MN organization plans to launch 20 'democracy protection centers' ahead of midterms

Early voting for the November midterms begins Friday. And ahead of this year’s elections, a Minnesota organization has been working behind the scenes to build out what they’re calling a “democracy protection initiative.”

The effort evolves out of the response to this winter’s surge of federal agents.

COPAL, an organization centered on supporting Latino communities across the state, launched the Immigrant Defense Network, or IDN, last year. IDN trained some 30,000 constitutional observers to document and record interactions between ICE and Minnesotans during the surge.

Now, they’re leveraging the learnings to train “democracy protectors.”

Francisco Segovia, executive director of COPAL, shared more about the initiative on Minnesota Now.