Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota

I appreciate CNN’s Stephen Collinson’s analysis of what is currently happening in Minnesota, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in particular: “This is ruthless crackdown theater choreographed by the president. Minneapolis has become a petri dish for his hardline immigration policies, zeal for militarized law enforcement tactics and attempts to use immigration as a cudgel to crush progressive values in cities that reject his strongman leadership.”

I’m still thinking about how and when I want to share my experience of Trump’s fascist occupation of Minnesota. In the meantime, following are three on-the-ground reports from fellow Twin Cities residents.

A quick report on life in Minneapolis, especially for those of you who don’t live here. In short, things in our community are very bad, but are being met with a level of community care and resolve that is deeply inspiring.

ICE is rampaging through our communities every day, treating the community with contempt and aggression. They are stopping anyone who does not look white to them and demanding to see proof that they are citizens. They are racing through residential neighborhoods recklessly.They smashed into a car a few blocks from our kids’ school a couple days ago, and caused a car to crash in an alley two blocks from our home yesterday. They are physically attacking people, regardless of whether they’re suspected of any immigration violation. A woman in a car tried to explain that she needed to get to a doctor’s appointment on the street ICE was patrolling; they smashed her car window, cut her seat belt, and pulled her bodily from the car. They’ve shot countless rounds of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets at community members. And all of this is after they shot and killed Renee Good twelve blocks from our kids’ school. They are everywhere. We see reports of ICE attacks in South Minneapolis, in our neighborhood in Southwest, in suburbs like Richfield, and all over the metro. A family member witnessed them brutalizing someone in an inner ring suburb north of the city.

What’s inspiring is that the community is collectively linking arms and standing up to these fascists. Through all kinds of creative channels, people are organizing observers to notify residents of ICE presence, they’re coordinating meal delivery to vulnerable people, they’re raising money to support families torn apart, and they’re putting their bodies on the line. Every day I see dozens of parents standing outside all the neighborhood schools to try to protect our children, and hundreds more working to slow ICE’s assault.

This is not an incidental or minor reality. Alerts from hyper-local organizing channels pop up a hundred times an hour with people coordinating, resisting, and showing deep care for their community. It occupies close to 100% of our mental and emotional energy. And of course ICE is working to intimidate the community from supporting one another. Multiple U.S. citizens who have been detained describe being pressed to report on neighbors who are not white. Multiple observers who are following an ICE vehicle have reported that the ICE vehicle drove to the *observer’s* house and stopped, in an ominous signal that they know who the observer is and where they live.

Our family is not directly targeted and we are fine. But please use your voice, your connections, and your money to support those who are being targeted here. There is so much work to be done every day to take care of each other, and despairingly it feels like our elected officials do not have the courage to lead in this moment.

Don’t let the news cycle move on from this occupation. Don’t let anyone convince you it’s not that bad. It is that bad. And my biggest fear is that we’re at the beginning of something, not the end.

– Mike Spangenberg
via social media
January 14, 2026

This note is for those of you not in a heavily ICE-patrolled area. This inhumanity and cruelty is actually happening.

Keep in mind that I live in a fairly high-resourced, predominantly white suburb of St. Paul, and this is still our reality now. School buses in our district are being followed by ICE, and there are nearby reports of school buses being boarded by ICE agents with guns while kids are on them.

So, I have to talk to my kids about what to do, what to document, and how to keep our friends and ourselves safe if this happens on their buses.

Regular people are being stopped in Target parking lots and demanded to show their passports. The other day, ICE profiled a brown man at our local Target who then pulled out his TSA ID. No joke. A federal employee. It’s pure racism.

Folks are cancelling needed medical appointments or keeping kids home from school out of fear. People will die. Kids will fall behind. Black and brown people are afraid to leave their houses, despite being citizens or permanent residents. They can’t make it to grocery stores without feeling unsafe, so we try to find community groups to deliver groceries and help out. Community members—mamas, sisters, brothers, daddios—many U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents—are being taken and detained. This recently happened to a staff member’s wife at a nearby school. They have children. How do you explain a mom’s absence to your kids? How is kidnapping someone’s mother improving our community?

I have had conversations with my 11-year-old about what to record and document if he sees ICE approach anyone. I have described to him what our rights are. These are not conversations to have with an 11-year-old.

My 9-year-old’s tennis class was dismissed early tonight because it’s next to the federal building where ICE is headquartered, and there was fear for public safety. I had to snuggle my 9-year-old to sleep tonight because she understands enough to know that things are very wrong right now.

Our teachers have to patrol parking lots at school dismissal to ensure kids are safe. Communities are arranging systems to walk kids—even high schoolers—home from bus stops or schools. These actions create generational trauma. And this is still the beginning of this attack on our city.

It’s cruel and inhumane how people are being treated—pulling their pants down and dragging them along sidewalks, throwing them face-first into icy snow, or shooting them through a car window as they’re driving away.

No one feels safe.

Taxpayers are spending billions so good people can be harassed and taken from their families, and so kids can live in fear.

This is not okay.

This is a pledge for all of us to stand up strong for the democracy we believe in—where we appreciate the melting pot we are. Those of us who are privileged to have white skin: now is the time, if there ever was one. Show up for your neighbors.

