A new kind of Minnesota “nice” has been on full display in recent weeks as anti-ICE agitators and residents increase protests—and violence—against immigration enforcement officers and people who support them.
Snow and sub-zero temperatures have swept across the North Star State. Still, it hasn’t stopped anti-ICE activists from taking to the streets to protest outside the Whipple Federal Building near City Hall in downtown Minneapolis and across neighborhoods in the Twin Cities.
Inflammatory rhetoric by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has emboldened the agitators to become more brazen, violent and lawless in recent weeks.
Rioters destroyed federal vehicles and stole guns and confidential records following Walz’s televised address last week, when he encouraged people to witness and record ICE.
Frey continues to make rounds on left-leaning news shows describing an “invasion of masked men” in the Twin Cities. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday it is investigating Frey and Walz for allegedly impeding federal law enforcement.
Speaking to Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, the mayor insisted his city was “under siege,” branding the probe “ridiculous” and vowing: “We will not be intimidated by the actions of this federal government.”
Based on videos from Minneapolis, it has become commonplace for ICE watch groups, protestors and residents to honk their horns and stop in the middle of the street to harass ICE agents and others.
The president last week threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to restore order, while Walz has placed Minnesota National Guard troops on standby.
Several disturbing videos made headlines over the weekend, including a group of organized activists tied to local Black Lives Matter and Racial Justice Network groups who disrupted the Jan. 18 Sunday service at the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In another incident on Sunday, independent journalist Nick Sortor had his camera snatched from his hand. The harrowing footage shows Sortor trying to retrieve it, while the thieves drive down a sidewalk and drag him as he holds onto the car.
🚨 BREAKING: A group of Somali thugs just ROBBED me of my $1,000 camera in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis
They then DRAGGED ME DOWN THE STREET as my hand got trapped in their door handle
NOBODY bothered helping
DHS MUST RAID THIS PLACE! pic.twitter.com/DXI426E9AY
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 18, 2026
More agitators surround Sortor and others with him, while yelling obscenities, calling them “f*cking cowards” and Nazis, and telling them to “get the f*ck up out of here.”
“BREAKING: A group of Somali thugs just ROBBED me of my $1,000 camera in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis,” Sortor wrote on X. “They then DRAGGED ME DOWN THE STREET as my hand got trapped in their door handle. NOBODY bothered helping. DHS MUST RAID THIS PLACE!”
In another video posted Monday, Sortor wrote: “BREAKING: A group of liberal white women (mostly) have taken over a Target in St. Paul DEMANDING Target stop letting ICE and Border Patrol agents use their bathrooms. I kid you not. We live in freaking clown world.”
🚨 BREAKING: A group of liberal white women (mostly) have taken over a Target in St. Paul DEMANDING Target stop letting ICE and Border Patrol agents use their bathrooms
I kid you not.
We live in freaking clown world 🤡🤣 pic.twitter.com/iv12xBvDEu
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 19, 2026
More violence erupted Saturday as leftist anarchists and anti-ICE demonstrators attacked a controversial Conservative activist, Jake Lang, during a counter-protest in downtown Minneapolis. Disturbing video shows protestors surround Lang, who appeared disoriented and was bleeding from the back of his head.
Hundreds of anti-ICE protesters gathered downtown near City Hall. They waved signs and screamed chants that called for ICE and Border Patrol agents to leave Minneapolis.
The demonstrators then chased off a small group of far-right activists, including Lang, who traveled to Minnesota to organize a counter protest.
The anti-ICE protest was organized by the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump, Reuters reported.
Other conservative accounts on X quickly jumped into the conversation, calling for the federal government to step in and stop the madness.
In another viral video circulating on social media Sunday, an ICE agent stops and tells agitators they’re interfering with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation targeting an alleged child sex offender in Minnesota.
“We’re here to arrest a child sex offender and you guys are out here honking,” the agent says in the video.
A person off camera responds. “We’re press. We’re not honking.”
The agent then points to a nearby vehicle. “That vehicle right there is honking and impeding our investigations while we’re trying to arrest a child sex offender. That’s who you guys are protecting. Insane,” he says as he shakes his head and drives off.
“God bless the men & women of @ICEgov @CBP who risk their lives to arrest these criminals,” Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, shared on X with the video.
God bless the men & women of @ICEgov @CBP who risk their lives to arrest these criminals. pic.twitter.com/eDJQLCrjZh
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) January 18, 2026
The unhinged anti-ICE mobs have even accosted tech workers just trying to have lunch. Alpha News posted on social media that five Twin Cities software engineers were mistaken for undercover federal agents and harassed by protestors.
One of the men—who belongs to an anti-ICE Signal chat—received a message from a group labeled “SW Minneapolis Rapid Response” claiming that plainclothes ICE agents were dining at the restaurant.
“My friend was shocked,” one of the men, Lee, told Alpha News. “He’s on the [anti-ICE] side politically. He lives nearby. He’s eaten there before. And suddenly he’s seeing messages saying we’re ICE.”
Lee told Alpha News the tech workers have mixed political views, but witnessing the protestors shout insults and blow whistles at them as they attempted to leave, was hard to believe. The encounter left some of them rethinking their positions.
“One of us is pro-ICE, one anti-ICE, others on the fence,” he said. “After this, I think some of them are rethinking everything.”
