MN ICE Watch Jan. 26-30: Daily Updates on the Deadly Federal Occupation of Minnesota

Having trouble keeping up with the fascist Trump administration's "largest ever" wave of immigration stormtroopers that continues to terrorize Minnesota? You're not alone. The rolling updates below will provide nugget-sized intel/links/embeds amid this dizzyingly depressing news cycle, hopefully making you feel a little better-informed and/or connected to your community. As always, feel free to contribute in the comments.

FRIDAY 1.30

Tom Morello's surprise guest for this afternoon's benefit concert at First Avenue? The freaking Boss! Look for a review from Racket's Keith Harris soon.

It’s, um, less than ideal when a government begins locking up journalists. Lotta historical precedent to back that up, yet here we are: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday via Twitter that federal agents have arrested ex-CNN host Don Lemon and local independent reporter Georgia Fort, as well as Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy, "in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota."

This is of course a bullshit PR scare tactic from the Trump regime, and must be viewed as a further lurch toward full-on authoritarianism. The Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, the Minnesota Reformer, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, and the Center for Broadcast Journalism released a joint statement Friday "strongly" condemning the arrests on First Amendment grounds. (Nobody asked Racket, but, yes, co-signed with gusto.) Here’s more from the AP; here’s more directly from Fort:

It's generally annoying to hear how others are exhausted (get in line!), but we'll extend a ton of professional grace to fellow journalists, who endure the many indignities (pay, resources, threats) of this dying industry because we believe in it. And locally, here in the epicenter of Trump's immigration fury? It's a lot.

That's more or less what three local journos—Liz Sawyer (Star Tribune), Joey Peters (Sahan Journal), and Matt Sepic (MPR News)—tell Poynter in this story on journalistic fatigue. “We’ve had political assassinations. We had a multi-fatality school shooting, and now the largest immigration crackdown in American history has all happened in Minneapolis in the last eight months,” Sawyer says, possibly with a deep sigh. “So people are generally exhausted and overwhelmed both in the newsroom and in the community.”

Here’s a very long Politico story that can be distilled thusly: Vice President JD Vance, a chronically online serial liar, will repeat stuff he sees on Twitter as fact. In this instance, he apparently scrolled past a “crazy” story about 30-50 agitators that “locked” federal agents inside Minneapolis’s Darbar India Grill & Bar last week. They “were doxed and their location revealed, and the restaurant was then mobbed,” Vance explains, adding that, from what he heard, local law enforcement ignored “their pleas for help.”

But, to hear the Minneapolis Police Department tell it, “MPD monitored the situation and determined that the federal agents had sufficient resources available to manage the incident.” Darbar's manager, Balli Singh, tells Politico that Vance didn't accurately describe what happened that night. Shocker. Singh confirms that two federal agents came into the restaurant, got nervous mid-meal when folks began congregating outside, claimed they were being harassed, and then left; he reviewed the tape and found no evidence of doors being locked. (DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, herself a tremendous liar, claims Vance's account is accurate.) “They are the authority, they are the administration. They can say whatever they want," Singh says.

404 Media obtained the user guide for ELITE, a Palantir-made cyber tool ICE uses for deciding which neighborhoods to raid. The New York Times has more on the "facial recognition, social media monitoring, and other tech tools" ICE uses to hunt undocumented immigrants and stalk protesters.

Tell 'em, Jon:

A state trooper discovered an ICE agent, 31-year-old Texan Alfredo Mancillas Jr., “slumped over in the driver’s seat” of his parked car and "covered in vomit" Tuesday near St. Paul's Allianz Field. Mancillas Jr. was arrested on drunk driving charges after failing a field sobriety test, Sahan Journal reports. These goons claiming to be hunting "the worst of the worst"? They're clearly not the "best of the best."

Anti-ICE protests are planned for 19 Twin Cities Target stores, Bring Me the News reports. The locally headquartered retail giant's cowardly leadership still hasn't addressed the federal siege on our state.

