Minnesota Interfaith Council on Immigration (ICOM)
The Minnesota Interfaith Council on Immigration (ICOM) is a left-of-center immigration advocacy group that opposes the deportation of illegal immigrants and supports efforts to end local law enforcement coordination with federal immigration authorities. The group employs far-left language, stating that the United States has a “colonial model of using stolen labor to extract wealth from the natural resources of stolen land” and “White supremacist policies that define who can be an American.” The group has benefitted from a variety of charitable fundraisers from GiveMN, a left-of-center charitable funding collective in Minnesota. 1 2 3
Contents
Background
The Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration was formed in 2009 as an informal group of immigration activists who held monthly protest vigils at a local jail that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was using as a detention facility. Since 2016, the group has held similar vigils at the federal building housing immigration courts and a regional ICE headquarters in Minneapolis. 3
The group grew in size and scope following the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President. According to the group, “people became more aware of renewed threats to immigrants, particularly asylum seekers and the undocumented in our country.” 3
In 2019, the group was formally organized as a nonprofit and was granted tax-exempt status. It raised in between $40,000 and $108,000 in revenue between 2019 and 2023. The group also started its Asylees, Immigrants, and Detainees program in 2019 which provides direct aid to illegal immigrants in detention or facing deportation hearings. 3
Antiracist Stances
The Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration published a section on its website titled “ICOM is an antiracist organization” which featured several far-left statements regarding “stolen labor” and “white supremacist policies.” The group stated, “We believe that the United States has always existed in the tension between protecting individual freedoms and a colonial model of using stolen labor to extract wealth from the natural resources of stolen land and that this struggle has been reflected in White supremacist policies that define who can be an American. Borders have been drawn to label Mexican Americans and Indigenous Americans as “illegal” aliens on land their families have occupied for generations.” 2
Activities
The Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration was among 193 left-of-center and far-left groups that called on outgoing President Joe Biden to enact several immigration policies after the 2024 election before Donald Trump’s return to office. The groups urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to close detention facilities, halt all detention expansion efforts, and release illegal immigrants from detention. 4
In 2021, the group wrote to Biden administration Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to urge immigration and Border Patrol officials to move away from contracting with hotels to provide lodging to individuals crossing the southern border and instead “invest in the creation of NGO-run post-release Border Reception and Welcome Centers, where asylum seekers can receive voluntary respite and social support services, COVID-19 testing as needed along with an orientation to the asylum system and assistance with securing safe transportation to their final destination.” 5
Financial Statistics
Total Assets
Total Revenue
Total Expenses
Revenue Detail
Expenses Detail
Grant Activity
All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:
- Total Grant Value: $47,798
- Number of Grants: 8
- Number of Funders: 4
Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years: