Dispatches from Minneapolis: The Movement Against ICE Has Touched Every Inch of the City - Left Voice
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Behind the powerful mass marches in Minneapolis is a community of tens of thousands of Minnesotans who are determined to defend their immigrant neighbors. The solidarity is creative, profound, and can be found in small and large expressions everywhere.

For the second Friday in a row, upwards of 50,000 people took to the streets in Minneapolis in subzero temperatures to say “ICE OUT!” The massive march in the city’s downtown signaled that the movement in the Twin Cities is not losing momentum.

Behind the march, however, was something deeper: Every inch of the Twin Cities is being touched by people’s determination to defend their immigrant neighbors. This is conveyed in anti-ICE signs in the windows of small businesses in Somali neighborhoods, and large houses in some of the more affluent parts of St. Paul. It’s in the stories people tell about how they and their friends and family are organizing to make life easier for immigrants scared to leave their homes. And it’s in the street corners where community members stand in pairs to watch for ICE activity.

It is truly impossible to convey the depth of creativity and compassion that manifests in everyday life for Minnesotans, but I’ll try my best.

The day began at the Whipple Building, which functions as the center of ICE operations throughout the city. “RIP ALEX” had been painted on a concrete block on the corner of the grassy hill where a rally was being held. Throughout the day there would be many more tributes to Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.

I’m in Minneapolis this weekend reporting for @leftvoice.bsky.social. Just arrived at the Whipple Federal Building where the community is kicking off the day of protests. Watch this space for updates.

— Sam Carliner (@saminthecan.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T14:08:02.734Z

The crowd that had gathered spanned generations. Scattered around were tables with snacks, hot drinks, and hand warmers. One of the many speakers shared that she was the mother of a second grader. She described how parents and teachers have coordinated to protect immigrant students. Every speaker emphasized that Minnesota is a state where people look out for their neighbors.

After a brief march, the crowd began to disperse. Then people spotted two cars with masked feds driving to the Whipple Building. The hatred of ICE was palpable in the boos, insults, and FUCK YOUs lobbed at the agents.

Two ICE vehicles showed up and the crowd let them know they want them out.

— Sam Carliner (@saminthecan.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T15:09:27.891Z

From there, we hopped on the trolley. When the conductor went around asking for proof of payment, most people didn’t have any. The conductor let everyone off the hook with smiles and fist-bumps.

Our reporting team got off the trolley in a Somali neighborhood. We warmed up in a cafe run by a wonderful woman who said her name translates to “flower.” She gave us much-needed chai lattes, spongy bread, and other warm Somali dishes. She herself had citizenship, but as she explained how her community lives in fear of ICE, you could hear in her voice the shadow that the agency casts on what would otherwise be a vibrant community. When we told her we were reporters who had traveled from New York and New Jersey to cover the movement, she showed us an office space in the back of the cafe, inviting us to use it at any point in our trip we needed a place to work.

We left and walked along an avenue of small businesses. All were closed in support of the day’s economic blackout. In the windows were signs expressing that ICE agents weren’t allowed to enter and would not be given service, not even off the job. The neighborhood was also decorated with signs saying “MNPLS Loves Somali neighbors.”

In this neighborhood, we also began to get a sense of the ICE watch networks throughout the city. Every corner had people in yellow vests, watching vigilantly for any federal thugs out to abduct community members. At one point, a biker in a yellow vest zoomed by, no doubt on the lookout as well.

From there, we caught a ride to a Target where there was a picket organized by Socialist Alternative and supported by other left-wing activists including unionists and members of DSA and PSL. The picket was there to denounce Target’s massive donations to Trump and silence about ICE, even after the agency abducted two teenaged Target employees. Barely anyone dared to cross the picket line; the store was nearly empty.

HAPPENING NOW: Activists are picketing outside Target, which has become a target of the movement due to the company’s large donations to Trump. The company has also kept silent against ICE even after the agency arrested 2 teenage employees.

— Sam Carliner (@saminthecan.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T17:42:27.864Z

We then visited a press conference where tenants rights activists were demanding an eviction moratorium. They explained how one of the best defenses immigrants have against ICE is the safety of their own homes, adding another layer to the already inhumane and dangerous practice of evictions.

In yet another expression of how seemingly everyone in the city is being touched by the movement for immigrant rights, every time we took an Uber to the next action, our drivers gave us warm welcomes and sent us off with genuine expressions “stay safe!”

After all this, we attended the march. The smaller expressions of solidarity, rage, and revolutionary optimism that we’d encountered all over the city throughout the day culminated in an explosion of determination to continue building the fight against ICE.

I saw hatred of the agency on the faces of countless people you might never expect to hold such sentiments. Entire families, baby boomers, activists draped in keffiyehs or waving Mexican flags, and teachers wearing blue beanies with their union logo, and people from all walks of life filled the air with chants of “ICE OUT,” “FUCK ICE,” “STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE,” “SHUT IT DOWN,” and “WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!”

The sea of people was endless. Everywhere you looked there were signs saying “Melt ICE” and calling to impeach Trump as well as Kristi Noem. Just as prominent were signs honoring Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, and demanding the return of Liam Ramos, the five-year-old abducted by ICE along with his father and sent to a detention center in Texas. People banged drums, blasted hip hop on speakers, and gave out hand warmers, home-cooked empanadas, and boxes of pizza donated by local restaurants.

It’s worth reiterating that the temperature was brutal. But none of that took away from the energy. People marched in an endless river of collective power for well over an hour, never letting up. It’s one thing to see the videos, it’s another to be there and to know that in this crowd were countless people with stories to tell of grocery runs for immigrant neighbors, group chats to coordinate ICE watch patrols, networks to escort people to and from work and school, and an unimaginable amount of creativity and initiative to protect one another.

It appears that Trump is beginning to understand he overplayed his hand in the Twin Cities. He is now coordinating with Minnesota governor Tim Walz to ease tensions — translation: get the masses out of the streets before their activity gets out of control of Democrats and Republicans alike. To this end of containing the movement, many of the union and NGO bureaucracies that expressed solidarity with the economic blackout on January 23 chose not to give weight to the mobilization today.

And yet, the people came out expressing a determination to continue the fight until ICE is out of everywhere.

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