CNN hosted a town hall Wednesday screamingly billed as: "STATE OF EMERGENCY: CONFRONTING THE CRISIS IN MINNESOTA." We became aware of this when Brian Evans, the press secretary for Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, tweeted: "I wonder why Elliott [Engen] hasn't posted any clips from his big CNN town hall appearance?” Rep. Engen was joined by two fellow Republican state lawmakers, Rep. Nolan West and Sen. Michael Holmstrom. It… didn’t go well for the trio of MAGA dunces!

At one point, a straight-faced Holmstrom talks about the “olive branch” President Trump has extended to Minnesota, spurring gales of laughter from attendees. “lol what a blithering idiot,” reads the top-voted YouTube comment. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Ellison also spoke at the town hall; their remarks presumably weren’t loudly mocked by the audience. (Here's a full recap from the Strib's Deena Winter.)

“It’s frightening. I understand that they’re trying to support us,” a Minneapolis hotel housekeeper tells News of the United States (NOTUS). “What can we do? Everything’s gone wrong.” Her dilemma: fearing the 20ish immigration agents staying at her hotel, but also fearing that protesters will "show up here and make a mess." NOTUS reporters visited six hotels across Minneapolis this week to hear "from those caught between their customers and protesters." Great story.

Local hip-hop star Nur-D is on a press tour to talk about being violently arrested by federal agents last weekend; see him with WCCO's Reg Chapman below. The real-life Matt Allen has hired Rodney King’s L.A.-based attorney, John Burris, to represent him a potential civil liberties lawsuit against the feds, the Strib's Chris Riemenschneider reports.

Earlier this month Fox News dissed Minnesota ICE protesters as “organized gangs of wine moms” made up of “self-important white women.” Beth Hawkins pushes back hard via The 74: These are PTA moms, and do not fuck with them. “We’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that’s hardly the actual cost to our city,” one Minneapolis mom of three tells Hawkins. “Public schools are on the front lines of everything ill facing society—and that’s no different now.”

Minnesota schools are in "crisis mode" as ICE disrupts communities and families across the state, Mara Klecker and Anthony Lonetree report for the Strib.

"Streets of Minneapolis," the banger new protest song from Bruce Springsteen, is reportedly striking fear into the heart of MAGA architect Steve Bannon. "It's kind of catchy," Bannon yielded Thursday. "Bruce is throwing down for the revolution… Going on offense, folks." Correction: Racket's turn of phrase suggests Steve Bannon has a heart—we regret the error.

Speaking of protest songs: Jim Walsh compiled 32 (!) musical examples of ICE resistance for MinnPost.

THURSDAY 1.29

Kickass quote from Mary C. Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association: "They messed with the wrong profession. You do this to one and you harm all 3 million of us across this country and we do not forget, but just be assured people, we don’t forget you." The Real News Network has more on the nation’s largest nurses union, National Nurses United, calling for the abolishment of ICE after the killing of Alex Pretti.

Shoutout to Minnesota Reformer’s Madison McVan for this ruthless recap of Thursday morning’s press conference with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who’s now in charge of Operation Metro Surge. McVan outlines the deadly and shambolic nature of the operation thus far, pokes holes in Homan’s quotes, and alludes to his reported involvement in an alleged bribery scheme. Homan—who, it must be noted, resembles a hairless, rutty, alcoholic gorilla—snuffed out hope the federal siege might soon end, telling reporters, “I’m staying ‘til the problem is gone.” And here he is whining that Minnesotans aren’t treating his gangs of masked thugs with proper respect:

More than 40 protesters were arrested Wednesday night outside of the Graduate Hotel on the University of Minnesota campus, the Minnesota Daily reports. Suspecting the hotel was housing sleepy immigration agents, the protesters banged drums and blasted airhorns; earlier in the day, one protester painted "MURDERERS SLEEP HERE" along the Graduate’s brick wall. The arrests were made by the University of Minnesota Police Department “in partnership with several local and state law enforcement agencies,” the Daily’s Tyler Church reports. 

By now, you've seen the freshly unearthed bystander video: federal agents gang tackling Alex Pretti to the ground 11 days before federal agents gang tackled, beat, shot, and killed him last weekend. A lawyer and a spokesperson representing the slain Minneapolis nurse's family confirmed the authenticity of the video to the Strib, which conducted its own forensic analysis of the footage. Before the violent assault at 36th & Park, Pretti can be seen kicking and spitting at a vehicle carrying federal agents; many online right-wingers seem to think this represents a gotcha moment that... justifies his death? Non-ghouls are more concerned the clash might've inspired the feds to vindictively track and, eventually, kill Pretti.

