelier  Rev. Becca Girrell, United Community Church, UCC in Morrisville  Rev. Elizabeth Gleich, The Congregational Church of Middlebury Rev. Debbie Ingram, a minister in the United Church of Christ  Rev. Susan McMillan, the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont  Grace Oedel of L’Chaim Collective, a statewide Jewish community Rev. James Ross, First Congregational Church of Burlington, UCC Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont clergy travel to Minneapolis to observe and protest Trump’s immigration crackdown. ...read more read less