Minneapolis to Feds: “Get the Fuck Out”

How People in the Twin Cities Responded to a Federal Raid

An array of federal agencies attempted to carry out a coordinated raid in Minneapolis on the morning of Tuesday, June 3, precipitating an angry response. Locals surrounded the federal officers and police, chanting “Get the fuck out!” and “Whose streets? Our streets!” Word of mouth traveled quickly in the dense neighborhood, drawing a crowd and precipitating confrontations in which federal agents shoved people and attacked them with chemical weapons. Nonetheless, the federal agents ultimately retreated from the scene.

This comes on the heels of a raid in San Diego in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Homeland Security Investigations agents shot flash-bang grenades at an angry crowd. All around the country, thanks in part to rapid response networks and community organizing, resistance to ICE is ramping up.

We commend those who stood up to police and federal agents in Minneapolis. Here, we share some brief strategic remarks on these raids and how to resist them, followed by two firsthand accounts of the events of June 3.

On X/Twitter, a platform owned by a Sieg-Heiling fascist billionaire, the Minneapolis Police Department claimed that

MPD was NOT involved in any immigration enforcement activities today, nor were we given advance notice of any such operation… MPD responded to a request to assist with crowd control and to help ensure public safety. Officers supported federal law enforcement in safely departing the area.

Maybe—and maybe not. We can hardly take it for granted that Minneapolis police will be honest with us. Under a federal government controlled by autocrats who have made mendacity a signature element of their political strategy, there is less and less cause to believe anything from any representative of the state.

Similarly, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey denied that the raid was aimed at detaining immigrants, claiming instead that it was “related to a criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering.”

Maybe—and maybe not. Federal agents could be concealing their real objectives from Frey and other local officials, or Frey could be lying to us. Considering that the federal government has reassigned a massive number of federal agents from a variety of agencies to ICE operations in hopes of increasing the pace of deportations, it would be unusual indeed if the operation in Minneapolis yesterday involved several ICE agents on a mission that had nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.

There is no easy way to learn the truth—and in any case, it does not really matter. Owing to widespread anger about ICE operations, many of which have clearly been calculated to be as brutal as possible with the intention of terrorizing the public, and to the way that the gratuitous cruelty of Donald Trump’s administration has delegitimized the government in the public eye, more and more people feel tremendous urgency about resisting ICE raids. This is going to make it increasingly difficult for police and federal agencies to carry out operations of any kind, whether or not they happen to be trying to kidnap immigrants at a particular time.

And that is as it should be. ICE, US Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and other federal agencies all collaborate and share tasks. Alongside local police departments and the court system, all of these institutions comprise a single apparatus of repression. Until local police begin to actively resist ICE agents themselves, any distinctions between the two remain purely academic. When a sheriff or local cop arrests an immigrant, ICE agents can snatch them directly from jail or a court appearance. The structural white supremacist violence that drove people to revolt repeatedly against the police between 2009 and 2020 has not diminished at all.

Hours after the incident, ICE Homeland Security Investigations St. Paul Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt released a statement:

Federal investigators conducted a groundbreaking criminal operation today—Minnesota’s first under the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) umbrella—marking a new chapter in how we confront complex, multidimensional threats. From drug smuggling to criminal labor trafficking, this operation showcases the breadth of our collective missions and the strength of a united front. This HSI led investigation wouldn’t have been possible without the extraordinary collaboration of our state partners and federal HSTF partners, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI, IRS-CI, DEA, ERO, ATF, USMS, DSS, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard, TSA and local law enforcement. Together, we are safeguarding communities, protecting national security, and setting a new standard of joint enforcement efforts.

If this statement had appeared concurrently with the morning’s events, it might have been evidence that the operation was intended as a provocation, or to test the waters. However, the statement appeared after people chased off the federal agents and police, so it seems more likely that it was calculated to moderate the blowback from the rout that they experienced at the hands of the public. Surely, the ideal scenario for federal agents would be able to conduct operations like this without ever having to explain themselves to the public, accustoming us to doing nothing in the face of such raids.

