Minneapolis
Week of January 23-29, 2026
Welcome to TRACKING THE CRISIS, a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. This round-up is produced by humans, not by Artificial Intelligence. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
Minnesota under siege: Backlash over ICE conduct grows and becomes political liability for Trump after Republican criticism; Bovino sent away. The murder of Alex Pretti at the hands of Border Patrol agents on Saturday, January 24 appears to have marked a turning point in the Trump Administration’s push to implement a ‘unitary executive’ approach to government, as calls for accountability grow within Minnesota and across the country, as well as from Republicans and civil society sectors generally loyal to the Trump Administration. Two days after Pretti’s murder, White House sources disclosed that Greg Bovino, the public ‘face’ of Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown, would be transferred back to his post in California on Tuesday and is expected to take early retirement. Bovino drew almost universal condemnation over the weekend for his ‘official’ explanation as to why Border Patrol agents shot Alex Pretti ten times in a Minneapolis street in front of hundreds of witnesses when he claimed that Pretti, who was legally carrying a handgun at the time of his murder, had ‘injected’ himself into the operation intending to ‘massacre’ law enforcement. Reuters notes that video evidence contradicted DHS narratives in at least six cases of violent encounters involving immigration enforcement.
That narrative, which Minnesota AG Keith Ellison called “flat-out insane,” was so inconsistent with video evidence of the shooting that many traditional Republican supporters, including the National Rifle Association, Senator Ted Cruz, Trey Gowdy, and the Second Amendment Foundation, registered shock and dismay at Bovino’s remarks. Chris Madel, the Republican gubernatorial candidate for Minnesota, dropped his bid and resigned from the party, saying he “cannot support the national Republican stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.” The White House distanced itself from Bovino on Monday and suspended his X account after he went on a ‘spree’ attacking both Democrats and Republicans on social media; and on Thursday a video surfaced of Bovino during the sweeping immigration crackdown in Los Angeles last June, where he is heard giving his agents a directive to “Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to. Those are the general orders, all the way to the top.” Bovino will be replaced in Minneapolis by border czar Tom Homan, who arrives with his own political baggage months after it was disclosed last year that he had accepted a $50,000 cash bribe in a paper bag from undercover FBI agents. Homan held his first press conference on Thursday where he blamed ‘anti-ICE’ rhetoric for the violent escalation, implying that shouting, blocking roads and comparing immigration officers to Nazis are ‘forcing agents’ hands’ to commit summary executions; he urged the public to stay off the streets and call Congress instead.
Walz says Trump compared Minneapolis to Venezuela as Trump backs off MN surge amid political backlash; Frey, Republican mayors warn other cities are next. Trump appeared to step back from the extreme edge of his hardline approach on immigration enforcement as its political liabilities became apparent. On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had a “very good call” with Gov. Tim Walz over the weekend – the first time he had agreed to speak with the governor since Operation Metro Surge began – and noted that they “actually seemed to be on the same wavelength” on certain things as he pledged to “de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis. Walz divulged some of the details of that phone call on Wednesday in an interview with MSNOW, where he revealed that Trump asked “what is wrong with you people” in Minnesota, expressing surprise at the level of resistance from Minneapolis residents citing how “the operation was successful in Venezuela.” Walz said he found it strange that Trump “saw an operation in Venezuela, against a foreign nation, in the same context he saw an operation against a U.S. state and a U.S. city.”
On Monday, the White House issued a new set of terms for ICE to leave Minnesota, notably distancing itself from the demand made by Pam Bondi for the state’s voter rolls. Karoline Leavitt said that in order to reduce the number of ICE agents in the state, Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey must end so-called “sanctuary” policies, cooperate with immigration agents to identify unauthorized immigrants actively in custody for other crimes and have local police assist in detaining migrants who have committed violent crimes. State officials said that they have been saying for weeks that they have been complying with this policy, and routinely transfer custody of convicted migrants in accordance with ICE requests. Mayor Frey was greeted with vigorous applause as he gave a fiery address at the United States Conference of Mayors this week in Washington D.C., where he urged his fellow mayors to ‘speak up’ and ‘step up’, warning that if they do not, “it will be your city that is next.” A panel of Republican mayors at the conference condemned the Trump Administration’s federal overreach into state and local jurisdictions, saying “our cities are no longer safe” as mayors across the country are ”feeling the angst of our residents and the fear that our city will be next and that chaos is going to inevitably creep across the entire country.”
