The armed wing of President Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian government, otherwise known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has invaded cities, towns and neighborhoods all across America. ICE seeks to terrify our neighbors, friends and family into submission. The epicenter of this invasion has been Minneapolis.
For numerous weeks, ICE has occupied the streets of Minneapolis, with its continued presence being an oppressive force haunting the city. Regardless of an individual’s legal status or lack of a criminal record, agents have consistently targeted people of color. This approach suggests that enforcement is driven more by racial profiling than by actual safety concerns.
However, in coming to Minneapolis, ICE may have gotten more than they bargained for.
Since entering the city, ICE has faced constant, spirited resistance from the people of Minneapolis, who have come out in droves to defend their neighbors. Street corners across the city are populated with ICE watch groups, keeping constant pressure on the President’s private army.
Yet, rather than attempt to de-escalate the situation or simply leave the city, ICE has chosen to pour gasoline on the fire.
During an attempted abduction, which was met with resistance, an ICE agent murdered an unarmed woman, like the cowards they are. Renee Good was on the scene filming an abduction taking place from her car, as is her constitutional right, before she was shot and killed. This execution took place mere blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered over five years ago in Minneapolis, demonstrating how little has changed in our government since that fateful day.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the people of Minneapolis began to organize.
Instead of backing down to the looming fascist threat, Minneapolis labor unions, neighborhood and mutual aid organizations, and local businesses combined to call for the first general strike the United States has seen in nearly a century.
The level of solidarity and coordination needed across an entire city to resist ICE is unprecedented in the United States. With the combined efforts of those mentioned above, alongside several local political organizations, the general strike in Minneapolis brought out an estimated attendance in the tens of thousands.
The resistance to ICE in Minneapolis these past weeks has restored a hope in the American people that I had nearly lost. Substack writer Margaret Killjoy, who’s been on the ground covering everyday resistance against ICE, has called this one of the most well-run and effective systems of community defense she has ever seen.
Not even 24 hours after a massive protest, ICE claimed the life of nurse Alex Pretti. Pretti had been constitutionally carrying a pistol holstered at his side while videotaping ICE, which the agency took as justification to pin him to the ground, disarm him and kill him.
With this newly redoubled anger, the people of Minneapolis, as well as people across the country, are ready to expand resistance nationwide. The White House has dismissed Gregory Bovino, a higher-up at ICE, from his job in order to potentially save face, though this won’t work. Antifascists of the world know that ICE, as well as this whole system, can be brought to heel by the dedicated people on the ground.
Now is the time to fight back harder.
