This past Sunday, February 15, my friend Dave and I walked along the Mississippi River from the
Franklin Avenue Bridge to the
Lake Street-Marshall Avenue Bridge. We first walked along the east bank, and then back along the river’s west bank. Midway, at Lake Street, we had a delicious lunch at
Longfellow Grill.
It was a beautiful day to be out and about. But it’s Minnesota in February, so neither of us were fooled into thinking the winter is over.
In fact, as I soaked in the sunshine, the beauty of the frozen river and blue sky, and the warmth of the air, I was reminded of a piece published Saturday by
50501: Minnesota is a non-profit dedicated to “upholding the Constitution and ending executive overreach.”
I share this piece this evening, along with some of the photos I took on Sunday when walking along the banks of the Mississippi River.
In Minnesota, we are all too familiar with false spring. You get a handful of warm days, melting snow, everyone exhales. You think maybe winter’s finally over . . . until the cold snaps back, sometimes even harder.
That’s what this moment feels like. You may hear that ICE is “leaving.” They’re not, they’re shifting, spreading out. They’re moving into suburban and rural areas with less media and thinner rapid response networks.
The quiet isn’t relief. It’s redistribution. Don’t mistake a brief thaw for safety.
Above and left: At
CorAzoN Gifts, next door to Longfellow Grill, Dave and I picked up a couple of free decals that honor
Alex Pretti and
Renée Good, two U.S. citizens shot to death by federal immigration agents last month in Minneapolis. These decals read: “Pretti Good.” Dave put his on the back of his truck once we got back to my place. I need to clean my car first before I put mine on.
___________________
Postscript: Yep, Sunday was indeed a “false spring.” Yesterday afternoon (February 18) and all through last night into today, much of Minnesota has received the
biggest dumping of snow so far this winter.
Above: During yesterday’s heavy snowfall, Micah Stewart, a volunteer caretaker and protector of the memorial for Alex Pretti, clears the street and shovels a message in the snow around the area where Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents during ICE operations on Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis. (Photo: D. Guttenfelder / New York Times)
Related Off-site Links:
Creative Dissent and Mutual Aid: Lessons From Minneapolis for Surviving the Polycrisis – Richard Heinberg (Common Dreams, February 17, 2026).
Minneapolis March Planned for Saturday to Mark Four Weeks Since Alex Pretti Killing – Riley Moser (CBS News, February 19, 2026).
Four Lessons From the Fight Against Trump and ICE in Minneapolis – Sou Mi (Left Voice, February 16, 2026).
Terrorized By ICE, Unable to Pay Rent, Minnesotans Are Getting Ready for a Rent Strike – Rebecca Burns and Sarah Lazare (In These Times, February 19, 2026).
The Sambusa Underground: How Minneapolis’s Somalis Feed Community and Resistance – Kate Nelson (The Guardian, February 18, 2026).
The Inhumane Treatment of Immigration Detainees Requires More Coverage – Dan Froomkin (Press Watch, February 18, 2026).
Courts Have Ruled 4,400 Times That ICE Jailed People Illegally. It Hasn’t Stopped – Nate Raymond, Kristina Cooke and Brad Heath (Reuters, February 17, 2026).
White House Official Says Hundreds of Federal Agents Are Leaving Minnesota, “Small” Security Force Will Remain for a Time – The Associated Press and MPR News (February 15, 2026).
What Minnesota Really Thinks of the End of Trump’s ICE Surge – Jennifer Bendery (The Huffington Post, February 13, 2026).
Above: Tipis stand at Mni Owe Sni (Coldwater Spring), a sacred site for the Dakota and other tribes, across from the Whipple Federal Building on February 10. (Photo: Kerem Yücel / MPR News)
UPDATES: Lawmakers Omar and Craig Describe Empty Whipple Detention Center; Feds Say Less Than 500 Agents Remain – Jennifer Bendery (MPR News, February 20, 2026).
Federal Judge Accuses White House of “Terror” Against Immigrants in U.S. – The Guardian (February 20, 2026).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts on the resistance to the Trump regime’s fascist occupation of Minnesota:
• Omar Fateh: Quote of the Day – December 4, 2025
• Photo of the Day – December 5, 2025
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Great Event, Great Sign, Great Nails
• Christmas Eve Musings
• May We Do Likewise
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like” – January 7, 2026
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Why Minnesota?
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”
• Knowing Our Rights
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• A “Red Alert Moment for American Democracy”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• What Moral Clarity Looks Like in Minnesota This MLK Day
• Nemik’s Eulogy for Renée Nicole Good
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “Trump Is Scared Shitless”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Craig Mokhiber on the “Imperial Boomerang”: How U.S. War Tactics Abroad Are Now Used at Home
• January Vignettes (2026)
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Memes of the Times – February 2026
• Only the Beginning
• The North Remembers
• “It’s All Lies and Propaganda”
Images: Michael J. Bayly, unless where otherwise noted.