Indispensable independent reporter Ken Klippenstein is back with another doozy. Two senior national security officials tell Klippenstein that DHS and the FBI maintain “more than a dozen secret and obscure watchlists” to monitor anti-ICE and pro-Palestine protesters. The list codenames? They’re creepy and weird: Bluekey, Grapevine, Hummingbird, Reaper, Sandcastle, Sienna, Slipstream, and Sparta.

Apparently Gregory Bovino was once a "rising star"? That's according to this Wall Street Journal piece that goes on to explain how, after the "spiky-haired" Border Patrol commander arrived in Minnesota, his star crashed into the ground. Bye, Greg!

The Mayor Frey parody account tricked YouTuber Nick Shirley, truly one of the dumbest guys alive: 

Writing in USA Today, Minneapolis resident Patty O'Keefe provides this firsthand account of what it’s like to be abducted by federal agents and held for eight hours without any charges. It’s not an easy read.

One agent took a photo of me and showed it to the others, laughing. Another called me ugly. His colleague, apparently referring to Renee Good, said, “You guys gotta stop obstructing us – that’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.” In the presence of these masked men with weapons strapped to their bodies–men who claim to be safeguarding our cities–I felt only terrorized and vulnerable.

On my way to that cell, I passed holding cells filled with people who appeared to be of Latino and East African descent. The despondent faces and the screaming, wailing and pleading from these men, women and children – reportedly as young as five years old – will forever haunt me. But perhaps more haunting still was the sound of agents nearby laughing. Are our lives all just a joke to them?

The Department of Homeland Security is in turmoil over its violent, unpopular adventures in Minnesota, the New York Times reports. The future of the post-9/11-launched department that could and should be abolished? It's more uncertain than ever. “It appears to be chaos,” Deborah Fleischaker, an ICE official during the Biden years, tells the Times. “[Morale has] got to be hurting. They see what’s happening.” 

Look at this transition! Most Americans favor abolishing ICE, per new polling from YouGov. 

I cover comedy for Racket, and I'd never heard of Ben Bankas. Apparently he rolls with the edgy truth-tellers out of Austin, Texas, whose knuckle-dragging idea of subversive jokes usually translates as snickering the R-slur and bullying trans people. So it might not surprise you to learn that Bankas went viral for these lazy, mean, and homophobic riffs about Renee Good. The resulting backlash caused St. Paul's Camp Bar to cancel his upcoming run of shows there. It's a safety issue, club owner Bill Collins tells the PiPress, since threats, picketing, and boycotts had already begun percolating. Camp Bar might be on the hook for $18,000, Ross Raihala reports. To Bankas, we say this: good fucking riddance, loser.

MSP Mag's Madison Bloomquist talked to local artists whose work is inspiring the anti-ICE movement.

Wanna help out the Latino entrepreneurs who've cooperatively run Lake Street's Mercado Central for the past 26 years? "Most of these businesses have experienced sales reductions of more than 90%, and in many cases 100%," reads a new GoFundMe which blames—you guessed it—the current ICE terror campaign raging through our streets:

In 2020, Mercado Central suffered the consequences of the violence derived from the social unrest caused by the murder of George Floyd; today we are again victims of violence. This time in the form of violent racial profiling, that has alienated all costumer bases, not only those of Mercado Central, but also those of all the South Minneapolis area.

So far, they've managed to crowdfund $23,113 of the $500,000 goal. You can pitch in here.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Starwhals hockey club was founded five years ago to make the sport more accessible for all girls, welcoming Somali, Native American, Chinese, Karen, and Filipino skaters. Now, Olivia Hicks reports for the Strib, the Starwhal ranks are diminished as its non-white players hide from ICE. “All the kids on the ice right now are white, and this is about half of these two teams,” the club's comms director, Bria Florell, tells Hicks.  

Confirmed: Rep. Ilhan Omar was indeed trying to knock the block off the sicko who assaulted her Tuesday during a town hall on immigration. 

