The People vs. ICE

"On a Thursday morning the number of protesters outside the brutalist building from which ICE conducts its menace in Minneapolis swells from 25 to at least 100 by early afternoon. Spirits are high. At times there is topical music ("Fortunate Son"; Ray Charles's "America the Beautiful"); now and then someone will dance in the street. There is a dog in booties wearing a serape, led around by a man in a cape with a cardboard sign that reads SHAME."

"An SUV squeals out of the complex. "Oh!" says a woman next to me. "That was a happy Nazi!" Our boots scrape against the ice. A woman walks around with a box of disposable hand warmers before placing it next to a growing collection of other boxes - granola bars, water, almonds. All of us stare in the direction of a parking lot just past a chain-link fence, through which we can see many cars and the occasional agent."

Protesters assemble outside a brutalist Minneapolis building housing ICE, growing from roughly 25 people to over 100 by afternoon. The atmosphere mixes high spirits, topical music, dancing, costumes, signs, and theatrical characters alongside practical mutual-aid supplies such as hand warmers, granola bars, and water. Participants watch agents through a chain-link fence and hear recorded federal warnings ordering them off the property. Volunteers distribute masks and respirators as more agents gather. The crowd alternates between playful performance and vigilant preparedness, maintaining attention on vehicles and agent activity around the facility.

Read at Intelligencer