Melting ICE: The Climate Movement Defends Democracy

Back in December, the Trump administration sent thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Minnesota. They terrorized communities, took people from their homes, and murdered two American citizens. Climate groups helped lead the resistance. In this episode of A Matter of Degrees , a city stands up to state violence. We bring on Aru Shiney-Ajay , the executive director of the Sunrise Movement, to tell us about leading on the frontlines in Minneapolis. Then we talk to Ben Passer , the McKnight Foundation's Midwest Climate Director, about how preserving democracy is key to climate action. Finally, we chat with Emily Atkin , founder and Editor-in-Chief of HEATED, on the connection between ICE violence and fossil fuels. Resources mentioned in the episode: Read I don't know how to do this and Actually, I do know how to do this by Emily Atkin, and her newsletter, HEATED Read Ben Passer's essay in Atmos, Lessons from Minnesota: To Preserve Our Planet, We Must Also Preserve Our Democracy Learn more about Minnesota's 100% clean electricity standard in our previous episode, Minnesota's Climate Breakthrough

You can listen to Melting ICE: The Climate Movement Defends Democracy online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Melting ICE: The Climate Movement Defends Democracy is an episode from A Matter of Degrees by Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson.

This episode is 52:23 long.

This episode was published on Feb 26, 2026.

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