Minnesota has become the epicentre of President Donald Trump’s political retribution campaign, disguised as immigration enforcement, according to local journalist Rachel Leingang. The state, which started the George Floyd protests and has a generous social safety net, was a predictable target for a president intent on retaliating against his enemies, Leingang writes.
Since Trump took office last year, thousands of federal agents have descended on Minnesota, leading to the deaths of two US citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, and the swift detention and deportation of likely thousands of people, many without criminal records. The violence and scale of the operation have shocked residents, who did not anticipate the relentlessness of the agents’ presence or the level of brutality.
The community has been hit by multiple tragedies in the past year, including the targeted killing of a state lawmaker and her husband, and a shooting at a Catholic school. Now, daily life is consumed by fear and resistance. Residents scan for SUVs with blacked-out windows, schools are half-empty, and many storefronts have become donation collection sites. Mutual aid drives and GoFundMe links are shared frequently.
Despite the trauma, Minnesotans are fighting back. One woman, wearing a coat that read “Granny Against ICE,” cared for her sick father until he died, then immediately joined protests. A city council member said: “We’re not going to go quietly. I like that about us.” The stoic Nordic community has been forced to show emotion, with many crying together over loved ones taken, children afraid, and physical and psychological injuries from ICE encounters.
Leingang, who has documented Trump’s retaliation agenda, now finds herself reporting on the campaign in her own community. She notes that unless you are there, it is hard to understand how consuming the crisis is, and how fried people’s nerves have become. The rest of the world, viewing repeated footage of agents’ brutality, has cheered the people on.