Jason Marisam, a constitutional law prof at St. Paul's Mitchell Hamline School of Law, confirms to the Minnesota Reformer that, yes, ICE watchers like Will Stancil are protected by the constitution. Jane Kirtley, a longtime professor of media ethics and law at the U of M Law School, agrees. “As a general proposition, reporting on things you are observing and sharing those observations is absolutely legal,” she tells reporter Brian Martucci. You'd like to be in a position where things like that don’t require expert confirmation, but here we are.

No notes on this Playboy headline about Smitten Kitten: "The Sluts Will Save Us: The Minneapolis Sex Shop Resisting ICE."

Veteran Cali punks NOFX contributed to the growing catalog of anti-ICE protest songs.

WEDNESDAY 1.28

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was attacked Tuesday during a town hall meeting on immigration by 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak. Omar, it must be said, looks like a total badass during the incident, charging at Kazmierczak with her fists after he sprayed her with an unknown brown liquid. The congresswoman kept speaking for 25 minutes after her assailant was removed. “I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win,” she later tweeted. Trump responded like a sullen, lying teen; right-wingers are already losing their minds and doxxing Kazmierczak’s children, despite the fact Kazmierczak appears to be one of them. AP News has more concrete details.

Surprise! Bruce Springsteen released a pro-Minneapolis, anti-ICE protest song Wednesday morning. “More like EAT Street band,” riffs Racket’s music critic Keith Harris. Adds contributing Racket music writer Michaelangelo Matos: “He pronounces Nicollet Avenue correctly. He goes full Dylan on some of the enunciation, obviously on purpose. I fucking love him.” 

It’s good shit, give it a spin: 

“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” the Boss says in a statement. “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free."

Rage Against the Machine guitarist/activist Tom Morello just announced a "DEFEND MINNESOTA!" benefit show schedule for this Friday at First Avenue. "If it looks like fascism, sounds like fascism, acts like fascism, dresses like fascism, talks like fascism, kills like fascism and lies like fascism, boys & girls it’s f*cking fascism," he says via a statement, adding that "100% of proceeds go to the families of those murdered by ICE in Minneapolis Renee Good and Alex Pretti." Rise Against, Al Di Meola with Ike Reilly, and a "VERY SPECIAL GUEST" will also perform. Find ticket info here.

If you've not made it over to the site of Alex Pretti's killing, here's what it looks like:

Courtesy of U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), below you'll find a devasting visual update on Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy who was abducted by federal agents last week in Columbia Heights. Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights superintendent, tells HuffPo that little Liam "is not doing great right now... he’s been ill. I’ve been told he has a fever. So I’m very, very concerned about his well-being in that facility.” The boy's mother is reportedly “incredibly distraught."

Randy Furst, a 52-year newspaperman at the Strib, simply can’t stay retired. His byline just popped up in the socialist journal Against the Current, where he tees the hell off on the Trump admin’s immigration assault in Minnesota. A great reporter, a great guy. Give him a read. 

The radicalized moms of Minneapolis are organizing against ICE, per this nice Vogue story. “You have to be good at organizing to be a mom, because you spend so much time multitasking and taking care of other people,” says one Linden Hills mom in the 400-mom LH Policy Chat, which sprang up after last year’s Annunciation shooting and continues to grow.

Remember the viral video showing Alex Pretti eulogizing a veteran? WCCO caught up with that vet's son:

CNN tracked down Stella Carlson—aka the "pink coat lady" who filmed federal agents beating, shooting, and killing Alex Pretti last week in Minneapolis. “I knew [Pretti] was gone because I watched it,” she tells anchorman Anderson Cooper. “And then they come over to try to perform some type of medical aid by ripping his clothes open with scissors, and then maneuvering his body around like a rag doll, only to discover that it could be because they wanted to count the bullet wounds to see how many they got, like he’s a deer.” Shockingly, Carlson says nobody from the federal government has reached out to hear her first-hand account of the killing.

