Category: Minnesota
The left is at war in Minnesota. America is watching football.
Gunfire, smoke grenades, vehicles charging law enforcement: The scene in Minnesota looks like a war zone. Leftists are assaulting ICE agents, storming churches, threatening journalists, and ripping conservatives out of cars, all in one of the most frigid winters imaginable.
While CNN and MSNBC are treating ICE’s presence as a fascist takeover that every progressive foot soldier should travel to fight, they are increasingly frustrated that no one seems to really care. The left might be engaged in its own miniature insurrection, but the rest of America isn’t at war. The rest of America is watching football.
The average guy might catch an online video or headline and shake his head, but he goes right back to wondering if the Patriots are going to win another Super Bowl.
The summer of 2020 was truly a wonder to behold. After the entire country was locked down for months on end, tensions were boiling. The media had been steadily bombarding their captive viewers with different stories of police brutality against black people, the most sacred of all victims, hoping that one spark would eventually trigger a wildfire. It took a while, but once riots started, they spread to different cities quickly. Teachers had their students write essays about George Floyd, while churches baptized in his name. Statues were built, murals were painted, and companies donated millions to Black Lives Matter, even as rioters looted and burned down their stores.
It was a truly religious movement, supported by every major power center in the nation, justifying outrageous violence and property damage, while news organizations glorified the entire spectacle. Not since the 1960s has America been gripped by such a fervently spiritual devotion to revolutionary politics.
Now, Trump is back in office and the left is desperately trying to recreate the magic, but leftists can’t seem to get it done. ICE has started its deportations of the worst illegal-alien criminals. In most states, the operation has gone smoothly. Some blue states have decided not to work with ICE, forcing the agents to retrieve the illegal aliens themselves, often in very hostile environments, without the aid of local law enforcement. Minnesota has been a hotbed of domestic unrest, so it is no surprise that the state has also seen the most conflict during these ICE raids.
It isn’t just that Minnesota refuses to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The entire state political apparatus is involved in a conspiracy to foment violence. Government officials, including the lieutenant governor, have been caught in a group chat working to coordinate the revolution. Teachers’ unions and school boards collaborate to suspend school so that educators and students can join in the street protests and riots. Judges refuse to sign arrest warrants for obvious crimes because they agree with the perpetrators. Minnesota is in open insurrection. There really is no other word for it.
Despite the incredible level of subversive coordination occurring in Minnesota, events have failed to capture the popular imagination like they did during the summer of love. Some have blamed the winter, claiming that it is simply too cold for the leftists to maintain an overwhelming presence in the streets. Others have pointed to the lack of lockdowns or some other simmering psychological factor increasing political tensions.
The most likely explanation centers around the cause itself. Black criminals have gained an almost sacred status on the left, making them a far more animating cause, especially for the black community at large. No black activist is showing up to die for white lesbians who get themselves shot standing up for child-molesting illegal aliens from Venezuela. Without the sacred victims, it is difficult for leftists to get their most violent foot soldiers in the streets or to get corporations to sign on and push the agenda. Whatever the true explanation, the consequences are obvious. The revolution is not spreading, and most of America does not care.
If you are someone who follows the news obsessively, it is easy to overestimate the impact that events in Minnesota are having on the country. It’s not that what is happening between ICE and violent leftists isn’t serious. It is, but most Americans are barely paying attention. Most states are cooperating with ICE, and deportations are entirely positive, making very little noise. The average guy might catch an online video or headline and shake his head, but he goes right back to wondering if the Patriots are going to win another Super Bowl.
Progressive activists are posting on social media complaining about how most of the country just does not care about what they are doing. The revolution is contained, and the leftist insurgency is becoming demoralized.
Tim Walz has now agreed to involve local law enforcement if ICE reduces its direct presence in operations. Some disgruntled right-wingers have described this as capitulation by the Trump administration, but that simply is not the case. The goal was always to use ICE as a supplementary force in conjunction with local agencies. Anything else invites chaos.