Don Lemon and three other Black journalists and activists taken by federal agents, charged with conspiracy in connection with MN church protest. Despite a federal judge’s ruling last week that no probable cause existed for the arrest of former CNN anchor Don Lemon after covering a church protest in Minneapolis, federal agents arrested Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort, and two other activists on the night of Thursday, January 29, in what many civil liberties experts and press freedom associations warn is an escalation of the Trump Administration’s assault on the First Amendment. The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that Lemon, Fort, Black Lives Matter activist Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy have been charged with federal civil rights violations following their coverage of an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service, which AG Pam Bondi characterized as a “coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.” The protest in question occurred on Sunday, January 18, when the Reverend Nekiya Levy Armstrong, lawyer and activist, and St. Paul City Council candidate Chauntyll Allen led a group of protestors in denouncing the church’s pastor, David Easterwood, who heads the local ICE office, criticizing what they see as his hypocrisy and demanding justice for Renee Good. Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort were present to livestream the protest.
Armstrong appeared on CNN to speak out against her ‘trumped-up charges’ after her release last week, describing how she had been under heavy surveillance in the days after the protest, prompting her and a friend to stay at a hotel where they were later arrested by FBI agents. Last week, prosecutors asked for a warrant to arrest Lemon as well, which was rejected by a magistrate judge on January 22 after ruling that he was acting in his capacity as a journalist, which is protected by the First Amendment. Federal prosecutors took the request to another district judge, who denied it, and then to an appeals court where they were also denied. Two federal judges also ordered Armstrong and Allen to be released from jail last Friday, finding that they posed no threat to public safety and should not be held in federal custody.The church protest has also divided faith communities over not only whether interrupting church services with protest is right or wrong but also how to deal with clergy or lay ministers who choose to work with ICE.
Lemon was arrested by FBI agents ‘in the middle of the night’ on Thursday at a hotel in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards. Georgia Fort posted a livestream on Facebook Friday morning at 6:30am, chronicling the moment when FBI agents showed up at her home to arrest her. All defendants are being charged under the FACE Act, a 1994 law that ensures safe right of access to clinics and places of worship, and prohibits obstruction or threatening behavior to prevent protected activities. Some reports point out that Lemon has been a frequent target of Trump’s ire since 2019 and commented on his presence at the church, calling him a ‘loser’ and a ‘lightweight.’ Bondi further charged Lemon with conspiracy based on his livestream before the protest that showed activists meeting in a nearby parking lot to plan the action. Lemon appeared in court Friday as prosecutors sought a $100,000 bond, saying Lemon “knowingly joined a mob to storm into a church.” The judge rejected bond and released Lemon on his own recognizance, with an exemption that will allow Lemon to travel to France this summer.
News bureaus, legal experts, celebrities and many others denounced the arrests of Lemon and Fort, calling it a major escalation of Trump’s war on the First Amendment and a “dark day for democracy. Fort, talking to reporters after her court appearance, kept asking, “Do we actually have any Constitutional rights left? It’s hard to understand how we have constitutional rights when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.” Armstrong and Roland Martin both pointed out that all defendants pursued were Black, likening the FBI’s surveillance and arrest days after the incident to the methods of ‘slave catchers.’ Bondi posted a video after Lemon’s arrest saying “you have the right to worship freely and safely,” and “if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you”; as Karoline Leavitt stated “the president will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their places of worship.” On Day One of Trump’s second term, Trump signed rescission orders repealing Biden-era protections for immigrants at churches, schools, and workplaces, leading to several known instances of immigrants being taken by ICE from church services and events. Last fall, Pope Leo XIV allowed bishops to give dispensations to immigrants who cannot attend a church to practice their faith due to fear of being taken by ICE.
