Update
How to Message the Occupation of Minnesota: "One-pager" and more from Antonia Scatton and the Minnesota Messaging Group
Antonia Scatton, Reframing America, Jan 26, 2026
8 weeks under siege in Minnesota
President Trump unleashed federal agents on Minnesota to be foot soldiers in a brutal retribution campaign that’s violating the most basic freedoms of the United States. Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer, January 23, 2026
Thomas Zimmer says: "At the start of 2026, America is no longer a democracy," but "being lawless, immoral, and violent does not make the Trumpists omnipotent. Their authoritarian desires are limitless, but their ability to impose them on the country is not. Let us not adopt and perpetuate the propagandistic assertion of inevitability." In particular, what's happening in Minneapolis right now "is not law enforcement. It is an occupation. But in Minneapolis, as in every other urban center these masked goons descend upon, the local community is rallying in solidarity." A lot of people are upset about what ICE is doing, which curtails Trump, as "the regime still needs millions to comply in order to keep the machine going." (The Limits of Violent Authoritarianism, Jan 20, 2026, for paid subscribers)
Daycare harassment in Minneapolis
See:
"If we trace the chain of events that caused ICE agents to be deployed to Minneapolis in the first place, they are anchored in Trump’s lies. Trump has openly claimed that Minneapolis is being targeted because of its large Somali population, which is predominately Black and Muslim (a largely refugee population, by the way, that was assisted with resettlement by Lutheran Social Services with government support). At a cabinet meeting in December, as more than 2,000 ICE agents were first being deployed to Minnesota, Trump went on a racist screed, describing Somalia as a country that “stinks and we don’t want them in our country.” He went on to compare Somalis to “garbage” and falsely claimed that Somali gangs had “taken over” Minnesota and were “roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’”"
— Robert P. Jones, Trump's Lies Are Killing Us: The Deadly Consequences of Big and Little Lies Everywhere
Trump's deadly lies represent a new stage in the backsliding of America away from democracy. White Too Long, Jan 09, 2026
"Kristi Noem, replete with even longer extensions and even more pancake makeup, stormed into Minneapolis on Tuesday [January 6, 2026] with 20,000 henchmen from Homeland Security because a few daycare facilities in the city had possibly violated Medicare funding rules."
— Denny Carter, The Content Regime Cranks Out More Content: Kristi Noem went to Minnesota to make some movie trailers for her fashy fans, Bad Faith Times, Jan 7, 2026
See also: DHS Sends 2,000 Agents To Minneapolis In Immigration, Fraud Crackdown (Jan 6, 2026)
Josh Powell says:
"The chaos is strategic. They want to blow every circuit in our collective ability to process what’s happening in real time. They want us so exhausted by the spectacle that we miss the systematic looting happening while we’re distracted.
And nowhere is this more apparent than in the Nick Shirley daycare video and Trump’s punishing response to this wannabe Charlie Kirk (the first wasn’t bad enough apparently) propaganda.
A 23-year-old social media grifter posts an amateur video the day after Christmas claiming—without evidence—massive fraud at Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota. Within 72 hours, Trump freezes $10 billion in aid to the poorest families across five Democratic states. Within a week, federal agents deploy to Minnesota and Trump is calling Somali Americans “lowlifes” demanding they be sent “back from where they came.”
