As ICE Has Learned, Minnesota May Be Nice, But It Won't Be Pushed Around

Ruben Navarrette
Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:53:28 -0800
Opinion

SAN DIEGO — In Minnesota, ICE is now Public Enemy No. 1. Corrupted by politics, the rogue federal agency has quite the rap sheet in the North Star State.

Like a repeat offender who isn't accountable for his actions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is racking up so many infractions that you lose count.

They call Minnesota "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." But it's very likely that — since it began swarming cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul — the instances of abuse of power committed by ICE surpass the number of lakes.
Updated: Thu Jan 15, 2026

SAN DIEGO — In Minnesota, ICE is now Public Enemy No. 1. Corrupted by politics, the rogue federal agency has quite the rap sheet in the North Star State.

Like a repeat offender who isn't accountable for his actions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is racking up so many infractions that you lose count.

They call Minnesota "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." But it's very likely that — since it began swarming cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul — the instances of abuse of power committed by ICE surpass the number of lakes.

As Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz noted recently, the siege "long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement." He wants the people of his state to keep the receipts of ICE "atrocities." A public record will be useful to state and federal prosecutors in the reckoning to come.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told reporters that — with a dozen ICE agents or more arresting a single person — the crackdown on his city is out of control.

"The scale is wildly disproportionate, and it has nothing to do with keeping people safe," Frey said.

So what is this mayhem really about?

That's what my wife wants to know. "Why are they picking on Minnesota?" she asked.

It's hard to know who "they" are. The ICE goons who pull teenagers, pregnant women and special education teachers from their cars and drag them through the streets wear masks. Clues suggest that they are not legitimate law enforcement officers who are trained to serve and protect. They appear more like militia types who like terrorizing people in blue cities whose residents don't support President Donald Trump.

Last year, during an earlier crackdown in Los Angeles, media reports suggested that the Department of Homeland Security had alleviated a manpower shortage by contracting bounty hunters. Some of those hooligans might still be on the payroll. If so, you can bet the skip tracers will be counted as part of the 10,000 ICE agents that the DHS intends to hire in the months to come.

In Minnesota, where Trump is sending more ICE agents to support roughly 2,500 agents already wreaking havoc there, who knows what is under the masks?

Worst-case scenario: Those agents could be violent racists with hatred in their hearts, an eagerness to hassle foreigners and a desire to hurt people.

Best-case scenario: They might be clumsy, fearful, untrained amateurs who are full of adrenaline and in over their heads, so they wind up hurting people.

We can chalk it up to malice or incompetence. Either way, judging by hours of video footage that wound up on social media, misconduct is rampant in Minnesota.

What was initially marketed as a crackdown on illegal immigration devolved into a violent campaign to suppress dissent by U.S. citizens who dared to speak out.

In fact, if this gig doesn't work out for the ICE thugs, gainful employment is waiting for them with security forces in Iran — another place where those who enforce the decrees of their supreme leader don't have to worry about civility or due process.

Rather than count up all the instances of brutality — up to and including murder — over the last few weeks, it might be easier to note the cases where ICE interacted with the public and no one was beaten, bruised or buried.

Now back to my wife's question: Why Minnesota?

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump — who is now threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to help quell the resistance in the state — seemed to suggest that it was because protesters aren't "Minnesota nice."

Justifying the Jan. 7 murder of Renee Good by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross, Trump said: "At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement."

That sounds like a punchline coming from someone who, when it comes to disrespect, has a long rap sheet of his own. Just this week, while addressing the Detroit Economic Club, Trump insulted both former President Joe Biden (someone who couldn't speak except when he was "high as a kite") and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (a "jerk" who was "incompetent" or "crooked").

I think Trump is hammering Minnesota because the people there stood up to him even more than folks in other states. Like any bully, Trump hates being challenged.

In that case, the president really should have thought twice about attacking a state with Scandinavian roots whose people are so strong and so resilient that they named their football team after a legendary band of warriors: Vikings.