State and federal agencies clash over Pretti investigation; Dems punt on ICE funding as shutdown looms. State and federal officials continued to clash this week around the investigation into Pretti’s murder and other issues with ICE in Minnesota, even as an internal CBP report found that two CBP agents fired at least 10 shots within 5 seconds at Pretti from their service weapons after another CBP agent yelled that he had a gun. Pretti’s gun was later “cleared and secured” in the agent’s car. The report also confirmed that Pretti was confronted by agents while helping a woman who had been pushed to the ground by a CBP agent; CBP ordered Pretti and woman to get out of the roadway, at which time it confirms an agent deployed his OC (pepper) spray at both of them. On Thursday, DHS also reversed previous statements made by Bovino and stated that the officers who killed Alex Pretti are currently on administrative leave. (Bovino had previously said to reporters on Monday that all agents involved in the scene were currently working outside of Minneapolis.) The reversal occurred as the agency faced pressure to operate under standard procedures amid bipartisan calls for investigation and an effort by Senate Democrats to restrict ICE funding in the appropriations bill currently on the floor. (Update: Senate Democrats agreed Friday night to fund ICE for two weeks in order to pass the bill and avert a shutdown, punting the issue down a short timeline.) On Friday, the Justice Department announced that it would be opening a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death, another significant reversal from the Administration’s earlier decision to leave it up to DHS to pursue a much narrower investigation into whether the officers had properly followed training protocols. FBI agents and prosecutors, along with a group of Republican senators, have raised alarm at how the DOJ has been sidelined in the investigation so far, which is “extremely out of the norm” since standard procedure requires the Justice Department to investigate any federal officer-involved shooting, and is especially important for a high-profile shooting such as the Pretti case. Minnesota law enforcement authorities who were denied access to case materials after the shooting, resolved to open their own investigation in the absence of the Justice Department, further complicating the strained relations between state and federal authorities.
A growing number of Democrats in Congress have been embracing the demand to abolish ICE entirely, especially after a YouGov poll released this week showed a plurality of American voters would support such a measure, reflecting a surge in disapproval among Republican voters as well as Democrats. Nevada Rep. Jacky Rosen, a moderate who voted with Republicans to end the government shutdown last year, amplified calls to impeach DHS head Kristi Noem over what she called Noem’s “abject failure leading the Department of Homeland Security for the last year,” adding that the “abuses of power we’re seeing from ICE are the latest proof that she has lost control over her own department and staff.” Sen. Ed Markey took to social media to blast ICE as Trump’s ‘secret police’ and warned Congress that “we must not vote to send a single nickel to this lawless organization,” saying doing so would be tantamount to murder. Former Obama advisor David Axelrod urged Democrats not to entertain the idea, believing that most voters were still in favor of enforcing immigration laws. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Minnesota ordered ICE director Todd Lyons to appear in court or risk contempt to give answers on a recent finding that ICE had violated at least 96 separate court orders in 74 cases in January 2026 alone. The judge acknowledged that ordering Lyons to personally defend his agency in court was an “extraordinary step,” but was justified because “the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary,” He noted that ICE had likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than “some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” which “should give pause to anyone – no matter his or her political beliefs – who cares about the rule of law.” Zeteo reports that ICE has failed to file detailed reports of at least 8 known deaths of migrants in custody, in defiance of congressionally-mandated accountability requirements. Thirty-two deaths in ICE detention were reported in 2025, the highest number since 2004; and at least six deaths have already occurred in January 2026 alone, the most deaths in a single month since ICE began reporting. The American Prospect is maintaining a running count of known deaths reported in the media in an attempt to fill ICE’s data gap.
MOVEMENT TRACKER
‘National Shutdown’ spreads general strike movement nationwide as thousands turn out in cities across the country to get ICE out of Minnesota. On Friday, January 30, the government entered a partial shutdown pending Monday’s House vote on a stopgap spending bill that includes only two weeks of funding for ICE pending a Congressional showdown over the agency’s future. As the idea of ‘Abolish ICE’ is attracting more and more support from lawmakers, the idea of ‘General Strike’ is spreading across the country, as thousands of protestors hit the streets around the country for a day of “No Work, No School, No Shopping.” The nationwide action followed a call from Minneapolis activists fresh off of the events of January 23 – where Minnesota unions, local labor bodies, faith communities and activist groups organized the “Day of Truth and Freedom” statewide shutdown and the first U.S. general strike in 80 years. While this week’s hastily organized action was not a true general strike in the sense of a worker-coordinated shutdown of key sectors of the economy, it galvanized students, activists, and even small businesses, museums, and other sectors of civil society, and re-introduced the concept of the general strike into the national consciousness, especially in cities that have already experienced ICE invasions. Huge protests turned out especially in already-embattled communities throughout Chicago, where VA nurses and veterans paid tribute to Alex Pretti and local police backed a protestor’s account of a violent encounter with ICE; and Portland, where workers and small business owners stood together against ICE terror. Protests turned defiant in Los Angeles, where thousands of protestors initially rallied downtown, and several people were arrested as protestors faced off with militarized LAPD riot police, who issued dispersal orders at sundown; fires were lit outside the federal building and skirmishes with police are still running as of this writing. Businesses in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton participated with enthusiasm as the cities braced for an onslaught of ICE officers, who many expect to target the large Haitian population when TPS status for Haitian asylum seekers expires this Tuesday.
