Two masked men could be seen behind the tinted windows of the SUV. The vehicle, parked on a small residential street in Minneapolis-Saint Paul on Friday, January 16, belonged to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal immigration police known by its acronym ICE. Then the commotion began: despite the bitter cold and heavy, falling snow, neighbors came out of their homes, pointed the vehicle out to passersby, and shouted at the officers inside: "Get the hell out of here, you bunch of Nazis." A woman parked her car across the street to block their exit for several minutes. "They're targeting a family that lives in the neighborhood," another neighbor said.
Word spread through the many messaging groups dedicated to monitoring the activities of ICE that have sprung up across Minnesota in recent days. More residents arrived, armed with whistles. Inside one of the vehicles, an agent took photos of those present. Another made an obscene gesture with his canister of tear gas. The standoff lasted two hours. The agents eventually left.
Such has been everyday life in Minneapolis and neighboring Saint Paul since December 2025, when the Twin Cities began living under Operation Metro Surge, the deployment of 2,000 federal immigration officers. Since the death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother shot dead at the wheel of her car by ICE officer Jonathan Ross on January 7, something new has been taking shape in the frozen air of Minnesota. Residents have been organizing, protesting, tracking the officers and resisting with whistles. Reporters from media across the country are there, driving around the streets, on the lookout for ongoing operations.
The video of Good's death, which more than 80% of Americans have seen, proved to be a turning point. The public has not been convinced by the administration's attempt to portray the mother as a "domestic terrorist" who allegedly tried to run over the officer with her car: 53% of people surveyed by YouGov believed the shooting was not justified, compared to 28% who approved of it.
I'm not shocked.
Minnesotans have the highest voter turnout, have the second hours per capita of volunteers, has a rich history of immigration, and in general neighborhoods, churches, and other 'third places' are both welcoming and tight knit.
Hell there was a massive "socialist" co-op movement here in the 70s and 80s that had a huge and lasting impression on our politics.
Even our conservatives in the past tended to be the 'libertarian' type of conservatives, though of course the national circus has been having an influence since around 2015.
But even to this day polls show that identity politics don't play as well in Minnesota as they appear to on the national stage. People don't care about what happens in your home (perhaps to a fault), but if you visibly contribute to the community even in a small way (shoveling snow for or with a neighbor is the very true trope), you become one of us.
The massive protests following George Floyd's death proved that Minnesota is a place where normal people will take real political action when they are pushed.
All this in mind, I think ICE was always going to fail here. But the death of Renee Nicole Good has dumped gasoline onto the fire and is turning what would have been a quiet failure they would have just stopped talking about nationally into an explosive situation.
I don't know where this ends. I don't want Minnesota to bleed any more then it already has, but I know we will stand firm.