The State That Stands Up to ICE

: Jamie Stiehm on Jan 28, 2026

President Donald Trump and his federal forces chose the wrong city and state for the escalating war on civilians out on the streets and in their homes, resulting in two deaths so far.

Minneapolis residents are defending city walls as best they can against masked federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who shot and killed two 37-year-old nonviolent resisters.

Consider Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's political party, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. In his first term, he handled 2020 marches -- that exploded all over the country -- over George Floyd's choking death at the hands of a police officer who kneeled on his neck and back.

Frey, a feisty 44, told the president's men to "get out" of town and won hearts and minds. In an earlier era, this state gave rise to young Bob Dylan and his songbook of social protest.

In other words, Minnesota's progressive politics and history are way out of Trump's league.

Trump has no idea of the egalitarian work ethic and neighborly culture it took to settle the vast American prairie. Minnesota represents the best of the Upper Midwest blue states, along with Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan (Iowa excluded). Slave labor did not do the job; pioneers did it by the shared sweat of their brows.

In a cruel and bleak midwinter, Minneapolis residents are not staying home in the cold crush of ice and snow. They are coming out and standing up to the outrageous violence visited upon them by the president -- as if he's declared war on an American city. They don't take kindly to authoritarians.

Violence is Trump's favored stock in trade, as we know from the Trump mob that stormed the Capitol five Januarys ago.

The Midwestern character is undergoing a major stress test as brave residents face Trump's armed agents wrestling them to the ground. That is such brutal treatment that even a handful of Republicans are speaking up.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were murdered, full stop, on video. There are no two ways about it, what we people across America witnessed. Good was driving away from an agent brandishing a loaded weapon; Pretti was helping a woman knocked down and then surrounded by several -- at least seven -- ICE agents.

Then they shot him where he lay, execution style.

If we lived in normal times, a normal White House response would express regret and sympathy. Despicable Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, claimed the two unrelated cases were "domestic terrorism" before the bodies were cold. There is no evidence either was a threat to society. Good was a mother of three children, Pretti an intensive care nurse.

They were legal observers of the ICE clashes and raids, a civic-minded calling in harm's way.

A hundred faith leaders flew to Minneapolis and got arrested in the airport.

Meanwhile, Noem's perfect locks are on the block. Many in Congress want her, more than any other Trump Cabinet member, removed by impeachment or any other means. They may deny ICE funding.

We know many of the tragic story elements. Trump's campaign in Minnesota is partly based on racial grievance, as the state took in a large population of Somali migrants. One is a Democratic congresswoman, Ilhan Omar.

What we don't know is, what kind of person would want to be an ICE agent, to prey upon others and violate their human rights and dignity?

In the wake of the fatal shootings, Trump's corrupt FBI is refusing to work jointly with state investigators to determine just what went down.

The victims were white American citizens, not illegal immigrants, which adds to the nation's torn and troubled conscience. Their manner of death was so rough that it crossed party lines of decency -- for some, not all.

Republicans in Congress are nervous Nellies about the November midterms.

The man in the Big House, Trump himself, has no milk of human kindness in his frozen bones. But he seems to grasp that this is a dangerous political moment, a watershed for his war on peaceful democracy.

The rest of us owe Minneapolis a debt of gratitude for fighting our battles for us. From the fair-minded lands of Lincoln, they are the grain and grist of our country.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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