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Blaze Media Illustration
The refusal of local law enforcement to cooperate created a “city under siege” mentality, where progressives could sell the image of faceless authoritarians surging into their hometown, justifying all kinds of ruthless tactics. Now that local police are handling the riot control, they own the situation. It’s a lot easier to demonize and attack a faceless federal agent. Now the protesters are assaulting their friends, family members, and neighbors. Activists have even started to surround Tim Walz’s residence due to their outrage. Once revolutionary energy is redirected toward their own leaders, the movement is not long for this world.
Many GOP commentators and politicians have decided that now is the time to defect, calling for ICE to withdraw and abandon operations in Minnesota — a huge mistake. The progressives are outraged that their government allies have wavered and demoralized becuase their revolution has been contained. The worst possible move would be to rip defeat from the jaws of victory because a few MSNBC segments started to make the donor class squeamish.
Now is the time to break the insurgency and continue nationwide operations without hesitation. Americans are more interested in whether the Seahawks can pull this one off than they are in spreading the Marxist open-borders gospel. If conservative politicians and commentators can control their impulse to surrender like spineless cowards for a few weeks, the moment will pass and immigration law will be enforced.
‘PLAYING WITH FIRE’: Trump Blasts Minneapolis Mayor After Frey Threatens to Ignore Federal Immigration Law
President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is “playing with fire” after Frey said the city will not enforce federal immigration laws, escalating a showdown over local cooperation with the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
‘PLAYING WITH FIRE!’ Trump responds to Minneapolis Mayor Frey’s latest act of defiance
Earlier this week, President Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to speak personally with leaders in Minnesota. In the latest update to those exchanges, President Trump called out a top official at the center of the controversy for refusing to cooperate with the administration.
On Wednesday morning, Trump issued a stern warning to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) after Frey indicated on Tuesday afternoon he was not going to enforce federal immigration law.
‘He is PLAYING WITH FIRE!’
Frey posted a short thread to X summarizing his position, stating that Minneapolis “will not enforce federal immigration law, and that we will remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe.”
Trump noted his surprise at Frey’s apparent switchback following a “very good conversation with him”: “Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!”
President Trump sent Homan to Minnesota on Monday to discuss a solution with Mayor Frey and other leaders in the state. As of Monday, Trump said on Truth Social that “lots of progress is being made!”
Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
By Tuesday, Homan likewise believed that he had had a “productive” conversation with Frey and Gov. Tim Walz (D). He said that “we all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets.”
In his message, posted hours before Homan’s, Frey emphasized the safety of the community and the strain on local police officers, stating that his “main ask is for Operation Metro Surge to end as quickly as possible.”
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Activist judge who downplayed Don Lemon’s church antics, summoned ICE director donated to pro-illegal-alien group
The Minnesota-based federal judge who declined to issue arrest warrants for Don Lemon and several of the radicals accused of storming into Cities Church on Jan. 18 demanded on Tuesday that acting ICE Director Todd Lyons “appear personally before the Court and show cause why he should not be held in contempt of Court.”
Despite U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Schiltz’s portrayal in the liberal media as a conservative-minded and “mild-mannered George W. Bush appointee,” it appears that Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin’s characterization of Schiltz as “just another activist judge” is more apt.
‘Another activist judge who is clearly more concerned about politics than the safety of the Minnesotans.’
Bill Melugin of Fox News revealed this week that Schiltz is linked to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, a liberal activist outfit that provides free legal representation to illegal aliens, low-income migrants, and so-called refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota.
The ILCM routinely criticizes the men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accusing them of occupation, racism, “Islamophobi[a],” and engaging in “execution-style murders.”
After Schiltz’s name was found among the donors and volunteers listed in the ILCM’s 2019 annual report, the judge — dubbed the “latest hero to the anti-Trump resistance” by Politico — admitted to Fox News Digital that he has “donated for many years to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.”
“I have also donated for many years to Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. I believe that poor people should be able to get legal representation,” added Schiltz, who has served as a delegate at Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party conventions.
