Minnesota is a state where nationwide protests with dubious ideologies seem to be starting. In 2020, it was the death of George Floyd that led to the racist Black Lives Matter protests; currently, it is protests against the work of federal agents that are once again escalating into violence.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are combing through selected cities in the United States to apprehend as many illegal immigrants as possible. They are then deported to various locations, from Mexico and Venezuela to the Salvadoran counterterrorism prison CECOT.
Protests against the deportations, which were announced by President Donald Trump on January 20 last year, broke out in virtually all major cities. There is a prosaic reason for this, namely that there are few cities in the US that do not have Democratic Party mayors.
However, the protesters are increasingly being supported by funds belonging to the Arabella alliance, which American analysts have defined as a "protest-industrial complex."
It started in California
In July last year, protests culminated in the second largest American city, Los Angeles. After five days, the federal government was forced to deploy the National Guard and 700 Marines. In August, Trump federalized the police force in Washington, D.C., officially to fight crime, and subsequently sent National Guard troops to other states.
In October, the California National Guard intervened in neighboring Oregon, particularly in the city of Portland, which is considered the headquarters of the Antifa movement. A few days after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Trump classified the movement as a terrorist organization, which allowed him to deploy the army on US territory. This is usually prohibited bythePosse ComitatusAct(1878).
Federal agents spent the entire year arresting illegal immigrants—deporting a maximum of 250,000—while simultaneously suppressing protestscoordinated byradical left-wing activists. This backfired on immigration agents on January 7, when Reneé Nicole Goodová (37) drove to the protest site after dropping her six-year-old son off at school.
After repeated calls to get out of the car, Good indicated her intention to run over an ICE agent, nearly hitting him. The agent thenfiredthree shots at her, fatally wounding her.
CNN reported on the slain woman, describing her as "a mother of three who wrote poetry." However, reports then began to appear on social media about Good, who, according to publicly available information, had "married" a woman named Becca. Becca allegedly bullied Good's children, resulting in Reneé Good losing custody of two of her three children.
After Trump's victory in the 2024 election, she "emigrated" to Canada, but later returnedand joined the activist coalition "ICE Watch," which, according to recent findings,organizes"disruptions" of migrant arrests. These semi-professional provocateurs are stationed on main streets and signal the arrival of agents with whistles, after which they begin to demonstrate.
Second American dies
Among the members of this group of self-proclaimed "legal observers" was 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was shot dead by ICE agents on January 24. After initial reactions against the immigration office, it emerged that the man, a registered nurse, had brought a Sig Sauer P320 pistol, which is reportedly "known" for firing spontaneously, to the protest. ICE agents responded by shooting Pretti.
While Minnesota Governor and unsuccessful vice presidential candidate Tim Walz likened the immigration agents' actions to the "Holocaust" and Mayor Jacob Frey rhetorically asked"how many more Americans must die" before deportations end, anonymous users of the X network spread old photos of Pretti posing as a drag queen.
On one side are immigration agents (and in some cases soldiers) who, under pressure, use excessive force; on the other are protesters with a history of radicalism, coordinated by a tightly organized group called Rapid Responders.
This probably confirms the words of Vice President JD Vance, who described the protests in Minneapolis as "organized chaos" when violence broke out after Pretti's death and gunfire was heard from both sides. According to the "Rapid Responders" database, which was reviewed by Fox News Digital, the violence was instigated by agitators who arrived at the scene at least half an hour before the paramedic was killed.
Activists who pursued ICE vehicles reported their location to the database and communicated their subsequent actions, including delaying agents, via the encrypted Signal app. These activists were again backed by radical left-wing elements, including the aforementioned Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which is part of a broad coalition known as the Arabella Network.
At the top of this dubious network of "demonstration investors" is the consulting firm Arabella Advisors, which in the past has received money from prominent millionaires such as George Soros and Bill Gates. Even the liberal magazine Atlanticadmitted in an older report that Arabella operates with "dark money."
Arabella oversaw the anti-Trump No Kings protests last summer, as well as anti-ICE demonstrations. Street conflicts that claimed the lives of two Americans—who were defending illegal immigrants from deportation—were no exception.
Trump's deportations have also often been the target of criticism from the right. "Trump has deported about 250,000 migrants so far. During Joe Biden's administration, about ten million people who have no business being here came here, and Trump will offer his base a quarter of a million," said well-known extremist Nick Fuentes in his show.
He also recalled the Republican administration's backtracking when Trump assured a week ago that ICE would not intervene on construction sites—places where Mexican migrants often gather.
Even before the protests broke out, the White House chiefannounced that migrants working on farms and in restaurants would not be targeted for deportation. Fuentes had predicted this move several months earlier, and after the exemptions were announced, he explained that large landowners in the southern US are important sponsors of the Republican Party. Trump therefore refuses to attack the business activities of his own donors.
The American president thus found himself between two millstones. On the one hand, there are highly coordinated left-wing activists who are blocking immigration agents from doing their job, and on the other, there is an increasingly radical right-wing youth who will one day turn away from Trump and elect someone who will bring deportations to a "successful" conclusion.