Some liberals have spread a fearful narrative to the effect that the Trump administration is trying to provoke an uprising that they can crush by introducing martial law. But the chaos in Minneapolis on June 3 looks more like the consequence of disorganization and incompetence than shrewd provocation. It is a mistake to ascribe calculated strategy to a government that sets policy according to the whims of an elderly megalomaniac. For now, at least, it is by no means clear what the outcome of a large-scale confrontation would be; such a situation might finally force politicians who claim not to support Trump’s policies to actually break with them.

If a clash is inevitable, it would be better if it happens sooner. The longer that the Trump administration holds power, the more they will consolidate control of the federal apparatus. They began by installing their own leadership at the top of federal agencies, but they are still in the process of purging and replacing the rank and file.

There are worse scenarios than outright confrontation. If no one responds to state mercenaries in military gear kidnapping people off the streets, if we accept everything passively, there is no limit to how much violence the administration will carry out against a wider and wider range of targets. The important thing is not to avoid confrontation, then, but to be thoughtful, strategic, coordinated, prepared.

Rather than waiting for ICE to strike and then attempting to respond, which leaves us always scrambling to catch up, it might be better to take the initiative, so as to determine the time and place of encounters with our adversaries. Demonstrators have done this before—for example, by establishing blockades at ICE facilities in 2018. Failing that, protesters could popularize a template for how to respond to raids after the fact, the way that the movement against white supremacy and police responded to police murders. As a minimum program, creating lasting disruption wherever a raid occurs would be a way to raise awareness about the raids, impose consequences for them, and discourage local authorities from tolerating raids in their jurisdictions.

One of the simplest things you can do is to start an announcements-only group on the messaging app Signal and invite a large number of people of good conscience to sign up to it, so that you can immediately communicate information to them in the event of an ICE operation in your community.

Account I: The Raid

Around 10:15 am, a group of federal law enforcement vehicles was spotted near Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue. I arrived at the scene at 11:00 am. A large multi-agency task force was conducting a raid at the taqueria Las Cuatro Milpas. Present were masked and heavily armed agents from at least Homeland Security Investigations (a part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the Department of the Treasury, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Hennepin County Sheriffs were doing traffic control. Minneapolis police were not initially present.

An armored vehicle was pulled up outside the taqueria. A small crowd of onlookers was already present, and grew over time. Shortly after I arrived, Minneapolis Police Department officers arrived and conferred with the feds. Overhearing their conversation, it did seem possible that they were not informed of the operation in advance. The feds told them that the operation was “not immigration.”

I heard a number of conflicting descriptions of what the raid was about, but the most consistent was that it was a search warrant related to a human trafficking investigation being served. My own assessment is that this was a pretext to conduct a large paramilitary operation in an immigrant neighborhood. What the exact intention of this operation was is not clear to me, however. Near 11:30 am, the armored vehicles and a number of the agents departed and the swelling crowd crossed from the other side of the street up to the front of the business where a number of federal agents and MPD officers remained inside and immediately outside of the business. Tensions were increasing and the crowd refused to cross back across the street when the agents instructed them to.

At this point, MPD seemed to decide that they did not want to be present, and departed. Some of the crowd moved to the back alley of the business, where federal agents were congregating. Additional federal agents arrived from north on Bloomington Avenue. Federal agents attempted to move a van from the back valley; the crowd impeded them. They began violently shoving individuals in the crowd. The scene became very chaotic and confused. Officers violently detained one individual at this point, who was later released. Multiple groups attempted to impede the progress of federal vehicles as they attempted to leave north on Bloomington and west on lake with federal agents shoving the crowds out of the way. This is when MPD arrived on the scene in significant numbers.

On a few occasions, the federal agents and Hennepin County Sheriffs Officers deployed pepper-ball munitions and pepper spray. I did not see MPD do so. A woman fainted and fell on Bloomington and was later transported to the hospital. I didn’t see the exact circumstances that led to that. As the bulk of the feds were working away from the scene, [MPD police chief Brian] O’Hara arrived. After the federal agents extricated themselves, MPD rapidly left as well, leaving the crowd milling about in a stunned state. After accounting for my people as best I could, I departed at 1:20 pm. I did not see anyone from the business detained and I did not see anyone in custody taken from the scene.