We’ve been hard on Evan Ramstad in the recent past, but welcome to the resistance, buddy. In his latest, the Strib biz columnist demands that what’s happening inside Minneapolis’s Whipple Federal Building, which is ground zero for jailing ICE/Border Patrol abductees, must be made public. Ramstad writes…

We need to see it. For two months, the stories about the detention conditions Minnesotans faced at the Whipple Federal Building near south Minneapolis dribbled out in horrifying drops. One of the first things border czar Tom Homan should do to begin to restore trust in the federal government is open the parts of the building where people are being kept. It will probably be terrible. It will probably embarrass President Donald Trump and his administration more than they already are by the debacle of Operation Metro Surge. Still, it needs to happen

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura offers a compelling take of his own: seceding.

Working through the Minneapolis Foundation, a collection of Minnesota’s largest corporations—Target Corp., General Mills, Ecolab, etc.—revealed a grant program Tuesday intended to help small businesses struggling amid the ICE surge. The press release announcing the $3.5 million Economic Response Fund doesn’t mention a siege of federal agents, though it does allude to “today’s circumstances.” Count Sheletta Brundidge among the unimpressed. The Twin Cities media personality/podcast impresario is no stranger to challenging Minnesota's corporate giants, and she believes they could’ve collectively coughed up more than what the Vikings pay lineman Donovan Jackson each season.

"Those CEOs could take their bonus checks and donate that money to struggling entrepreneurs if they really wanna make a difference," Brundidge writes. "Their 'donation' is about as pitiful and performative as that press release they put their logos on and posted over the weekend." In response, Brundidge just launched her first-ever GoFundMe, which aims to raise $3.6 million to directly benefit small business owners. She says she’ll distribute one-time $5,000 grants to “fellow entrepreneurs” who “[do] good community work” until every dime is gone. "I am livid but I am learning," Brundidge says. "I am gonna work to raise the money for us." You can donate here.

Hell yeah Greg Ketter, longtime owner of Minneapolis's DreamHaven Books & Comics. Business is reportedly booming after his brush with viral fame.

Far-right influencers are flooding into town, and MS Now published this report on how they're "racking up tens of millions of views while fueling a White House narrative that federal immigration officers in Minneapolis were facing a violent uprising by mobs of 'domestic terrorists.'" Warning: By reading, you'll have to learn about guys named Cameron Higby, Nick Shirley, Nick Sortor, and throwback asshole James O’Keefe. Between these grifters and AI, the information ecosystem has never been so polluted.

Everybody got (justifiably) excited earlier this week when fascistic Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino got the boot. (Racket’s Jay Boller would be thrilled to stop writing these daily ICE updates.) Unfortunately, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein is urging Minnesotans to pump the brakes:

The Strib has a deeper analysis here.

Speaking of quelling any positive feelings that might bubble up: A potential government shutdown would have no impact on ICE funding or operations, NBC News reports. Its deadly, underqualified agents would be considered "excepted," meaning that’d have to show up but not be paid for it during a shutdown, just like some other federal workers. Earlier this month ICE received a $75 million "supercharge” of funds thanks to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” 

TUESDAY 1.27

While protesting about a week ago, Alex Pretti suffered a broken rib after being tackled by federal officers, sources tell CNN. A DHS memo obtained by CNN instructs agents to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” and officials “had documented details” on Pretti prior to his killing Saturday. 

Independent reporter Ken Klippenstein continues to deliver this goods, this time with a batch of interviews from “over a half dozen” (so, like, seven?) DHS officials who reached out to express their horror over the killing of Alex Pretti last week in Minneapolis. Writes Klippenstein…

They paint a picture that is more Police Academy (or even Reno 911!) than a Gestapo on the march. Yes, they agree that Washington is a huge problem and are uncomfortable with the mission creep that is taking them away from actual immigration enforcement. But internally? Theirs is also a story of gung-ho 19-year-olds, drunken stakeouts, and senior officers disappearing into meetings and all of a sudden needing time off.

“The brand new agents are idiots,” offers one experienced ICE agent.

“Lots of people are freaking out,” says another. “Agents are getting seriously paranoid, afraid of being targeted by ‘retaliators.’”

