LISTEN: Cheryl Rostad and Ivan Thompson’s conversation with The Flag’s Scott Hennen
FARGO, N.D. – People in Fargo-Moorhead are knitting red hats to show their opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Norwegians made red hats in 1941 to protest Nazi occupation during World War II. They were banned by the Nazis the next year.
On The Flag, Cheryl Rostad, who’s made the hats, called the way ICE is handling its immigration enforcement in many places, including the Twin Cities, an “authoritarian occupation.” She doesn’t believe comparing the Nazis’ massacre of Jews and what ICE is doing to people now is too harsh.
“They’re rounding up people, they are taking them from their homes and they are sending them places that their families don’t even know where they’re going without due process,” Rostad said.
Rostad explained if those being arrested by ice have committed a crime, such as rape or murder, they deserve to be deported.
Ivan Thompson, who’s part of the red hat movement, believes the hats show people of color they have allies.
“It signifies that it’s not just small people being affected, a certain demographic being affected. We still want to show people that we are uniting, we are believing in each other,” Thompson said.
