My First 72 Hours in Minneapolis and How I Got an ICE Agent to Scream “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”

The activists on the ground are doing the work, that should give you hope.

Mostafa Bassim / Anadolu / Getty Images

Author’s note: All identities have been anonymized and names changed to protect the privacy of involved parties. If you want to view the video the title references you can find it at The Existentialist Republic YouTube Channel by CLICKING ON THIS TEXT.

I’ve been in Minneapolis for three days now. It started with an open call to my substack looking for someone to help show me the situation out here since the murder of Renee Nicole Good.

A suburban mom picked me up from where I was staying. She takes days off during the week and gives up her weekends to do this work, fitting resistance into the same schedule as raising her kids and running a household. She’s one of the most effective grassroots activists I’ve ever met. She introduced me to a handful of the 13,000 trained legal observers operating in the Twin Cities, people embedded in networks of up to 1,000 volunteers who respond to ICE reports within minutes. When a sighting comes in, they honk horns and blow whistles to warn neighbors. They show up. They bear witness.

Over 72 hours, I watched these networks mobilize again and again. Calls came in from everywhere. We responded to an apartment complex where residents reported ICE agents going door to door, with accounts of agents kicking doors in. We went to a high school where armed agents had been spotted walking the perimeter of school property carrying rifles. Nurses called from a hospital saying agents were circling the building while they hid frightened children inside. At every location, the same pattern: agents cursing, screaming, physically threatening people, saying they’d arrest observers who weren’t committing any crime.

Reports came in of community members being followed by ICE agents. People were being driven off the road. Agents were escalating their threats and their force.

I spoke with a pastor’s wife who has been coordinating mutual aid efforts and responding to locations where agents were screaming at observers. She told me a local church had to cancel their Christmas Eve service because a family in the congregation had gone missing and the entire community was paralyzed with fear. She told me about a Hispanic schoolteacher, an American citizen, who was badly beaten by ICE agents and then released. The teacher took her family and fled the area because they were too scared it would happen again. Later that day, two other people mentioned a teacher who had been beaten. I said I’d heard about that. They said no, this was a different teacher.

A big march happened while I was there. I watched Native Americans in traditional regalia saging the streets and leading the procession. There was something powerful about Indigenous people, who know better than anyone what it means to have armed agents of the state come for your community, taking the lead in this brutal moment.

Later that day, I called Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office. I left a voicemail asking why there wasn’t an arrest warrant out for Jonathan Ross. I asked why his office wasn’t calling for arrests when masked, unidentified individuals assault members of our community. I mentioned Nicole Good, whose murder looked for all the world like a carjacking gone wrong. I’m still waiting for answers that don’t feel like they come from an alternate reality where our government functions properly.

We went to the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE stages out of and also where activists have had a near 24/7 presence for days. When I arrived, Representative Ilhan Omar was inside for a meeting. ICE agents started screaming at the demonstrators. “Get back, bitch,” one of the agents yelled, a protestor responded with “you are monsters.” The agents began shaking their huge pepper spray canisters and one gave a quick spritz of pepper spray while another fired a couple of pepper rounds into the crowd, none caught their mark and they seemed more like warning shots.

Later in the day, someone in the crowd showed me video of an agent provocateur at that same location who had slipped in among the protesters. He walked up, burned an American flag, and immediately left. People followed him, asking questions. He refused to answer and disappeared. He was there for exactly one reason: to create a news clip for oligarch media to use as propaganda.

Then we got the call ICE was harassing patrons at a gym.

We responded and found plain clothes officers walking out, putting on their face coverings as they exited. Calls had come in that they were inside harassing Hispanic patrons, saying they were ICE, demanding papers. I tried to film quietly, just observing from a distance. One of the officers clocked me immediately.

“You’re not slick,” he said.

The video has the full play by play, but the exchange led to me saying, “I just don’t want to get shot.”

That’s when he screamed it. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN BITCH.”

I repeated myself. “I don’t want to get shot.”

“Are you threatening me?” he demanded.

“I’m using my First Amendment rights,” I said.

“You want to get arrested?”

“For saying don’t shoot me?”

Him and another officer had their hands on their guns now, moving toward me. I shut my mouth and walked away.

