Prof. Ana Pottratz Acosta Quoted in Star Tribune Op-Ed About Conditions at Whipple Building

Professor Ana Pottratz Acosta, visiting assistant professor and director of the the Immigration & Human Rights Clinic of the James H. Binger Center for New Americans, was quoted in a Minnesota Star Tribune op-ed discussing the conditions at the Whipple Federal Building where many Minnesotans swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Operation Metro Surge are or have been detained. Many have called the conditions “inhumane.” Prof. Pottratz Acosta said the building, “is being used for a purpose that it was never intended for. ... If you’re angry about this,” she advised, people should call congressional representatives who are currently debating Department of Homeland Security funding. Ultimately, she added, “the only solution is to vote.” She said that in interviews with international journalists covering the ICE crisis, their “universal reaction to what’s happening in Minneapolis is they’re all horrified and cannot believe this is happening in the United States. It’s quite shocking to actually witness it come to pass. And it’s especially hard because I’m from Minnesota, because it’s not just happening in my country, it’s happening in my home.”