Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Minnesota, Twin Cities Sue Trump Admin Over "Operation Metro Surge"
In a lawsuit filed Monday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul accuse the Trump administration's "Operation Metro Surge," which has flooded the state with 2,000+ ICE agents, of being "unconstitutional and unlawful."
The federal suit seeks to end the "invasion" that led to last week's killing of poet/mother Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in south Minneapolis. Among the defendants listed: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Cmdr. Greg Bovino.
Said Ellison in a press conference Monday...
We allege that the obvious targeting of Minnesota for our diversity, for our democracy and our differences of opinion with the federal government is a violation of the Constitution and of federal law. We allege that the surge's reckless impact on our schools, on our local law enforcement, is a violation of the 10th Amendment and the sovereign laws and powers of the Constitution grants to states. We allege that DHS forces use of excessive and lethal force, their warrantless racist arrests, their targeting of our courts.
“This has to stop; it just has to stop,” Ellison added.
You can read the full lawsuit here. The state of Illinois filed a separate, similar lawsuit Monday as well.
An Incomplete List of Awful ICE-Related Stuff to Know About...
- The New York Times chronicles how Somali refugees settled in Minnesota, and how the community they built here became villainized by the right. “Once I saw the video,” Minneapolis-based Somali writer Ahmed Ismail Yusuf tells the Times, referencing this lil shit’s propaganda schlock, “I was actually punched in the gut. I just knew something terrible was just on the horizon.”
- The Wall Street Journal examines how Minneapolis residents are forming organized networks of “neighbors armed with whistles and cameras” to track ICE agents.
- In this nifty thread, local author Naomi Kritzer outlines ways you can help fight the fascist army in your backyard.
- The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski documents how Tim Phillips, a Minneapolis civil rights/criminal defense lawyer, was hassled Sunday night by Target Center security over his "ICE OUT" T-shirt.
- Here, via Fox 9, are the scant details available on an apparently violent ICE raid at a St. Paul Speedway station. Wedge LIVE! posted video of the altercation, writing: “This is gruesome. That man is unconscious, needs medical attention, as they carry him off.”
- “Did you not learn from what just happened?” a menacing ICE agent asks a driver in this video, which seems to depict a murderous threat. (This apparently isn’t the first cavalier threat of that nature.) Over in Rosemount, a TikToker captures video of an ICE agent (aka “one dumbfuck cosplaying Grand Theft Auto”) wagging his gun sideways at a motorist.
- American Indians, survivors of our federal government’s genocide on the native population, can’t catch a break in 2026, with the Star Tribune’s Susan Du reporting that four members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe were recently detained by ICE.
- In this clip, Napoleonic ICE commander Gregory Bovino receives a full armed escort out of a Twin Cities Target bathroom as community members taunt him. Bovino's chud army was busy pushing over peaceful protesters earlier today.
- Appearing on the mega-popular New York Times podcast The Daily, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara called the killing of Good “predictable” and “entirely preventable.” “The number one is: You don’t place yourself in the path of the vehicle,” O'Hara explains to "HMM!"-spouting host Michael Barbaro. “That’s like traffic stop 101. You don’t do that.”
- Two crowdfunding campaigns have been launched in support of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good last week in Minneapolis. One initially referred to “anti-American traitor” “Mayor Frey (who is Jewish).” Hmm! The “Stand With Our Brave ICE Hero” GiveSendGo campaign, which is being promoted by Alpha News’ Liz Collin, has raised more than $200,000 of its $300,000 goal.
- On Monday afternoon, Border Patrol agents rampaged through Minneapolis's Lyn-Lake neighborhood with tear gas, reports Ford Fischer of News2Share.
Garbage Day Visits Minneapolis
We're big fans of independent journalist Ryan Broderick's Garbage Day publication around these parts, and, as such, we recommend reading his on-the-ground report from ICE-infested Minneapolis.
Observes Broderick...
ICE agents are, simply put, fucking clowns. According to The Atlantic, they receive 47 days of training—in honor of Trump, the 47th president, naturally. Many of them, also, can barely read or write, apparently. The ones I spent the weekend following around didn’t even have proper uniforms, with some wearing sneakers. In Minnesota. In January. These dipshits are also wearing camo in the snow.
It's a bleak and dire report, one that's bookended by references to a "slow-moving civil war" and the declaration that "we’re on our own now." Broderick touches on Groyper livestreamers, Bari Weiss’s "suffer pig" Tony Dokoupil both-sides-ing the state violence for CBS News, the allegedly literate twerp whose video sparked this madness, and, in small doses, anecdotes of optimism about watching the community push back. It's refreshing to hear from a smart, funny outsider with a point of view we suspect Racket readers will admire.
And Now, Your Moment of Zen: ICE Agent Eats Shit on Literal Ice
Well that sure was... a draining, soul-bludgeoning series of things to write about and, I'm sure, read. Let's conclude with the following viral clip of an ICE agent sprinting toward a Twin Cities snow drift and slipping—cartoon-banana-peel style—on some ice, landing hard on his stupid ass, and then jogging—real-life-loser style—straight into the shameful cabin of a Chevy Suburban as protesters laugh at and mock him.
Me, personally? I've consumed the clip at least a dozen times—if you're not laughing, you're crying, folks.
Hang it in the freaking Louvre!