Scoop from the San Francisco Chronicle: potentially blotto Minnesota man Pete Hegseth—aka the U.S. “Secretary of War”—approved a request Monday from DHS to ready Fort Snelling for “parking approximately 300-500 vehicles and 10 storage trailers, a ready room space for approximal 500-800 CBP personnel, a space to house, maintain and operate five CBP Air Assets, access to a magazine to store munitions, and other necessary facilities to support operations in the Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan area," according to an email obtained by the Chronicle. So much for de-escalation… 

Kristen Radtke has a heartbreaker for The Verge, where she writes about her growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her childhood best friend, Alex Pretti. Have tissues ready…

“[We have] very serious concerns that [Alex] Pretti’s alleged firearm was not handled properly,” Minnesota Deputy Solicitor General Pete Farrell says via the Minnesota Reformer. Reporter Brian Martucci has more on how "nothing about what is going on here is normal" in the battle over evidence in the Pretti and Renee Good killings.

Three Star Tribune reporters—Yuqing Liu, Susan Du, and Christopher Magan—teamed up on this staggering piece of data journalism that charts the geographic flow of 250,000+ people who've been detained by ICE since last October. "In some cases, detainees without criminal records have spent months being transferred between facilities," they write above a zigzagging graphic depicting the cross-country carceral journey of a man who was detained for 107 days.

How many federal immigration agents have allegedly preyed on children? The New Republic has numbers that suggest ICE and CBP might be "riddled with accused sex criminals."

Insult to injury! The Mirror is reporting that ousted Operation Metro Surge leader Greg Bovino has been locked out of social media accounts by DHS. Examples of his past posting are as stupid as you’d expect. 

Beautiful scenes of community along Eat Street, per Sahan Journal:

Border Czar Tom Homan’s takeover of Operation Metro Surge "is not a vote of confidence for” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a White House official. The dog-killing dunce from South Dakota is firmly "in the hot seat," Politico reports.

In court documents obtained by People magazine, a 29-year-old licensed physician describes how he was "partially obstructed" by immigration officers as he pleaded to help save a dying Alex Pretti Saturday in Minneapolis; the agents "repeatedly asked" for the unnamed doctor's license before letting him through. “Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice," the doc says via court docs. "Instead of doing either of those things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds. I asked the ICE agents if the victim had a pulse, and they said they did not know.”

Now HERE's a take: "The Trump administration wants dead ICE officers," argues Ryan Cooper, senior editor at The Prospect.

WIRED reports that employees at Palantir are experiencing misgivings about working for a shadowy, ICE-enabling company that was co-founded by supervillain billionaire Peter Thiel. Company leaders recently defended their federal contracts with DHS by saying Palantir helps improve “ICE’s operational effectiveness.” I'd simply get another six-figure computer job elsewhere, personally.

"When I saw his picture, I was a mess the rest of the day," Marta Crownhart, a former patient of Alex Pretti's at the Minneapolis VA hospital, tells KARE 11. "I fell apart."

Downsides to bullying people with cars continue to emerge. Christian Salamanca is still recovering in the hospital after crashing into a St. Paul telephone pole while being chased and rear ended by ICE, KARE 11 reports. “My husband—his eye is broken, his back is broken, his knee is broken,” Nicole Salamanca says of her husband, who was attempting to commute to work at the time of the crash. 

What happens when your abduction inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building ends? That's what a new org, HavenWatch, is here to help with. “Many of them are people who were temporarily detained all day long and they were picked up either just observing, maybe protesting, they had a whistle or there’s just a lot of racial profiling," HavenWatch's Natalie Ehret tells MPR News host Nina Moini. "After some of these, I just go cry in the parking lot because it’s so devastating."

Remember that Klippenstein report way up top? Here's video proof they’re, um, not sending their best.

Perfect penultimate paragraph from Adam Serwer's "Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong" in The Atlantic…

The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

Next month Minneapolis punk/DIY venue Cloudland will be donating "100 percent of its share of ticket proceeds" to Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee, Longfellow Whatever reports. 

Cyclists will ride for Alex Pretti this Saturday in an event co-organized by Angry Catfish Bicycle, Bonesaw Cycling Collective, GenoSack, Melanin In Motion, The Price Brothers, Unsanctioned Ride, and other groups. You’re encouraged to join ‘em: 

MONDAY 1.26

Monday morning, President Trump signaled a tonal shift around Operation Metro Surge, posting to Truth Social: "Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength."

