So far in 2026, Minneapolis has captured the nation’s attention thanks to ugly scenes involving confrontations between agitators and Federal officials regarding the round-up and deportation of illegal immigrants, as mandated by the Trump administration. There’s been a fair amount of what can be termed street brawling between activists and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel as the latter attempt to detain foreigners in Minneapolis, resulting in two shooting deaths of activists so far at the hands of jumpy Feds.
This confrontation has become a powder keg given the national media coverage of the Minneapolis tumult, which has been egged on by ideologically driven Democrats and Republicans alike who ought to know better. The good news, such as it is, involves the apparent compromise that’s been reached this week between the White House and Minnesota officials. The dispatch of “border czar” Tom Homan, a career immigration enforcement officer, to Minneapolis to turn down the temperature after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke foolishly about the deaths of “domestic terrorists” — her side guy and de facto DHS co-boss Corey Lewandowski, who’s considered a loose cannon even by MAGA diehards, appears as culpable as Noem – may calm things down. All Americans should hope that it does, since the risks of dangerous escalation, far beyond the upper Midwest, loom otherwise.
For many on the Left, this is a simple morality tale of necessary “Resistance” to the second Trump administration, which birthed this needless crisis by militarizing ICE and related Federal agencies in their heartless crusade to deport millions of hard-working immigrants, legal or not.