Trump’s ICE agents have unleashed an orgy of racist violence in Minneapolis, but also faced a city in virtual uprising against them, writes James Supple
In a victory for the resistance that has surged across Minneapolis, Donald Trump has been forced to withdraw his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) thugs from the city.
When he began targeting the city in December his Department of Homeland Security boasted it would see the “largest immigration enforcement operation ever”.
The last few weeks have seen Trump’s racist violence reach shocking new heights. But they have also shown the possibilities of resistance.
Trump has scaled up the number of ICE agents at his disposal nationwide from 10,000 to 22,000 in the past year, and the numbers are still growing.
The raid on Minneapolis saw 3000 agents descend on the city, vastly outnumbering its regular police force.
It resembled a city under occupation, swarmed by masked, heavily armed officers roaming the streets to track down and abduct migrants for deportation.
Trump has given ICE near complete impunity. The brazen murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two of the thousands of activists acting as legal observers to try to protect the community, were the result.
Thousands have been sent to detention centres, including children such as five-year-old Liam Ramos, arrested as he arrived home from school.
Anyone ICE agents decided looked foreign risked being stopped and questioned.
Officers have smashed car windows to haul out those who refused to give their name, including a disabled woman, Aliya Rahman, on the way to a medical appointment for brain injury.
Anyone who got in their way has faced ruthless violence, from the use of chemical sprays, arrest without charge and the assault even of local politicians.
Some of Trump’s most extreme racist supporters have found jobs as ICE agents. ICE is actively seeking to recruit fascists and supporters of the far right at gun shows and via far right podcasts.
One protester in Minneapolis told The Atlantic magazine, “It became clear very quickly that ICE is the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo boys. They’ve given them uniforms and let them run wild.”
As one leader of the Proud Boys, who helped storm the Capitol building in Washington in 2021, put it, “We’ve kind of gotten what we want, right? There’s no reason to fucking protest.”
But Minneapolis has also shown how to resist and given a glimpse of the kind of movement that can bring down the Trump regime.
Trump targeted the city for a reason. Minneapolis has a proud history of union struggle. In 2020, it was the epicentre of the Black Lives Matter revolt after George Floyd’s murder there.
ICE’s invasion of the city has turned thousands of people into activists, organising to track and monitor the movement of ICE agents, disrupting their efforts to abduct migrants, fundraising and supporting migrant families too scared to leave their homes and organising to protect local neighbourhoods.
General strike
Minneapolis has also put the working class and the idea of strike action back at the centre of how to resist.
On Friday 23 January the city was shaken by a day of “No Work, No School, No Shopping”. At least 50,000 marched in temperatures of minus 30 degrees. Labor Notes reported that, “Almost a quarter of Minnesotans say they took part.”
A number of unions supported the call, including the state-wide peak union body the Minnesota Federation of Labor.
But most unions did not call official strikes, instead “giving members a nod-and-wink to skip work by raising safety concerns, using sick days or personal days”, as Labor Notes reported.
More than 700 businesses closed for the day as a result of community pressure, including many shops and small businesses.
On the day, thousands joined a blockade against deportations that shut down the airport.
Nick Benson, an organiser with the 50501 campaign group, explained that, “This airport is the narrow end of the funnel where our neighbors are getting shipped off.”
This was not yet a general strike. But it points to the power that can stop Trump and his racist deportation raids.
Workers drive the trains, run the schools, factories and offices, and staff the hospitals and stores. Strike action holds the power to cut off the flow of profits to the corporations and their billionaire bosses and hit the rich and powerful where it hurts.
Trump’s small army of 20,000 ICE agents cannot control a country of 340 million power through force. If workers in their millions shut down the country it could stop Trump in his tracks.
The rebellion against Trump is still spreading. The Friday following the Minneapolis day of action saw over 300 protests nationwide as part of an “ICE out of everywhere” day of action. Chants of “Minnesota make us proud—general strike, shut it down” rang out across the US.