Then, this afternoon, Walz tweeted the following about his call with Trump: "The President agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and to talk to DHS about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case."

A little later, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey put out a statement about his conversation with Trump. "The president agreed that the present situation cannot continue," Frey says. "Some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go."

And just now, sources are telling CNN that Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino "and some of his agents" are expected to withdraw from Minnesota on Tuesday "and return to their respective sectors." Door, meet asses. The Trump administration was reportedly "deeply frustrated" with how Bovino and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem handled the Border Patrol killing of Minneapolis man Alex Pretti this Saturday, those same sources tell CNN; it displeased the White House when Bovino suggested Pretti was plotting a "massacre," and also when Noem labeled him a "domestic terrorist."

After spending "hours" watching TV throughout Sunday and Monday (not news), Trump was said to be "personally unhappy by how his administration was coming across" (OK, there's news). The Daily Beast has more on the brouhaha under its characteristically reserved headline: "ICE Barbie on Thin Ice With Trump and Miller Over Bovino ‘Miscalculation’."

White House border honcho Tom Homan is expected to take over ICE operations in Minnesota, while Bovino will retain his post as national commander; it must be noted that Homan also sucks. Bovino taking a hike was a “mutual decision," one official tells CNN. Whatever you gotta tell yourself, lil fella. Interestingly, three sources tell The Atlantic that "Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol 'commander at large' and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon."

Don't get too excited, though: Professional liar Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that thousands of immigration agents are still needed in Minnesota, per the Times. Still, to hear New York Magazine political columnist Ross Barkan tell it, Trump is indeed losing his "war on Minneapolis.” This Politico report echoes that take, with one "person close to the administration" stating, "It’s starting to turn against us.”

A whiplash Truth Social post from the president Monday morning. Uh, seems promising? Maybe? 

Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have “touched” and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump is losing, writes political columnist Ross Barkan via New York Magazine. We’ll take all the glimmers of hope available…

The chaos of Minneapolis, though, might start to chasten Trump, in the same way he dimly understood there was no enduring political benefit to randomly deploying National Guardsmen. This is, understandably, not all that comforting, since more bloodshed will still come. MAGA can’t actually win this fight—winning would mean building the sort of world where Americans actually yearned for their ICE agents—but it can do inordinate damage as it loses, as it fades from relevance following an inevitable midterm drubbing, straining to matter under the aegis of a reviled lame duck president. This regime is weak, any serious mandate long leaked away. The weak, however, are still dangerous. There is more darkness waiting before dawn.

Federal judges in Minnesota are fuming over the case loads created by Operation Metro Surge, Politico reports: "All but one—the Reagan-appointed Judge Paul Magnuson—have rejected the administration’s mass detention policy. And their frustrations are beginning to spill into the open more frequently."

Incredible scenes from Friday’s massive “ICE Out!” protest/general-strike-ish movement.

The Atlantic dispatched a war correspondent, Robert F. Worth, to document what’s happening in our streets. “But behind the violence in Minneapolis—captured in so many chilling photographs in recent weeks—is a different reality: a meticulous urban choreography of civic protest,” he observes. 

Listeners appear finished with KFAN DJ/Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen, who last week joked about “paid protesters” in Minnesota. Da ‘FAN’s subreddit, which for years has groaned over Allen’s increasing religiosity, is ready to boycott the station. After getting bad publicity in the PiPress, Allen said on air Monday that his paid protester line was “a misguided attempt at humor... I'm taking a few days off."

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi: We will not be extorted and blackmailed. Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz Saturday that outlined conditions that would "bring an end to chaos in Minnesota,” including handing over state voter information. "Her letter is an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law,” Simon responded Sunday. “This comes after repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data."

Minnesota Vikings Hall of Famer/former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page got mixed up in the cyclone of social media disinfo. No, he was not freezing his legendary butt off protesting ICE in this viral photo. But, yes, he understands why so many Minnesotans did just that Friday. “If the issue is immigration, you don’t need the gratuitous violence,” Page tells The Athletic. 

