Minneapolis is in chaos. The city, courtesy of a whole network of far-left activist groups stirring up trouble and intentionally impeding federal immigration authorities with the encouragement and assistance of Democrat city and state leaders, has become a frozen version of its lawless and deranged 2020 “Summer of Love” self.
It may be even worse this time, with tensions rising yet again following the death of another activist on Saturday. While details are still forthcoming, the Department of Homeland Security has alleged that the man was carrying a gun and posed a mortal threat to officers attempting to apprehend an illegal alien wanted for assault. But those apparent facts were of no concern for a crowd of activists who arrived hours later and chanted their desire for the Twin Cities Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility: “Burn down Fort Snelling!”
The stakes of this current crisis are enormous. Can the left dictate what federal laws will be enforced? Do agitators and anarchists get a mob veto over allowing ICE and Border Patrol to operate in this “sanctuary” city? Can Democrat state and local officials get away with openly encouraging violence and then blaming the federal government when it occurs? Will the city again completely lose control and descend into chaos with “autonomous zones”?
The answer to all of those questions must be a resounding “No.” The Trump administration must win this fight to defend our laws. Minnesota must be brought to order.
In a recent interview, President Trump has signaled he doesn’t want to use the Insurrection Act. Reticence to use this measure is wise, but the city is fast spinning out of control.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has consistently issued incendiary comments about getting federal agents out of the state. Walz has talked about being “at war with the federal government,” has called ICE “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo,” and has described the Trump administration’s determination to enforce immigration law as a “campaign of organized brutality.” It seems evident that his comments have helped radicalize some activists to take tragic, senseless actions that put their lives in danger.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has taken the same tack. On January 7, he said, “To ICE: Get the f— out of Minneapolis.” On Saturday, after the 37-year-old protester engaged in a scuffle with ICE and was shot and killed, Frey referred to ICE as “invaders” and said that the chaos was the fault of federal law enforcement officers whom the president should “remove” from the city so as to achieve peace.
To reveal just how preposterous this grandstanding is, consider the case of another blue city, Memphis, that took a very different tack with ICE. As immigration lawyer Alicia Nieves writes in a new article at Compact titled “How Pro-Immigrant Activism Turned Dangerous,” blame for the “tinderbox” conditions falls squarely on Minneapolis and a few other Democrat cities that have decided that not only will police not cooperate with ICE in detaining illegal aliens, but they will not even be allowed to assist in dangerous confrontations between protesters and federal agents.
Though she is herself a critic of some ICE tactics, Nieves understands that ICE agents are upholding the law—and cities such as Minneapolis are not. “Democratic officials must also seriously consider rolling back sanctuary-city laws,” Nieves writes, “that prevent local law enforcement from transferring detainees to ICE based on the agency’s determination of removability under immigration law.”
Nieves suggests that there is a model for working with ICE that has been successful. Mayor Paul Young of crime-ridden Memphis chose a very different approach from Jacob Frey when DHS decided to send more agents to the Tennessee city. “By working with DHS,” Nieves writes, “Young was able to focus enforcement on serious criminals, thereby lessening disruption in the community.”
How did that work out? “In 2025, overall crime in Memphis fell by 41 percent, and murders declined by 47 percent compared to 2023.”
Compare this to Minneapolis this year. X user MN Conservative looked at data from the Minneapolis Police Department this week. As of January 22, year-to-date statistics showed Minneapolis assault numbers up 18%, rapes up 10.6%, domestic assaults up 13%, and carjacking up 50%.
That shouldn’t be surprising. In order to let the anti-ICE activists have their way, the Minneapolis Police have essentially backed off enforcing even the most basic order.
Even before this weekend, Minneapolis already had radical leftists following any vehicles they suspected might have ICE officers in them, demanding ID from ordinary citizens, blocking off streets, and setting up no-go zones. Strange how the people protesting the enforcement of U.S. immigration law seem to have no compunction about telling their fellow citizens which public areas they may or may not be in at any given time.
This weekend, things ramped up. Activists, convinced that there was a plane full of deportees arriving, staged a sit-in at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, infuriating travelers. An activist bit off the finger of a federal agent. Minneapolis businesses that survived Minneapolis’s insane COVID-19 regimen and the destruction wrought by the last round of radicalism shut down on Friday and Saturday. Many of them boarded up in fear of the worst on Saturday night.
The rest of the country will not follow Minnesota into the depths of destruction this time, but there are too many Democrat cities and states that will feel empowered if the Winter of Love succeeds. The Democrat game plan of rioting until they get what they want must be defeated. And the politicians must be brought to account.
As Minnesotan John Hinderaker of PowerLine recently wrote, Walz, Frey, and assorted other political figures “have deliberately fomented riots and disorder because they distract attention from the ruling Democrats’ appalling record, including but not limited to billions and billions of dollars stolen from taxpayers by Democratic Party clients, with the aid, active or passive, of Democratic officials.”
Americans need to see that the rule of law stands (even if Democrats don’t like the laws being enforced), that law and order applies in blue cities, and that lawless politicians will be brought to account.
David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter) @davidpdeavel.