My working assumption is that this was a pretext to launch a large militarized display of force on Lake Street. I’m unsure if they understood how provocative the location was or whether they anticipated the degree of resistance they encountered. They were not prepared to carry out a large number of arrests or to do effective crowd control and frankly put themselves in a vulnerable situation. I also can’t say how aware MPD was of the operation. They did not seem like they were prepared to do crowd control either. In conclusion, it was a mess.

Account II: The Response

It was a rainy day in Minneapolis. There was an air quality warning for wildfire smoke up north in Canada. Then a text arrived on a Signal loop:

Fed raid underway, Homeland Security sighted at 29th and Bloomington.

The fog of war kicked in immediately. Conflicting reports. Confusion. Eventually, we received pictures of a Bearcat armored vehicle marked “Homeland Security Investigations” and camouflage-clad SWAT officers in military garb, fully kitted out with assault rifles, plate carriers, and helmets. ICE badges were spotted on some of the officers and soon it was confirmed: Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, and other federal agencies were conducting some kind of raid on Cuatros Milpas on Bloomington and Lake in south Minneapolis.

This raid took place four years to the day after a federal Justice Department task force conducted a raid on a parking garage in the south Minneapolis neighborhood of Uptown, shooting and killing Winston Smith.

A crowd quickly formed outside the restaurant, including trained observers from immigrants’ rights legal activist groups and independent media—and also local politicians intent on de-escalating the situation. The federal agents were assisted by Hennepin County Sheriffs Officers and Minneapolis Police Department officers, despite verbal assurances from the city government that Minneapolis is a “sanctuary city” and will not assist in federal immigration enforcement operations or deportation operations. MPD and HCSO eventually left the scene, leaving the federal agencies on their own to deal with the growing angry and confused crowd—confusion being the word of the day.

By the time I arrived, the federal agents had already left, chased away by the angry crowd. One person had apparently been detained but eventually released. Videos posted to social media show that a couple projectiles were thrown at the retreating feds, but nothing sustained, and none of them hit the intended targets. We heard a rumor of police using an irritant dispersal agent or chemical weapons, and this was eventually confirmed: federal agents apparently shot pepper balls at the crowd that was chasing them away.

A few moments after I arrived, a small group of people decided to attempt to block the intersection of Bloomington Avenue and Lake Street where the raid had taken place. A small group of leftist activists from groups like Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Party for Socialism and Liberation was present, but not in a presence large enough to direct the crowd or control the situation. There was really no direction coming from anyone, whether autonomous, anti-authoritarian, anarchist, or Marxist-Leninist.

Without clear information or motivation, the crowd that wanted to block the intersection was unable to fully commit. In the end, a situation developed in which a dozen people were standing in the middle of the intersection while public transit supervisors directed city buses around the “blockade.” This nonetheless produced a traffic jam.

The impulse to shut down the intersection was definitely a positive move from the crowd. It had some potential. But without enough momentum, it never took off.

Preliminary conclusions:

We need more rapid response Signal loops, fewer social media rumors. It is important to verify information and confirm from multiple sources.

Get eyes on the police and cameras pointed at them. These federal agents seem to be afraid of public backlash; it was the antagonism of the crowd telling them to leave and the rapid growth of that crowd that eventually impelled the police to retreat and abandon their operations. Normally, I would tell people to resist the urge to bring their phones to an action, but in this particular case, I think that it is vital to collect hard evidence of which agencies are operating, what equipment they are using, what the police are doing.

The role of local politicians and activist groups is generally to demobilize people. While progressive City Council members and candidates for the upcoming Minneapolis mayoral election were present today at Lake and Bloomington, it is clear that their goal was not to chase off the federal agencies, but to de-escalate tensions. These politicians told people to go home, to stop blocking the streets; left-wing activist groups did the same thing. This is a counterinsurgency strategy in which they function as self-appointed liaisons between law enforcement and the public. Never trust a politician, whether in a suit or holding a megaphone.