— Joshua Powell, Tick, Tick, BOOM - The Bomb Slowly Going Off in America's Blue States
A YouTuber's fake fraud video gave Trump the pretext he needed to freeze $10 billion in aid to Democratic states. Boom - there goes Venezuela. Chaos is the point. What's he really up to? Does he Know? Jan 07, 2026
Governor I was not familiar with your game
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— Eli Valley (@elivalley.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Trump administration suspends $10 billion in federal aid for children and families in five Democratic states
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— EL País Unofficial (@elpais.skyfleet.blue) January 8, 2026 at 8:35 AM
Lawmakers can't get into ICE facilities
Rep. Angie Craig: "We were told because this facility is being funding by the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' not the congressional appropriations act, that we would not be allowed to enter the facility. That's complete nonsense ... I informed them they were violating the law. They said they didn't care."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 10, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Judge halts Trump freeze of social assistance and child care funds in five Democrat-led states, for now Tami Luhby, CNN, Jan 8, 2026
ICE shoots a mother in her car
It is now confirmed from multiple sources that ICE shot a legal observer dead on Portland in Minneapolis between 34th and 33rd street. The victim is dead
— Minnesotan Kaiju (@whisperingpines.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 11:28 AM
A 23 year old larping as a journalist made a misleading and inaccurate YouTube video that the administration full of chronically online shitposters used to justify the “largest immigration operation ever” and now someone is dead
— Mia Sato (@miasato.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Nehls: I just recommend that people comply with officers' instructions.
Reporter: They did tell her to move her car and she moved her car..
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 3:58 PM
This guy did it
his name is Jonathan Ross and he shouldn't get a good night's sleep for the rest of his life www.startribune.com/ice-agent-wh...
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— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 2:09 PM
BREAKING: The Hennepin County District Attorney's office says they have jurisdiction to charge the ICE agent involved in the fatal Minneapolis shooting.
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— MS NOW (@ms.now) January 8, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Why?
I’m re-upping this because we need to focus.No country should allow masked enforcement officers to terrorize communities. But this country’s history makes this practice ESPECIALLY repugnant. So long as we allow anonymity & impunity there will be brutality.
NO MASKS
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...
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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Frey: So, they are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly: That is bullshit.
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 1:39 PM
@chrislhayes.bsky.social: “A 37-year-old American citizen, the mother of a young child is dead tonight. She was shot in the face by an agent of the federal government, and that government has spent the day telling despicable lies about her.”
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— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Bystander Videos Capture Different Perspectives Of Fatal ICE Shooting: The videos raise serious questions about claims federal officials have made about the shooting. Li Zhou, HuffPost, Jan 8, 2026
This is literally what they do whenever a Black person is killed by police. No matter how solid the evidence is, they will keep pushing that lie, not just to poison the conversation and make sure the killer walks free, but to reassert the political idea that these people deserve to be killed.
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— Zito (@zeets.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 8:41 AM
WITNESS: "I just can't let this narrative of self-defense go any further. That’s absolutely not what it was… ICE agents didn’t let anyone help her for 15 minutes, then medics couldn’t get through with their ambulance.”
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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Walz: "I couldn't help but think, and it scares me a bit -- 'The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most important directive.' It certainly feels like that in this moment."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 8, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Q: After you told ICE to get the F out, Republicans are criticizing you for escalating tensions
FREY: I'm sorry if I offered their Disney princess ears, but if we're talking about what's inflammatory, on one hand you got someone who dropped an F bomb & on other you have someone who killed someone
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 7, 2026 at 10:25 PM
i think it is ok to reiterate that the victim as a us citizen. yes, noncitizens are equally entitled to human rights. but also, it's important to illustrate how ice isn't about immigration at all
— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Make it viral.
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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 10:22 PM
To anybody who is offended by the governor of Minneapolis telling ICE “get the fuck out of our city,” but not offended by ICE ethnic cleansing secret police summarily executing a local mom, a message: Go fuck yourself.
Learn the difference between a swear word and an obscenity.
— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 10:35 AM
Minneapolis Incident Marks 9th ICE Shooting In 4 Months, Jan 8, 2026
Afterward
ICE agents stopped by protesters after the shooting an observer in Minneapolis, according to witnesse. ICE deployed pepper spray and tear gas.
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— Jon Collins (@jcollins.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 12:15 PM
a major american city is being forced to close schools because armed government agents are raiding and pepper spraying and terrorizing children and teachers for social media content
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— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Just seen Grok putting the body of the victim of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis into a bikini. Digital corpse desecration now available to the public.
— Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 8:30 AM
I just watched two women get kidnapped right in front of me in Northeast Minneapolis.
ICE is still terrorizing our city.
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— Eric Holthaus (@ericholthaus.com) January 8, 2026 at 11:14 AM
The MAGA media machine is saying that she deserved it
“in america, you deserve to be murdered by the state if you have gender pronouns in bio”
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— onion person (@junlper.beer) January 7, 2026 at 6:56 PM
this is the Fox News signal that Good deserved to die
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— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) January 8, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Homan: "We gotta stop the hateful rhetoric. Saying this officer is a murderer is dangerous. It's just ridiculous. It's gonna infuriate people more which means there's gonna be more incidents like this."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 11, 2026 at 9:52 AM
"You deserve to die if you disagree with us" is their position. bsky.app/profile/atru...
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— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 9:37 AM
Since last year, Trump admin planned what to do if ICE agents were accused of crimes (even murder):
Protect them “no matter what."
Trump laid out ways to retaliate:
—Refuse to hand over an agent
—Charge local officials with “obstructing"
—Threaten to cut off more funding
led by @swin24.bsky.social
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— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Trump regime won't allow the state of Minnesota to investigate
According to my sources, the FBI was initially open to a concurrent investigation with the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (the state agency that would do this investigation).
Trumpy U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen heard about this and intervened, barring the FBI from cooperating with local police.
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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 11:35 AM
Walz: "We have learned that the Trump administration has now denied the state that ability to participate in the investigation. I want to make this as clear as possible: Minnesota must be part of this investigation ... it feels very very difficult that we will get a fair outcome."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 8, 2026 at 12:41 PM
This is not the law.
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— Anthony Michael Kreis (@anthonymkreis.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 1:59 PM
Some quick thoughts on how Trump takes advantage of the period of uncertainty between an event and full understanding of what happened — from the 2020 election to Minnesota. www.pbump.net/o/trumpism-d...
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— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) January 8, 2026 at 11:15 AM
VPOTUS JD Vance lied: "That woman was part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to doxx, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job."
You can tell things are going well when the VP is tweeting through it.
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— hannah gais (@hannahgais.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 1:58 PM
AOC: That is a fundamental difference between VP Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 9:31 PM
JD Vance Is 'Not Happy' Renee Good Was Killed, But..., The vice president is in charge of creating the bad-faith unreality in which Renee Good was a terrorist., Denny Carter, Bad Faith Times, Jan 9, 2026
Rep. Randy Fine: "It's time for Americans to say 'enough,' and if you get in the way of the government repelling a foreign invasion, you're gonna end up just like that lady did yesterday."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 8, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Pinning your hopes on police orgs breaking with ICE is not sound thinking.
sherrilyn.substack.com/p/whether-it...
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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 11:48 AM
"If the greatest lie the devil ever told was to convince us that he wasn’t real, the greatest lie the oil industry ever told us is to convince us that they don’t want oil"
@antoniajuhasz.bsky.social interviewed by @emdashsanders.bsky.social, on the fossil fuel industry's latest big lies:
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— Ketan Joshi (@ketanjoshi.co) January 10, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Live Updates Noem says DHS sending ‘hundreds more’ CBP officers to Minneapolis (CNN)
I will be holding a press conference at 3:30p CT today with @mayorjacobfrey.bsky.social and Mayor Her to discuss our lawsuit to halt ICE’s surge into Minnesota.
Watch live:
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— Attorney General Keith Ellison (@ag.state.mn.us) January 12, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Federal Agents In Minnesota Wreak Havoc As They Demand Papers, Conduct Arrests, HuffPost, Jan 13, 2026
DHS Used Neo-Nazi Anthem for Recruitment After Fatal Minneapolis ICE Shooting The federal government is openly embracing white nationalist online content — including in a recruitment post after Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good. Austin Campbell, The Intercept, January 13 2026
ICE's killing and brutality is breaking through big time with disengaged voters. Joe Rogan just harshly criticized ICE as "Gestapo." And new data I've obtained finds very high percentages of young and working class have seen video of Minneapolis shooting.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2052...