We in the Twin Cities — we are one. They should know by now that acts of violence and humiliation against our people only fuel our unity.

If this unsettles you, it should. Do not look away. Talk about it. Share this with people who believe this “can’t be happening here.” Support local mutual-aid groups, immigrant legal defense funds, and school communities doing the work to keep families safe. And demand accountability from anyone who claims this cruelty is necessary — or normal.

When Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “To ICE: get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” he echoed a sentiment that should be shared across this nation. It is up to us to make sure that clarion call rings everywhere.

No one should feel unsafe in everyday life in America. The color of your skin or the depth of your American ancestry should not factor into whether you can move through the world without fear.

Democracy does not defend itself.

We do.

Watch out for one another.

– A resident of the Twin Cities
who wishes to remain anonymous
via social media
January 14, 2026

I need people outside of Minnesota to understand the extent of what is happening here.

We need you to fight for us.

• ICE arrested two teenagers – U.S. citizens – while they were working at Target, bringing in carts. They slammed one of them to the ground in front of the store while he sobbed. They are still being held, and families are being denied information.

• ICE agents are sitting outside stores, ignoring anyone who looks white and seizing people with brown and Black skin or who are Asian. They stopped a Native individual who showed a tribal ID – ICE didn’t even know what it was.

• An individual was detained outside Roosevelt High during dismissal. ICE used tear gas that hit the students. Two teachers were assaulted and handcuffed while doing their jobs getting kids safely to the buses.

• Many stores in Latino and Somali neighborhoods are closed because people are terrified. Or they are keeping the doors locked and only allowing customers in.

• Families are afraid to go to the grocery store. Mutual aid networks are now shopping for them and delivering food.

• Minneapolis schools are providing an online option for the next weeks to try and provide safety for their students. It's likely those most scared to come will be our immigrant children which just furthers the disparities.

• Our nervous systems are constantly on edge. I went to a Hmong restaurant last night and felt fear for the Latino and Hmong people working there, which is nothing compared to what our immigrant community members are suffering.

• A mother of three was murdered. She had a glove compartment full of stuffed animals for her six-year-old. ICE screamed – “you fucking bitch” – as he shot her in the head three times. A doctor who offered to help was refused. The National Catholic Reporter called Vance’s response to the murder of Renee Good a “moral stain on the collective witness of the Catholic faith.”

This is not an exhaustive list.

This is NOT the land of the FREE.

We are being terrorized by our own government.

And they are not stopping with Minnesota.

We have doors locked at both of my businesses 24 hours a day. We have a sign stated “All are welcome – EXCEPT ICE.”

For the human beings who voted for this administration I urge to look into your hearts and ask yourself is this consistent with your values and beliefs about our country and how we treat other human beings. This is not the Republican party you used to know, they are now monsters committing crimes against humanity.

– Laurie Schlosser
via social media
January 10, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Minneapolis Is Becoming a Critical Testing Ground for Trump’s Strongman Project – Stephen Collinson (CNN, January 16, 2026).
“Autocratic Power Grab”: Trump Threatens to Invoke Insurrection Act, Deploy Troops to Minnesota – Democracy Now! (January 16, 2026).
We Are Not Powerless to Stop ICE – But We Must Act Now – Sarah van Gelder (Common Dreams, January 16, 2026).
ICE Arresting U.S. Citizens and Using Banned Chokeholds Says ProPublica Report – Democracy Now! (January 16, 2026).
Three Children Hospitalized in Minneapolis After Family Van Hit With ICE Flash-Bangs – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).
“Get ICE Out!” Protests Intensify After Another Shooting by Federal Agent in Minneapolis – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).
Trump Threatens to Use the Insurrection Act to “Put an End” to Protests in Minneapolis – MPR News (January 15, 2026).
“Minneapolis Is the Test Case”: Trump Threatens Insurrection Act to Put Down Protests – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).
“Federal Invasion”: Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids and Arrests – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
“ICE Is Okay with Renee Good’s Killing”: Journalist Ken Klippenstein on ICE Tactics and Recruitment – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
ICE Agents Appear at Twin Cities Hospitals, Alarming Health Care Workers – Erica Zurek (MPR News, January 14, 2026).
“ICE Has Gone Rogue”: Rep. Ro Khanna Demands Accountability As New Videos Show Minneapolis Chaos – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
“Where Were You Born?”: ICE Demanding Citizens Show Their Papers in Minneapolis – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
ICE Using Private Data to Intimidate Observers and Activists – Jon Collins (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Trump Vows “Reckoning and Retribution is Coming” to Minnesota as ICE Brutality Mounts – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
Rep. Ilhan Omar Warns That Trump Aims to Provoke Enough Agitation in Minnesota So He Can Declare “Martial Law” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, January 11, 2026). More Americans Support Abolishing ICE Than Ever Before, Polling Data Shows – Chris Walker (Truthout, January 12, 2026).
The Playbook of Every Successful Nonviolent Struggle – Jamila Raqib (Waging Nonviolence, November 21, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• Why Minnesota?
• Knowing Our Rights
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• Karen Salmansohn on the “Duel Citizenship of Being Alive”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”

Images: Zeteo.