Minneapolis Murders and Resistance
During the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, always made the connection between war abroad and injustice at home. Fast forward by more than 6 decades, the US administration is carrying out a two pronged attack against immigrants without legal status (undocumented) at home while continuing with its economic and military aggression abroad, most recently against Venezuela and Cuba. As in the 1960’s when people’s historic struggles won democratic rights for Blacks and the anti-war movement challenged US imperialism and war crimes in Vietnam, people across the country are at this time uniting to challenge state terrorism against immigrants. The 2 big agencies inflicting terror are the ICE and Border Patrol. The budget for ICE was 5.96 billion dollars in 2015, in the last year since Trump was elected for a 2nd term, the budget has skyrocketed to a mind blowing 85 billion dollars (10 billion dollars base and 75 billion dollars supplement over 4 years).We Have Always Fought ICE
Minneapolis and Saint Paul are twin cities in the Midwestern state of Minnesota. Winters can be brutal with temperatures dropping to -50 degrees centigrade. There are many interesting stories about people steeled in struggle against ice on the ground in these cities and helping their neighbours in the harsh climatic conditions, they also have learnt over time to effectively fight ICE.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, there are about 100,000 immigrants in the state who are undocumented. Many are from Somalia and Latin America. History was made in Minneapolis on January 23 this year when labour unions and community organizations organized a one day national strike. Tens of thousands of individuals who were unaffiliated with any organizations too joined to protest the violence unleashed by the United States Customs and Border Protection and ICE agents (part of Department of Homeland Security/DHS). Renee Good, a 37 year old woman was killed on January 7 by an ICE agent and Alex Pretti, a registered nurse at the Veterans Administration hospital, was killed on January 24 by 2 agents with Border Patrol in Minneapolis. Both the victims were active in the immigrant rights movement that has mobilized tens of thousands of people against ICE in many cities and towns in the US. Renee Good was in the capacity of a volunteer observing a raid by ICE agents when she was killed. Alex Pretti was killed when he was trying to help someone pushed to the ground by Border Patrol agents. Their brutal killings by state terrorism was the immediate spark for the strike that shut down the city and there were solidarity actions around the country.
History of Indigenous and Union Resistance
Minneapolis belonged to the indigenous Dakota people prior to its expropriation by European settlers. It is no stranger to militant movements. In 1968, American Indian Movement was founded initially as a response to police brutality and racial profiling. In 1934, the city witnessed a historic strike of Teamsters who organized truckers for better wages and conditions. Almost a century later in May 2020, George Floyd an unarmed African American man was murdered by the racist police in Minneapolis. This led to widespread mass protests in the US and many countries in the world. In 2021, the police officer responsible for the Floyd’s murder was sentenced to more than 20 year in prison. This was a result of extensive community organizing. Police accountability for violence in the US is rare. According to Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit organization, in 98.2% of killings by police in the country from 2013-2015, officers have not been even charged!
Minneapolis has become the epicentre of Trump administration’s anti-immigrant attacks. On December 1st 2026, Operation Metro Surge campaign was launched in the twin cities with 3000 masked and armed agents flooding the city to arrest and capture undocumented immigrants. 2000 more agents were deployed on January 6, this led to daily protests. This ‘surge’ from the government in turn led to a surge in intense community mobilization. On January 23, “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom” protest more than 75,000 people left school and work to march in the brutal winter conditions. Prominent unions who supported the strike with their members included Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Teachers Federation (AFT), UNITE-HERE (representing hotel and restaurant workers), Communication Workers of America and United Food and Commercial Workers. Many small businesses also shut down in solidarity. Faith leaders joined in, demanded that Airlines like Delta stop deportation flights carrying immigrants out of the US.
Backbone of the Society, Attacked by Both Ruling Parties
Statistics from sources such as the Center for Migration Studies and American Immigration Council give important information about how important undocumented workers are for the US economy. There are about 8.5 million undocumented workers. Nearly 14% of the construction industry workforce and 13% of agriculture workers are undocumented. In the mining, retail, manufacturing, transportation, and hospitality sectors, the undocumented workers range from 3.6% to 8%.
The wealth creators in the country have been subjected to terror by the Republican and Democratic parties both representing the ruling class. Obama’s presidency led to deportation of 2 million undocumented immigrants. Hilary Clinton supported many draconian anti immigrant policies, including Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized building walls across the borders.
Since Trump became President in January 2025, there has been an escalation of attacks against undocumented immigrants with federal agents showing extreme brutality leading to daylight abductions from workplaces, bus-stops, shopping centres and other public spaces. As of mid January 2026, there are 73,000 immigrants in detention centres, more than 600 to 700,000 people have been deported. Conditions in ICE detention centres are despicable with 32 deaths in 2025. Marshall Project analysis found that at least 3800 children were taken into detention in the last year and faced terrible conditions.