It’s worth thinking through how best to respond in a situation like this. Why were we shutting down Bloomington and Lake Street where the raid took place when the feds had already left? Would it have made more sense to march to the nearest police precinct? Perhaps to Mayor Frey’s residence? To the federal building in downtown Minneapolis? If we had succeeded in shutting down the intersection and the crowd there continued gathering and growing in size, what should we have done next? If police had shown up to disperse us, how would we respond? In some cases, it may make more sense to regroup, strategize, and mobilize to a target that offers more potential to gain momentum and escalate the situation. Shutting down an intersection didn’t draw the full participation of the crowd and we should be asking ourselves why that was.

In short, it was a confusing and harrowing day involving upsetting events but also moments of inspiration and potential. A raid similar to this one just took place in San Diego, California with an almost identical response. Federal agents arrived, conducted their operation, miscalculated how the crowd would react, escalated with crowd control munitions (in that case, flash-bang grenades), then retreated when those measures had the opposite of their intended effect.

The most powerful weapon the authorities wield against us is fear, intensified by the fog of war and the confusion of having to process so much unverified information at once. Whatever happens, we should remain calm, analyze what is happening, verify information that is circulating, assess the situation, and tailor our response to it. We have to resist efforts to provoke us, lest we play into their hands. At the same time, the most positive aspect of today’s events was how quickly so many people were able to mobilize, forcing the feds to turn tail and run. Here’s hoping we never have to deal with this again—or that, if we do, we come back twice as hard.

Los Angeles Stands up to ICE A Firsthand Report on the Clashes of June 6

On June 3, a crowd drove federal agents out of Minneapolis following a raid on a taqueria. On June 4, people confronted US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they carried out raids in Chicago and Grand Rapids. On Friday, June 6, people in Los Angeles responded to an ICE raid, precipitating a full day of clashes that continue today. In the following firsthand report, participants describe how people came together to do their best to prevent federal agents from kidnapping people from their community.

Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has announced that he will send the National Guard into Los Angeles in response. If the situation escalates elsewhere around the country, as well, it is thinkable that we could see a movement that picks up where the George Floyd uprising left off. Arguably, in sweeping up the president of the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union in their attacks on people in Los Angeles, ICE and the various federal agencies that are being reassigned to support them risk making more enemies just as this confrontation is getting underway.

Although the Trump administration has begun by attacking immigrants—both documented and undocumented—this is only the first step in their effort to establish an autocracy. They are targeting immigrants because they believe them to be the most vulnerable target, but their overarching goal is to accustom all of us to passivity in the face of brutal state violence, breaking the basic bonds of solidarity that ought to connect all human beings.

It must be clear to everyone—even the most milquetoast centrists—that the outcome of the conflict that is ramping up now will determine the prospects for every other target Trump has lined up in his sights, from Harvard University to those who simply wish to be able to afford groceries.

First Action, High Noon

On social media, the news spread that ICE was raiding several spots in downtown Los Angeles, Highland Park, and MacArthur Park. Agents had begun to raid a building in the flower district when a spontaneous mob trapped them inside. People blocked every side of the building, every single entrance, so the agents couldn’t get out. They had detained a lot of people in the building already and hadn’t expected a swarm of 50-100 Angelenos to trap them.

Apparently, they expected to be able to conduct a visible raid in downtown Los Angeles without a response from the neighborhood. They were wrong. Of the six or more locations that they raided, that one was in the area with the densest population, just blocks from skid row and a few steps from the Piñata district.

A large number of people were at the front entrance blocking ICE from leaving the building. Caught off guard by the crowd, the ICE agents were visibly trying to figure out how to evacuate. Family members of the detained were crying at the doors and the gates, wondering what was going to happen to their loved ones.

The federal government had declared war on Los Angeles.

ICE ordered in an armored truck with three dozen federal riot police and a fleet of vans in tow. The entrance they wanted to come into was the one being blocked by an SEIU sound truck and they began threatening to tow it. SEIU complied and moved their truck, even going so far as to use their sound system to yell “Get on the sidewalk!” at the crowd. Half of the people listened to them and half didn’t, but it was a small enough crowd that that made a significant difference. As a consequence, the armored truck and the vans were able to make it up to the gate.

