Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. He knew the gravest dangers to democracy came through normalizing cruelty, political retaliation, and abuses of power.

Today, his warning has never felt more urgent. For months, Minnesotans have faced escalating threats, intimidation, and violence from the Trump administration’s federal invasion of our communities.

As the President tries to goad our people into escalation, we’ve instead chosen peaceful protest, mutual aid, and to protect each other from the terror we’re living through at the hands of violent, masked forces.

This month, the violence turned deadly when a Department of Homeland Security agent took the life of our neighbor, Renee Nicole Good — a mother, a wife, and a U.S. citizen doing her part to fight injustice by legally observing and looking out for her neighbors.

The truth is, what’s happening to Minnesota isn’t accidental. It’s not about public safety, fraud, or even immigration enforcement. It’s the latest in a campaign of retribution by President Donald Trump towards a state that has never voted for him, with no regard for the people who live here. Trump’s own chief of staff described it as “score settling” and admitted, “when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.”

She’s right — President Trump has rarely missed an opportunity to abuse his power in service of callous retribution.

Spreading conspiracies after the tragedy of my friend Melissa Hortman’s assassination is retribution by Donald Trump.

Cutting 12,000 Minnesota families off from child care is retribution by Donald Trump.

Trying to cut Minnesota off from the SNAP, harming almost half a million people, is retribution by Donald Trump

And surging a reported 2,000 ICE agents into our neighborhoods — their self-proclaimed “largest operation ever” — is retribution by Donald Trump. Retribution that left a mother dead.

These are not only policy choices — these are deliberate acts that punish families, destabilize communities, and put lives at risk.

That’s why I am challenging Trump and Noem’s federal invasion of our state in court and fighting to protect Minnesota’s access to Medicaid, SNAP and child care from a federal government that cares only about settling scores. Minnesotans know that as long as I am their attorney general, I will never stop fighting for them.

And as we fight for our neighbors, Minnesota’s Republican elected officials have co-signed these actions. Every elected leader in Minnesota must now decide: Stand up for Minnesotans or stand with President Trump and his attacks on our neighbors, our budgets, and our values. In moments of crisis, Minnesotans have always chosen to stand up for one another. We should demand the same of our leaders.

To our friends watching around the country, know this: Trump’s assault on the American people will not stop with Minnesota. We’re the beta test for his campaign of violent retaliation against his perceived enemies.

Here’s what the rest of America can learn from us: We will not roll over. If compliance means Minnesotans losing access to child care, or the most vulnerable losing access to food, or neighbors losing their lives while standing up for each other, our answer is simple: We will not comply.

Instead, we’ll keep protesting peacefully, volunteering, donating, and protecting our neighbors from harm, no matter where they were born.

Dr. King taught us that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice, but only when we pull it. We need all hands on that arc to preserve our democracy, and recommit our nation to the goal of living up to our lofty ideals.

Democracy does not defend itself. That’s our job.

Keith Ellison has been Minnesota’s attorney general since 2019. He previously represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District from 2007 to 2019.