Resistance and Victories
In addition to the impressive one day shutdown of schools and businesses in Minneapolis in January 2023, it is the daily organized resistance of people in Minneapolis and the rest of the country that has exposed the cruelty of the rulers and achieved some important victories. On February 12, the Trump administration said they would end Operation Metro Surge - the occupation of Minneapolis by ICE. This is indeed a victory.
Community activist groups have prepared handouts with the help of organizations like American Civil Liberties Union and other legal advisors called “Know Your Rights” translated into many languages including Indian languages. People have been advised not to open their doors to ICE agents unless there is a search warrant from a judge. In Boston and many other cities, organizers accompany immigrants to court, have developed a network of lawyers who work pro bono, have collected financial aid for families whose wage earners have been deported. They patrol neighbourhoods and report ICE activity and are actively taking pictures and video recordings when ICE agents arrest “undocumented” immigrants.
In Chicago and Los Angeles, both cities where immigrants have built the cities, there have been serious attacks from ICE agents with abductions, tear gassing, shooting with rubber bullets leading to one death. Community organizers have distributed whistles to alert their neighbours when they sight ICE agents. Street Vendors Association has come to the support of vendors who are too scared to be out on the streets. Organizers have targeted hotels like Hilton which house ICE agents with loud noise and music to disrupt their sleep. These ‘noise demonstrations’ have led to some hotels now agreeing to cancel ICE agents reservations.
In the Boston area, activists have picketed in front of Citizens Bank a private bank which is financing 2 CoreCivic and The Geo Group. Both these venal private companies are raking in huge profits from detaining immigrants in inhumane conditions. Activists are calling for a total boycott of the bank. CoreCivic won contracts of 2 billion dollars for running detention centres and Geo Group close to 700 million dollars worth of contracts. Both together have close to 90% of the detained immigrants in their prisons. Successful campaigns have included boycott and picketing of Avelo Airlines. Avelo Airlines is going to end its deportation flights for DHS.
National Nurses United (NNU) representing more that 200,000 nurses in the country held a day of action on February 19, they concluded that “ICE and border patrol are violent, cruel, lawless, and racist organizations that the Trump administration is using as a paramilitary force to ultimately quash the American people’s opposition to his fascist takeover of our democracy. Our hospital CEOs are at fault, too, for enabling Trump by doing nothing. We all need to wake up and shut ICE down now before it is too late.” They are demanding that Congress abolish ICE.
The militant protests and rallies all over the country against ICE and community ICE watch organizing efforts have put a lot of pressure on liberal democrats in the Congress. On January 21, 2026, two women in the Congress Ramirez and Clarke introduced Melt ICE Act to stop detaining and monitoring immigrants by ending the funding to DHS. There is a growing demand to abolish the savage DHS as well.
David Huerta, a labour leader from SEIU was arrested in June, 2025 and spent 3 days in prison when he was in a rally supporting garment workers who were terrorized and detained by ICE in Los Angeles, California. He said to the Intercept magazine “For many of us, the immigration crackdown has deepened our commitment to this sense of worker justice. How do we broaden the labour movement to fight on behalf of those who are most vulnerable?”
Jaribu Hill, a dynamic African American woman human rights lawyer and Director of the Mississippi Workers Center has worked with unions…. “We have to talk about racism,” “The union focuses on the contract, but skin colour issues are still on the table....” Organizing a multi-racial workforce means recognizing the divisions between African-Americans and immigrants,... “working across our divides.” This quote from her is from some years ago, but this continues to be very pertinent to unions and socialist parties today while they organize the multinational working class against state terrorism.
What Next?
Union members, socialist organizations and anti-war activists challenging the genocide of Palestinians, US attacks against Venezuela, Cuba, ongoing threats against Iran etc are inspired by the courage and resilience of the Indian working class and farmers. ML Update reported that the joint platform of Central Trade Unions and independent sectoral federations, along with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and agricultural workers’ unions, organized massive strike actions in over 600 districts across the country. More than 300 million workers and farmers showed resistance on February 12th 2026 against the Labor codes and anti-farmer policies.
There are ongoing discussions in the US about a general strike, with some unions calling for a general strike in May 2028 when many contracts will expire. Other organizations are discussing the necessity for a general strike sooner than 2028 while they recognize that sustained organizing of many sections of the society is needed for a general strike to happen.
The US ruling class will continue its policies of divide, rule and plunder. The struggles on the ground against ICE and imperialism will have to go hand in hand. Lenin’s words written more than 100 years ago continues to be of utmost importance today - “Imperialism is leading to annexation, to increased national oppression and consequently, also to increased resistance.”
