Twin Cities, ICE, and Civil Disobedience

A history of civil disobedience in America and how it must be used 

Trevor Dunning

Minneapolis recently saw the largest mobilization of people in protest since the 2020 murder of George Floyd. When Renée Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent, Minneapolis acted in wide protest. Not only is ICE kidnapping friends and neighbors, they have the ability to shoot them on the streets with little to no repercussions. The people have organized and protested consistently outside of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which is used as a detention center. Immigrants without permanent legal status, immigrants with permanent legal status, natural-born citizens, Indigenous peoples, teachers, nurses, five-year-olds, it doesn’t seem to matter—anyone can be taken by ICE. On Jan. 23, thousands of Minnesotans flooded the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest against the ICE occupation in minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit weather. A day later, Alex Pretti was shot 10 times in the chest.

The Twin Cities have a long history of protest. Nearly 100 years ago, “Bloody Friday” occurred, where cops shot into crowds of a violent truckers union strike. Etched into our recent memories are the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality after George Floyd was murdered. Since 2020, I cannot help but feel a sense of stagnation in the ways Americans protest. Are our voices being heard by those in power? How do you make the president of a country who has no idea what it’s like to be a citizen in the country he governs listen?

The Sons of Liberty, a political organization formed in 1765 meant to oppose British rule, stands at the base of our colonized country. Their most famous act was the Boston Tea Party, an act of civil disobedience in which they illegally threw tea into the Boston Harbor dressed as Native Americans to protest the Tea Act of 1773. An act comparable today to destroying gallons of oil. Henry David Thoreau coined the term civil disobedience in his essay “Resistance on Civil Government.” Thoreau enacted his protest by refusing to pay a poll tax in resistance to slavery and the Mexican-American War. The 1960s saw waves of civil disobedience through draft card burnings and various acts during the Civil Rights Movement. Recently, the act of protest and disruption at Cities Church in St. Paul was an act of civil disobedience.

The ways in which we protest are important and the ways in which we protest matter. The people know this. Politicians—Democrats and Republicans alike—know this.

President Trump claimed Alex Pretti was “an agitator and, perhaps, an insurrectionist." While Governor Tim Walz urged the public to protest peacefully, stating “we can’t give them what they want.” Trump tried to paint Pretti as a man acting outside the law, while Walz exclaimed for the people to act within it. Both parties want protesting to fall within their guidelines. If you protest, you have to protest in a specific way. There may be a point to not giving the federal government what they want, but how bad does it have to get to protest in ways that are not protected by the First Amendment?

The 1960s are looked on in admiration in terms of movement and progress. Yet in a world where it feels like legal progress has gone stale, how do you combat a president with full control of his government?

The Twin Cities have acted as a testing ground for how disruptive and horrific ICE operations can be. In January alone, two people were murdered in the city. Outside of that, six people died in ICE custody. 2025 saw the agency’s deadliest year, with 32 people dying in ICE custody, although those numbers may be soon surpassed. Maybe Trump will begin to lessen operations. He recently announced that agents would be pulled out, but that does not heal the gash left by these two murders, the gash that began long before the murder of George Floyd and before Bloody Friday.

The residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul have shown resilience and common decency for their neighbors. They came together, they organized, and will continue to fight back against this threat. If this fight is to continue and be sustained, what is the end goal for these two cities in terms of ICE operations? Its track currently is similar to Chicago. While it’s believed ICE was kicked out by their government officials, operations are still underway, just in less brutal ways compared to Minneapolis. Can there be legislation to keep ICE out in full? The levels of our government are being tested with citizens left to stand in the middle.

Civil disobedience has been a long standing form of protest in America. It’s time to use it.