Here’s what I learned: you want to make an ICE agent angry? They didn’t care about people shouting Nazi at them. Didn’t faze them at all. But tell them you don’t want to get shot and watch them melt down like the MAGA snowflakes they are. That phrase, that simple expression of wanting to stay alive, sent this guy into a rage. In the comments, I’d love for you all to weigh in on why that was so triggering for them.

These guys can murder and get away with it. They can arrest people for any reason or no reason. Do they have jurisdiction or authority to do so? No. Will they be punished for it? I’m not seeing any evidence they will.

On the ground, one person told me “they could do a George Floyd or a Renee Good every single day and face no consequences. And the people most capable of stopping it, our state Attorneys General and Governors, are ‘prepping the national guard’ and ‘giving people tip lines to track this info.’ We are past ‘prep’ and ‘document.’ We need to actually do something.”

I couldn’t help but see some truth there. These agents are masked and unidentified. You think they’re going to jail after a few election cycles pass? You think democracy can coexist with this? Renee Good was a suburban mother turning her car around. If we tolerate this, we are done.

I keep getting asked: why aren’t the politicians doing anything? My take? Some are compromised. Some are cowards. Some are paralyzed by procedural thinking in a moment that demands moral courage. But here’s what I do know: they don’t hear our demonstrations unless we’re in front of their offices. Protesting at ICE facilities is good and necessary work, but 1,000 people per day contacting the Attorney General and the Governor with specific demands will get traction. It really will. Even moreso if we take the time to learn the names of state reps and contact them. If we let all these people know we need emergency executive orders to use any and all resources to protect our entire community.

Don’t sue first. Do first. Why don’t you let the fascists take us to court and start putting them on their heels, rather than the other way around. Why don’t we make the courts stop us from putting out arrest warrants for Jonathan Ross and having all law enforcement and national guard forces in blue states shift focus to protecting the human rights and constitutional rights we have, and if the corrupt SCOTUS rules against freedom and democracy then let them enforce that ruling.

Don’t let anyone make you feel stupid for demanding justice. Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t have accountability. If someone in power tells you that, tell them to resign so someone who will stand up for the people can take their place. Republicans do more to protect guns than Democrats are doing to stop murders and abductions. If this was the Governor’s family, if this was the Attorney General’s family, if this was one of their oligarch donors, they would call in the National Guard immediately. They would assert the authority and dare anyone to stop them. They wouldn’t wait until the next election cycle or issue statements about “looking into things.”

Here are the demands we all need to make: Use the National Guard to protect our citizens. Arrest agents who commit crimes. Charge police, National Guard, and ICE with crimes when they commit or refuse to stop them. Start issuing arrest warrants for Jonathan Ross and whoever killed Renee Good and any others who have committed violence against our communities. Do it now. Not after an investigation. Not after the next election. Now.

Resign or do the right thing. Those are the only acceptable options.

I’m glad people are out in the streets. Keep building capacity. We also need to directly send the message to the people with the power to actually stop this. Daily, in large numbers, with zero patience. Patience is an inappropriate response to this moment.

The activists doing this work in Minneapolis and nationwide are extraordinary. Ordinary people carving out time from ordinary lives to do extraordinary things for the benefit of their fellow humans. Nurses hiding children from federal agents. A pastor’s wife coordinating mutual aid while her community lives in terror. Legal observers who show up within minutes of a report. Half a mile from where we marched, you couldn’t find parking because so many people had come out to stand together.

So here’s what’s next. I’ve connected with a crew doing what political organizers call “lit drops,” which means distributing printed materials directly to community members. We’re dropping 1,000 sheets to front doors with specific demands and instructions for actions that take less than five minutes per day. Contact information for the right politicians. Scripts for what to say. Simple steps anyone can take. These are already being handed out at local churches.

The infrastructure of effective opposition already exists. The people are ready. What we need now is volume, persistence, and the refusal to let anyone tell us that justice is too much to ask for.

If you’re in Minneapolis or anywhere else and want to know what to do: find out who your Attorney General is. Find out who your Governor is. Contact them every single day with specific demands. Invite others to do the same. Show up. Document. The fight matters. Thank you for being here.

Want their info? It’s usually as easy as googling it and clicking the first link. If you are having trouble then post in the comments or on the discord and our community will get you the contact info you are looking for.