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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) January 14, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Trump Threatens To Use The Insurrection Act To 'Put An End' To Protests In Minneapolis Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act allowing him to deploy troops as protests against ICE persist in Minneapolis. Steve Karnowski, Alanna Durkin Richer, Hallie Golden and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press, Jan 15, 2026
Action
Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators. ICE can’t function without help from the private sector. So we should force the private sector to stop helping. Eric Blanc, Wes McEnany, and Claire Sandberg, The Nation, January 9, 2026
Events, Petitions, and Volunteer Opportunities, Mobilize
Support the organizations doing this work:
Black Immigrant Collective — Black-led organization providing legal clinics, mutual aid, and policy advocacy
Unidos MN — Grassroots organization building power with working families for social, racial, and economic justice
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) — All-volunteer grassroots organization led by BIPOC and immigrant community members
Immigrant Defense Network — Network of 90+ organizations protecting immigrant rights in Minnesota.Learn about ICE (immigration) raids
Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) — National organization at the intersection of immigration justice and anti-Black social structures
Support local mutual aid:
Stand With Minnesota
Twin Cities Mutual Aid
Pow Wow Grounds (accepting donations for community needs)
Northern Coffeeworks (supporting weekly food deliveries to immigrant families)
"As the parent of two young children, I was enraged by daycare centers across the U.S. dealing with harassment as they got the #pizzagate treatment from Shirley and other MAGA activists. Even moreso by the fact that some media outlets chose to both sides what was happening, rather than acknowledge the insanity and danger of wannabe MAGA influencers showing up to random daycare centers with video cameras to harass workers and children."
— Melissa Ryan, In Cold Blood: State-Sponsored Violence, First, they came for the daycares. Then they murdered a mom. Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Jan 11, 2026
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
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— Mr. Dan Zak (@mrdanzak.com) January 15, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Aliya Rahman told ICE she was disabled
She told them she was on her way to a doctor appt
They broke her window, cut her seatbelt & dragged her away like an animal
She was headed to the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when they grabbed her.
She was denied access to a doctor & tossed in detention
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— Kelly (@broadwaybabyto.bsky.social) January 15, 2026 at 11:49 PM
Biometric data gathered when he went in for a green card interview. That's what they used.
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— Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof (@evanbernick.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 3:41 PM
CBS reportedly isn't comfortable with its own decision to run a story that the ICE guy suffered injuries when shooting Good.
On X
"under the 10th Amendment in the U.S. constitution, federal authorities do not have the power to command local law enforcement." (HuffPost)
He hopes he doesn't lose your vote when his ICE operations kill your child:
Trump: "ICE is gonna be too rough with somebody. They're gonna make a mistake sometimes. I felt horribly when I was told the young woman had the tragedy. But when I learned her father is - I hope he still is, but I don't know - was a tremendous Trump fan. It's terrible. It's so sad. It just happens"
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 20, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Every Stephen Miller tantrum and DHS recruitment ad speaks in these existential terms about "defending your culture" to elide the fact that they need people with the courage to wear a mask while interrogating a sixth grader
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— Gillian Branstetter (@gbbranstetter.bsky.social) January 21, 2026 at 1:07 PM
one of few human obligations nearly everyone agrees on is that to avoid living in such a way that a sentence like that must be written about something you’ve done to a small child
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— rax ‘levon honkers’ king (@raxkingisdead.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 9:11 AM
The existence of this agency, staffed the way it is today, is just completely incompatible with a democratic society.
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— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 11:42 AM
How Right Wing Influencers Used AI Slop to Turn Renee Good Into a Meme, Owen Carry, 404 Media, 26 Jan 2026
