What 3,000 federal agents are doing in Minnesota

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Welcome to The Logoff: Tensions are rising in Minneapolis as the Trump administration continues its crackdown.

What’s happening? There are some 3,000 Department of Homeland Security agents — both ICE and Customs and Border Protection, or CBP — in Minnesota this week, largely in the Minneapolis area. Since the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent eight days ago, a huge amount of video and reporting has documented further brutality by federal immigration agents, often indiscriminate and unprovoked, against immigrants and American citizens alike.

On Wednesday night, a federal agent shot and injured a Venezuelan man after an alleged traffic stop, giving fresh fuel to protests. And on Thursday morning, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to Minnesota, “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E.”

Why does this matter? For the second time in six years, Minnesota feels like a tinderbox. Officials in the state, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, are urging calm and asking protesters to remain peaceful, but it increasingly feels like this is a fight the Trump administration wants to pick. On Wednesday, senior Trump aide Stephen Miller described arresting “insurrectionists” in Minneapolis as a “national security priority.”

What’s the context? ICE, which makes up the majority of the agents currently in Minneapolis, has grown substantially in the last year, at the same time as its standards have dropped precipitously. At the same time, under pressure to make more immigration arrests, they’re taking an increasingly militarized approach at odds with how ICE operated under previous administrations. All of those factors are on display right now in Minneapolis.

What’s the big picture? What’s happening to Minneapolis residents already looks less like immigration enforcement and more like an occupation. If Trump follows through with his Insurrection Act threat, things could grow far worse.

I really enjoyed this piece from Defector, and you might too: What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse. (Plus everything else under their excellent “Creaturefector” tab.)

As always, thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!