{"id":24318,"date":"2025-12-22T05:35:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=24318"},"modified":"2025-12-22T05:35:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:35:42","slug":"minneapolis-widersetzt-sich-wenn-ice-auf-immer-mehr-widerstand-trifft-und-eine-stadt-ihre-nachbarn-schuetzt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/minneapolis-widersetzt-sich-wenn-ice-auf-immer-mehr-widerstand-trifft-und-eine-stadt-ihre-nachbarn-schuetzt\/","title":{"rendered":"Minneapolis Resists - As ICE Faces Growing Opposition and a City Protects Its Neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent days, we have repeatedly reported on ICE operations, including in Minneapolis. We will not repeat all of the shocking footage here again. Long before you could see the people, the noise was already there. Whistles, shouts, the dull sound of footsteps in the snow. On a residential street in Minneapolis, more than seventy people stood tightly packed on the sidewalk, phones raised, voices loud. Opposite them were several ICE vehicles, a small number of agents, visibly under pressure. What began as a targeted traffic stop escalated within minutes into an open confrontation, captured in images that we have already shown here over the past few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An ICE agent forced a demonstrator to the ground. A woman tried to intervene, and the agent raised his baton. The mood tipped for good. Anger, screams, whistles. A supervisor radioed the Hennepin County police. In a later released audio recording, he can be heard speaking of \u201c60 to 70 agitators\u201d who were allegedly attacking his agents. Shortly afterward, sheriff\u2019s deputies arrived, positioned themselves on the edge of the scene, and watched as ICE and protesters moved along the street. A car with a smashed window stood in the background. Then ICE agents fired several so-called pepper balls into the street. People staggered back coughing, searching for water to rinse their burning eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local authorities later contradicted ICE\u2019s account. The Sheriff\u2019s Office publicly stated that it had not witnessed any attacks on agents and had not observed any injuries. At the same time, the office emphasized that it does not participate in civil immigration enforcement. The images, however, tell of a different climate: one in which federal agents wield batons and chemical irritants against residents, while elected officials film the scene and are themselves affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trigger for the escalation is the so-called Operation Metro Surge, launched by the Department of Homeland Security at the beginning of December. Minneapolis and Saint Paul have since been the focus of intensified ICE activity. Many residents openly explain why they are intervening: out of solidarity with the Somali community and other migrant groups they believe are being deliberately targeted, not least because of derogatory statements by the president. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, around 80,000 people. Most of them are American citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fear is palpable. Cafes and shops, usually full of life, remain empty. People no longer leave their homes. A Somali American resident describes how even citizens fear being mistaken for someone else and detained. He speaks of days without grocery shopping, of sleepless nights. The arrest of a 20-year-old Somali man born in the United States during his lunch break has intensified that fear. He later said he repeatedly told the agents he was a U.S. citizen and tried to show them his identification. No one looked. A pattern we know. Only after a lawyer could be arranged for him was he released. City leaders apologized. Police called the incident embarrassing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n