The donor to the illegal alien support group noted in a Monday court filing that his “patience is at an end” and ordered Lyons to explain on Friday why he should not be held in contempt for supposedly violating an earlier order.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Schiltz indicated that Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, an Ecuadorian national who illegally entered the U.S. in 1999 and was detained by immigration agents on Jan. 6, should have been provided with a bond hearing or released earlier this month.
The Bush judge indicated in his Tuesday order that if Robles was released before the hearing, Lyons would not be required to appear. A lawyer for the Ecuadorian told the Associated Press that his client was released Tuesday afternoon.
“Judge Patrick J. Schiltz is just another activist judge who is clearly more concerned about politics than the safety of the Minnesotans,” stated DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Does this judge really think Director Lyons should take time out of his day leading ICE to target the worst of the worst criminal illegals including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists into our country to testify at a hearing for one illegal alien’s removal proceedings?”
While Schiltz evidently figured that swift and decisive action was required in the case of Robles, he took an entirely different approach in the case of the radicals who assembled on Jan. 18 for a so-called “ICE Out Action,” then stormed a Christian church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
After the church invasion, the Trump Justice Department promptly filed a criminal complaint in the District of Minnesota charging eight of the suspected invaders with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act.
The DOJ’s pursuit of accountability was frustrated at the outset when Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko — whose wife reportedly works for Minnesota’s anti-ICE attorney general, Keith Ellison — declined to support all but three of the requested arrest affidavits.
After Micko threw up additional roadblocks, the DOJ turned to Schiltz for a review of the magistrate’s no-probable-cause finding in hopes that he might issue the warrants.
In an angry and sarcastic Jan. 23 letter to the Eighth Circuit’s chief judge, Steven Colloton, Schiltz downplayed the church invasion, glossed over the invaders’ intimidation tactics, cast doubt on whether arresting them would deter copycats, emphasized that “there is no emergency,” and noted that if the petition filed by the government seeks an immediate decision, “the petition is frivolous.”
In a separate letter, he suggested there was “no evidence that [Don Lemon and his producer] engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.”
Sure enough, Schiltz indicated that he would not issue arrest warrants until conferring with his colleagues — a meeting that was supposed to happen last week but was delayed.
Over the weekend, a three-judge Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied the government’s petition to review the magistrate’s refusal to sign the warrants.
While U.S. Circuit Court Judge Steven Grasz, an appointee of President Donald Trump, recognized that the complaint and affidavit “clearly establish probably cause for all five arrest warrants” and that “there is no discretion to refuse to issue an arrest warrant once probable cause for its issuance has been shown,” the government had “failed to establish that it has no other adequate means of obtaining the requested relief.”
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Peaceful Protest
“Peaceful Protest,” editorial cartoon by Tom Stiglich for The American Spectator on Jan. 27, 2026.
INFLUENCER INSURRECTION: ‘Antifa’ Activist Calls for GUNS in the Streets to ‘Stop’ ICE [WATCH]
![INFLUENCER INSURRECTION: ‘Antifa’ Activist Calls for GUNS in the Streets to ‘Stop’ ICE [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Wagner-300x188.png "Wagner")
A self-described “Antifa” member is now openly calling for “armed” men to get their “boots on the ground” to stop immigration officials — branding them “mass murderers” and “fascist occupiers.
HOTEL HELL: Anti-ICE Rioters Violently Attack Minneapolis Hotel, ‘Where is the Local PD?’ [WATCH]
![HOTEL HELL: Anti-ICE Rioters Violently Attack Minneapolis Hotel, ‘Where is the Local PD?’ [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2257737491-300x200.jpg "US-IMMIGRATION-ICE-SHOOTING")
Rioters violently attacked a Minneapolis hotel Sunday night after a crowd of protesters mistakenly believed federal immigration agents were staying there, smashing windows and vandalizing the lobby as tensions boiled over following the killing of Alex Pretti.
Newt Gingrich Proposes Ways For Trump To Enforce Immigration Law And Still Keep Public Trust
‘more training, a little more restraint’
