An Experience on ICE Patrol in Minneapolis, January 13th, 2026

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Last October I moved back to Moorhead. Before that, I lived and worked in south Minneapolis for a couple of years. This past January, when ICE was intensely terrorizing people there, I drove down about once a week to support my friends and to learn how to patrol. I learned about the methods of care and resistance that were being used to protect people from the violence of ICE.

On January 13th, at 34th and Park Ave, ICE violently ripped Aliya Rahman from her car and took her to the Whipple Building where she lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital. I was also there at 34th and Park and that day. It was my second day of patrol and it was early. My friend, Bog Lady, and I were drinking coffee as we drove on the same streets that I knew well from working DoorDash less than 6 months prior. During our patrol, we saw people on almost every corner with whistles, looking into every passing car, periodically speaking into their phone or earbud that was tucked beneath their stocking cap. Because we were on the same neighborhood signal call, Bog Lady and I could hear them. They were asking for license plate checks and sharing locations and directions of suspected ICE vehicles. While driving, we would do the same unless we saw ICE or the dispatcher on the call directed us to go somewhere specific.

The day prior, Bog Lady and I patrolled for about 5 hours which was mostly uneventful except for an attempted kidnapping on Lake and Lyndale that we happened to be at the intersection of, as well as spotting a confirmed ICE vehicle outside of some restaurants which closed as we chatted with the plain-clothed people in the car. We were expecting a similar day to that, but after only about an hour we were in an aggressive chase with an ICE vehicle. There were some comrades in front of us in a truck as we “commuted” behind the Suburban filled with ICE . They drove too fast through residential streets, running red lights, and finally stopping abruptly on a narrow sidestreet. We watched three ICE agents get out of the Suburban all at once. Neither of us spoke words- just single-syllable sounds as we slowly backed the car away. This was the first time I had seen ICE IRL and I was terrified. Are they going to bash out the windows of our comrade’s truck? Are they going to bash our windows out? Are they going to rip someone out of their car and hurt or kill them? Or me?  Bog Lady rolled her window down and blew her whistle. I was filming with my DJI stick-camera. ICE surrounded the pickup in front of us and sprayed it with pepper-spray then got back in their Suburban and drove off. Bog Lady commuted behind them for several blocks until they turned onto I35. The comrades in the truck were fine.

Almost immediately after that, the dispatcher on the Signal call directed folks to 34th and Park Ave. We parked a block north of the intersection and joined a rapidly growing gathering of comrades, neighbors, and ICE. There were at least 30 ICE agents standing around telling people not to stand somewhere, or to “get back”. It was absolutely stupid and unorganized. At the time I kept wondering what they were planning on doing. Now, I am fairly certain that they had no plan at all. After ICE stole Aliya out of her car, ICE remained in the intersection shooting paintballs at our feet, throwing flash bangs and tear gas. People kicked the teargas back at ICE, yelling at them to get tf out of their neighborhood. After maybe 15 minutes of that, ICE slowly left 34th and Park, and split up between the two intersections a block east and west of there.

ICE did the same shit there; the clouds of teargas expanded and drifted in the wind. People were coughing and running away. I couldn’t help thinking of the house wrens that live in the bushes in the neighborhoods. No one deserves to be teargassed. Then they pepper sprayed us from a giant canister. I turned my back mostly in time. People started yelling and holding their faces. Medics and photographers surrounded the people who got sprayed in the face. ICE left and people began to disperse. Bog Lady and I found each other and left to wash the chemicals off of ourselves. At the time, we had no idea what happened. We didn’t witness the kidnapping of Aliya, just the violence and chemical warfare after. It was all very surreal.

I’ve hitchhiked and lived outside alone for years, witnessed police violence af, been to jail, but nothing has been as scary as being around ICE. At the same time, the solidarity on the street that day kept me and most everyone else safe(ish). The power, or at the very least, harm reduction of gathering in numbers is something I wish everyone knew through experience. During the fight against the Line 3 pipeline and in other movements and events I have seen the police behave differently depending on how many people were there. It is so important to be in solidarity and show up in numbers as police/ICE violence continues and escalates.

If you haven’t felt the joy of solidarity, here is a quote published by CrimeThinc from an anonymous author who described their time in Seattle in November 1999 where they successfully shut down the World Trade Organization’s summit,

“I can’t do it. I can’t tell you what it felt like any more than a bird could tell me what it feels like to fly. I can tell you my story, but it’s only my head talking. My heart can’t write, and my guts don’t have lips. I cannot truly explain how it felt to taste ecstasy in every breath as the invisible forces of privilege and coercive power finally lost control. How it felt to stare down the world’s most ruinous and abusive bullies and watch them blink. How it felt to fall in love with tens of thousands of people at once, to not know what would happen next, to become dangerous. And that is a tragedy that haunts me as I write every one of these words, because if somehow I could share with you what it felt like for ten days in Seattle, you would never settle for anything less again.”

I share this quote because I empathize with that experience and I want to encourage my community to be intentional about creating as much solidarity and trust as possible here. Both for our collective safety and our collective joy. With each battle against oppression, we have the opportunity to learn and evolve. I am thankful for the community I have here and I want it to grow and be healthy and effective in fighting for liberation. Fuck ICE. Land Back.