But instead of building on the resistance from below, many are still looking to the Democratic Party in the hope of defeating Trump at the mid-term elections in November.
Democrat figures such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz raged against Trump, demanding that ICE leave the city. But he also agreed to undermine the state’s sanctuary policies for migrants, agreeing to notify ICE when any non-citizen is released from jail.
The Democrats prepared the way for Trump’s racist frenzy. Under President Joe Biden, ICE arrested more than 500,000 people and deported almost 600,000. Barack Obama still holds the record for the most deportations of any US President.
The Democratic Party aims to channel the anger against Trump into the dead end of election campaigning for a party that is a key pillar of US capitalism.
What’s needed in the US is an uncompromising fight to end the racist terror campaign against migrants as well as the agenda of imperialist war, support for genocide in Gaza and rule for the billionaires backed by both major parties.
This requires socialist organisation focused on building struggle from below, to mobilise the power of the working class against all the horrors of the system. Here, in the face of growing anti-migrant racism and a failing political system, the same kind of politics is needed.
Student in Minneapolis: ‘we are actively supporting people any way we can’
The video of Renee Good’s murder really pushed me to properly get involved.
I decided I needed to actively help people and support my community in any way that I can. I went to a meeting and that one meeting opened so many doors.
I got introduced to people, got put into Signal chats. We have one for literally every tiny little neighbourhood, everybody is connected through them.
The 23 January strike was amazing. It was -30 degrees. I have photos of my eyelashes being frozen. But over 700 businesses closed that day and I’ve seen reports of 50,000 to 100,000 people on the streets.
Unions that supported it included the teachers union, the communication workers, Service Employees International Union and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.
Then the day after, I woke up to the video of Alex Pretti being assassinated on the street. That was a really hard day. But it only motivated me to get more involved.
There are rapid response groups, including legal observers. That’s what Alex was doing when he got assassinated.
People attend training sessions to know your rights and what to do when you have a kidnapping taking place and who to call. Legal observers have already trained over 30,000 people.
Then you have patrolling on the look-out for ICE vehicles. I’ve done that where somebody drives me around, and then I’m frantically on my phone scanning licence plates and looking them up in a database.
ICE cars have heavily tinted windows, out of state licence plates and are often SUVs. We have a massive database in which you can confirm ICE licence plates.
Then you basically call in and alert that there’s ICE in that area and then other people can mobilise to go there.
Then you’ve got the protests.
Noise protests happen outside hotels where ICE is staying. There’s actually a hotel on campus here called The Graduate. It’s owned by Hilton, but it’s on campus. Students go there to study. The University will host events there. Sports teams that come into town to play the University of Minnesota football or hockey team commonly stay there.
They have ICE agents staying there. Last Wednesday there were over 40 students arrested for violating noise ordinances after 10pm.
Then you have the protest that occurs right outside the federal Whipple building, which is where ICE is headquartered here and also where they take US citizens that they’ve detained. There are usually daily protests there.
There was another strike on the following Friday after 23 January. It was a less union-supported strike and more dominated by student strikers.
Some unionists want to push for weekly strikes and economic blackouts every Friday, no shopping, no working, no nothing. Multiple Fortune 500 companies wrote a letter to Governor Walz and Mayor Frey basically trying to get the situation back to normal so people can start spending money and stop affecting their bottom lines again.
So we want to try to affect them as much as possible with these strikes to really force Fry and Walz to actually do something. There’s still no eviction moratorium signed, so our Black and brown neighbours that are afraid to go to school, get groceries, go to their businesses are now at risk of being evicted because they can’t make money.
It’s been a really hard time, both mentally and physically. But it’s been great to see the community action, how much our neighbours love and support each other and that we’re not going to let some fascist government come and have us eat the boot.
Now we have to build on this moment and not let the campaign simmer out. There’s a week of action planned, and people are strengthening connections and networks, as we want to keep up the momentum that forced ICE out.