Federal agents in riot gear began trying to push everyone out. The small group who had refused to leave continued to stand their ground, twisting their little riot shields and mocking them. The agents were visibly rattled by the resilience of this group that had somehow assembled within fifteen minutes. In a desperate push, the FBI agents began to throw tear gas canisters into the crowd. Everyone was screaming at the fascist mercenaries as they tried to push back the line. Amid the confusion, the agents managed to clear a path for the vans to enter through the gate.

The feds put the detained workers into the van and began to drive out. The crowd tried to stop them but the FBI escalated—snatching protesters and shooting pepper balls and rubber bullets at everyone. One of the vans sped up and struck the president of the California branch of the Service Employees International Union, injuring him. He was then arrested.

The crowd got more rowdy, lighting fireworks and throwing debris, water bottles, and cabbage at the mercenaries. The FBI responded with a barrage of flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets and more pepper balls.

While that fight continued, someone followed the ICE vans to the Burbank airport, where agents had reportedly claimed that they were bringing a “hockey team.” People have been attempting to track the flight and see where it went since.

The other detainees were taken to the MDC (Metro Detention Center) which triggered an action to be called for a couple hours later.

MDC is where hundreds of detainees from the raids are still currently being held. It was also the site of the 2017 abolish ICE encampment which lasted for 60 days.

Second Action, 4 pm

People started amassing at the Metropolitan Detention Center. A press conference took place involving Union Del Barrio, the SEIU, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Peace policing caused fights between the paid activists and the crowd. The activists ended up leaving and the crowd stayed—tagging everything, smashing windows, breaking things, and being ungovernable. Someone had brought a sledgehammer and was breaking the concrete pillars so that people could use the pieces as projectiles to throw at the police. Someone used a swivel chair as a barricade; another person showed up in a dinosaur suit.

The feds were scrambling, throwing everything they could back at the crowd. People were tear-gassed several times, but were neutralizing the effect by putting ice and water on the canisters as well as traffic cones like they did in Chile. Some people were also throwing the canisters back to the Department of Homeland Security agents that were responsible for them. The crowd was extremely lively and brave. Some right-wing internet streamers tried to get into the area, but they were spotted and promptly dealt with.

DHS couldn’t control the situation. The feds were overwhelmed and begged the Los Angeles Police Department to come save them. Despite LA mayor Karen Bass saying she was “appalled” about the presence of ICE in Los Angeles, the LAPD still showed up in large numbers. A low-flying helicopter was telling people that they would be arrested and issuing dispersal orders as LAPD pushed people away from the building over the next four to five hours. Everyone left covered in pepper ball dust and tear gas.

Third Action, 10 pm

A message circulated to the effect that ICE was spotted staging for a raid in Chinatown. (Later, it turned out that they were planning to hold that parking lot for a press conference for Thomas Homan, Trump’s “Border Czar,” at 7 am the following morning—a press conference that was apparently cancelled.)

Hundreds of people started trickling in, strobing flashlights in the eyes of the federal agents and yelling chants and insults at the riot line.

Even though people had been at actions all day, the energy was high, attracting passersby and random Dodgers fans to join in. The crowd took the street and blocked the entrances once again as things started getting rowdy. This time, LAPD wasn’t present, so the federal agents prepared to try to push the people out themselves.

Participants in the crowd tagged the armored ICE vehicle and begin jumping up and down on it while an LRAD was blaring. Someone tagged “FUCK ICE” and spray painted the cameras on a Waymo self-driving car. No organizations were present except a strong contingent from the Los Angeles Tenants Union, who were present for every action in the course of the day.

The federal agents decided that the parking lot was too difficult to hold and began to retreat. The crowd seized the opportunity to block them off, throwing fireworks and rocks, bottles, and, somehow, ceramic plates. The FBI threw a few flash-bang grenades and tear gas canisters in response, but the spirits of those standing up to them remained high.

People began to smash the windows on the feds’ cars. At that point, ICE decided to leave, and a celebration began in the street. More fireworks were set off in a jubilant atmosphere. People partied momentarily before drifting home, heartened by a small victory after a horrifying and dehumanizing day in the so-called United States.