And now you have to hear from a far less great Minnesotan: longtime New York Times take-haver Thomas Friedman, who tediously devotes hundreds of words to a very random column that argues ICE is just like Hamas, if you really think about it. While denouncing Trump's actions and acknowledging the righteousness of our observers, Friedman also calls JD Vance "the voice of calm and reason" while reminding Minnesotans of the need to "control the border."

Elsewhere, the great Minnesota-launched writer Alex Pareene is back in Defector with: “I Have A Great Idea For Retraining ICE Agents.” Defector has deactivated its paywall for all of January, so click away.

Famed protest singer Billy Bragg wrote one for Minneapolis:

As the Trump administration’s astounding capacity for lying expands, the Minnesota Department of Corrections established a resource page for “combatting DHS misinformation.” 

The rhetorical calvary has arrived! Minnesota’s corporate community has taken lots of justified heat for its total and complete cowardice in the face of authoritarian wrath, but the C-suite big guns came out a-blazing over the weekend. “We are calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” reads a letter jointly signed by 60+ CEOs of Minnesota firms. Whoa. Trump, Noem, Bovino? Ya finished. 

In the face of so much human suffering, we still gotta think about the pets. For the Pioneer Press, Molly Guthrey reports that local pet rescue organizations are dealing with a “rolling crisis” of animals coming from people who’ve been “disappeared” by ICE. Jeanne Weigum of Pooches United with People (PUP) likens it to what the orgs deal with during hurricanes and floods.

“I feel like we’re performing CPR on what may already be a corpse, called the constitution.” Tell ‘em, random guy being interviewed by TV news Saturday along Eat Street.

The New Yorker has a lengthy profile of a mayor whose city is “at a breaking point.” There’s not a ton of new stuff to learn about Jacob Frey, for Minneapolitans at least, though it is revealed that both of his parents were professional ballet dancers—huh! 

The thugs attacked KARE 11 journalist Jana Shortal:

Progressive think tank North Star Policy Action released a study last week on how much Operation Metro Surge is costing taxpayers. About $18 million per week, its researchers found. What a country.

Stribbers Kim Hyatt and Louis Krauss chatted with munitions experts to determine how dangerous the gas and chemical canisters being indiscriminately lobbed at ICE protesters are. Come for the expert intel, stay for the nifty canister comparison graphic.

Amazing cover image on the issue of New York Magazine. Here's staffer Kerry Howley, writing long on, "Your Friendly Neighborhood Resistance: On the ground in Minneapolis, watching out for ICE at every corner, crosswalk, church, and school."

To our knowledge, Minnesota Reformer’s Max Nesterak published the first local longform account of the historic federal siege of Minnesota on Friday. Buckle up. (Nesterak will be discussing his ambitious work later this week on RacketCast.)

Oof, tough read from Sarah Lazare reporting for Jewish Currents: "Alex Pretti’s Killer May Be Part of His Union." Border Patrol agents belong to the same federal union as VA nurses, she reports, and Pretti’s colleagues are now determined to change that. "For a union member to kill another is a fundamental betrayal of what a union is supposed to be,” AFGE member Lisa Dadabo, a VA social worker from Chicago, tells Lazare.

AP reporters captured a beautiful portrait of Alex Pretti by talking to those who loved him. “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went,” says his mother, Susan Pretti. “You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”

You can look at all the minute-by-minute video analysis you’d like—federal immigration officers beat, shot, and killed Minneapolis man Alex Pretti along Nicollet Avenue this past Saturday, and the Trump administration has issued outrageous lie after outrageous lie about the killing ever since. Pretti, 37, was not a “domestic terrorist,” as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem maliciously labeled him; he wasn’t plotting to “massacre law enforcement,” as Border Patrol head Greg Bovino claimed. He’s not anything the craven MAGA propagandists say he is. He was an ICU nurse who served veterans. He was a “kindhearted” lover of the outdoors. He was a permitted firearm carrier with no criminal record. He was a brave ICE observer who, in his final seconds, aided a woman who was being physically assaulted by Border Patrol. Pretti, who leaves behind a “very angry” grieving family and city, was the best of us. History won’t forget the real Alex Pretti.