Anti-ICE Activists Block Minneapolis Roads
Anti-ICE activists set up makeshift street “checkpoints” in parts of Minneapolis this week, stopping vehicles, assaulting journalists, and attempting to identify federal immigration agents as tensions remain high following recent enforcement actions in Minnesota.
Video circulating online shows demonstrators operating temporary roadblocks using cones, barricades, and parked vehicles, thereby forcing motorists to slow or stop as activists approach their cars. In several clips, individuals at the checkpoints appear to check license plates or question drivers before allowing them to pass. Protest organizers described the actions as “community-driven checkpoints,” framing the effort as civilian “resistance” to ICE officers as well as to Minneapolis police officers, whom they claim are “openly collaborating with ICE.”
Subsequent footage depicts the protesters stopping vehicles from outside the state and running license plates to “confirm whether the vehicle is affiliated with abductors” before letting them through their checkpoint. “So now we need permission to drive from these people?” said one Minnesota resident who was stopped at a checkpoint while the protestors appeared to examine her license plate. The resident described the scene: “As we were driving in, we passed a small group of maybe 30 people holding large “F*** ICE” signs, spelled out. Many of the houses in the neighborhood also had signs saying ‘F*** ICE’ and similar messages.”
Jorge Ventura, a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter, covered the demonstrations on the ground. He was documenting activity at one of the checkpoints when he witnessed his Uber driver being detained by protesters. “It looks like, in our system, your plate came back as an ICE plate,” a masked protester explained to the Uber driver. Ventura repeatedly told the protester, “He’s just a Somalian Uber driver,” but the individual still proceeded to stop and confront the driver.
As Ventura reported from the scene alongside photojournalist Eric Carrera, protesters at the checkpoint assaulted them both. Ventura appeared on The Ingraham Angle to address the attack. He said, “They actually caused my right hand to bleed. They attacked the photojournalist I was with.” He then explained why he believed the activists attacked him: “And they do this, Laura, because they want to deter journalists like myself who actually show the truth of what’s going on on the ground.”
Ventura said traffic cones, wooden materials, and furniture were utilized by the protesters to create what he described as “filter blockade[s]” along neighborhood streets. He observed, “I didn’t see any local law enforcement when I arrived” at the checkpoint that he said “was still up more than 24 hours.”
“The agitators were very aggressive, questioning me,” Ventura recalled. Video of the altercation showed a masked protester saying, “Get in the f*****g car, man,” as he shoved the reporter into his car.
As protests over immigration enforcement have intensified in Minnesota, federal officials say they are moving to expand transparency measures for ICE officers operating in the field. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that DHS will begin outfitting federal immigration officers with body-worn cameras, with Minneapolis designated as the first location for implementation. “Effective immediately we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis,” Noem wrote.
Noem explained that the program will extend beyond the city, “As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” she said, adding that DHS will “rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras” throughout its law enforcement agencies. This initiative follows a period of intensified criticism surrounding immigration operations after the fatal shootings of ICE protesters Alex Pretti and Renée Good.
In response to Noem, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, stated, “It’s about time but why just Minneapolis? DHS officers are abusing Americans all across the country.”
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