Why Minnesotans Still Haven't Backed Down From Fighting ICE

[Nevilledog]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/02/minneapolis-ice-activists-immigration-trump.html

No paywall link
https://archive.li/aitD0

“Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you guys.” The man crunches his way toward us, through this snow-covered field and past rows upon rows of identical wooden tombstones, then gestures back in the direction he came from. “I wanted to make sure you’re aware that there’s ICE right there.”

This is how it happens, I was told the day before. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moves fast in Minneapolis, the way you have to when an entire city is against you. Volunteers call in license plates to volunteers who check those plates against databases created by other volunteers. Once identified, these agents have minutes at best before residents with whistles and horns and furious loud voices gather to alert their neighbors to the threat in their midst. If you’re more than five minutes away from a sighting, odds are you’ll be too late. No, the best way to find ICE in Minneapolis is to stay in one place. Go about your day. Eventually, you’ll see them.

I am standing with two Minneapolis residents who go by Tim and Star, looking out at the Say Their Names memorial. The art installation consists of over 100 tombstones, each with identical black fists and names I remember from 2020. Philandro Castile. Ahmaud Arbery. And, of course, George Floyd, who took his final breath two blocks south of here. Minneapolis is no stranger to tragedy, or to the white-hot spotlight of international media attention, or to banding together in the face of a crisis.

“In some ways, it primed the pump,” Tim told me, referring to the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. Like everyone I spoke to, Tim and Star ascribe Minneapolis’ successful mobilization to lessons learned during that time.

“We have a lot of media coming in and asking, ‘Oh, what’s your organization? Who are you with?’ And it’s like, we don’t have an organization. We’re not with anyone,” Star told me.

“We’re just neighbors. That’s how we know each other,” Tim confirmed. “We live here.”

*snip*

[Esox Lucius]

1. Why? Cause they're still here.

Im in frony of an Enterprise with 1/2 dozen others. Just talked to the asst mananger asking them to reconsider their collaboration with nazis. Poor kid.

[Nittersing]

2. Didn't know about Enterprise.

Thanks for being out there!!

[Nevilledog]

4. Keep fighting the good fight.

[Ocelot II]

3. How can we not resist?

[sboatcar]

6. It never came into my mind to do nothing, like as soon as they showed up it was time to organize

I don't think they understood how much we stand up for our communities here.

[sboatcar]

5. We don't back down because they're here to kidnap our neighbors and hurt our community

Maybe in other places people might back down and go home after the media coverage is gone, but not here, we care about our neighbors, and a threat to one of them is a threat to us all.
And like the Salon article says, the ice guys are tracked from the moment they leave the whipple building, people take down the plates, see which way they go when they exit, and then there are people standing on corners all around town keeping an eye out, and dozens, if not hundreds of people risking their safety and risking arrest following them around in vehicles, whether its just to observe or warn people. Then anywhere they stop, a crowd of people with cameras out and whistles in hand comes running.
This is what needs to happen everywhere that ICE is going. If we can do this in the dead of winter, in subzero temperatures, anyone can do it. If they meet resistance like this everywhere, eventually they're going to run out of people willing to do it.

That all being said, I hope that one day soon I don't have to have a go bag with my bodycam, gas mask, bullhorn, and all that ready to go at a moment's notice, but until that day comes, I'm going to be ready. I hate that this is what we have to do, and I want to get a good night's sleep without being awakened by the sound of whistles indicating that they are attempting to kidnap someone in my neighborhood, but doing nothing isn't an option.