Organizers and observers alike were impressed by the numbers of student organizers across the country, who took their lead from Minneapolis youth. High school students walked out of classes in Denver, Austin, SF Bay Area, Southern California, Tucson, Salt Lake City, Portland, Bellingham, Houston, Detroit, Coachella Valley, Southeast Washington, Seattle, Santa Cruz, Grand Rapids, South Bend, PA, Fresno, Rhode Island, Riverside, CA, Asheville, and Phoenix, where students shut down the Arizona Senate with a sit-in protest at the Capitol. Small businesses around the country participated in “National Business Blackout Day,” where businesses either pledged to close or donated the day’s earnings to local immigrant advocacy and mutual aid organizations; restaurants in many cities donated food to immigrant families and offered mutual aid and support at no charge to protestors. More than 1,000 Minnesota restaurateurs sent a letter to Congress demanding that DHS funding be held until meaningful reforms are made; as the immigration crackdown has crippled the industry, the letter concluded, “No industry built on human labor can function under terror.” Museums in San Diego offered free admission during the shutdown, and art galleries across the country and several in Europe shuttered in solidarity. A number of celebrities endorsed the action, following a call for Hollywood participation by Pedro Pascal on social media; prominent among these were Katy Perry, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, the cast and crew of Grey’s Anatomy, and working-class icon Bruce Springsteen, who made a surprise appearance at Tom Morello’s solidarity concert after the rally in Minneapolis to debut a new anti-ICE song, “Streets of Minneapolis.” The new song appeared to touch a nerve at the White House, as spokesperson Abigail Jackson commented to Entertainment Weekly that “the Trump administration is focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities, not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information.” Protest singer Billy Bragg also released a new song this week in honor of Minneapolis, called “City of Heroes.”
The ‘shadow network’ infrastructure supporting sustained community defense and resistance to ICE in Minneapolis. While global attention is being paid to the more spectacular aspects of the resistance to ICE in Minneapolis, some of the chatter on Bluesky this week has been devoted to learning from the more mundane yet critical aspects of the city’s sustained resistance to federal occupation. After nearly two months since Operation Metro Surge has turned the city inside out, spontaneous manifestations of protest have evolved into deeper organizing that activists in other cities like Cleveland are beginning to examine closely as they prepare for the onslaught of ICE operations in their city. As Chris Hayes put it in a recent interview with Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne, “There’s something that you are doing here that feels like the antidote to everything that they are doing.” As local organizers explain, Minneapolis’ recent history of sustained struggle, catalyzed by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd rebellion in 2020, had already instilled a culture of grassroots interdependence as well as a distrust of authority that instinctively centered immediate neighbors and the surrounding community, what one commentator dubbed the “Mister Rogers Resistance.” Payne explained further that after the main cycle of the George Floyd rebellion had ebbed, the movement for police reform began to realize that a critical part of the solutions they needed was in “expand[ing] the level of safety services we had to offer in conjunction with police,” which entailed a concerted program of mutual aid under the principle of “We Keep Us Safe.”
A core component of the city’s vigilance is in the massive amount of people engaged in rapid response networks – organizers estimate that nearly 100,000 people have been trained in rapid response actions throughout the Twin Cities, and communicate through a vast, interlocking web of Signal chats; a horizontal, cellular-type structure that the Atlantic described as “a leaderless movement… that has emerged in a spontaneous and hyperlocal way.” Another driver of the network’s growth during Operation Metro Surge was the instinctive need for residents to combat the stream of misinformation being fed to the American public about their community by the Trump Administration; that the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti were filmed from so many angles by so many people is no accident, but comes out of the need to get “overwhelming evidence” and accurate information to the press and public as a countervailing force to the Administration’s gaslighting narratives, which became especially critical this week in tilting the political balance in the days following Alex Pretti’s death.
Latest Polls.
Approval: A new Reuters/Ipsos poll this week saw Trump’s approval rating drop to its lowest level in his second term, by its measure. Just 39% of Americans approve of his performance. Nate Silver’s 538 polling shows him underwater by -14.3%, a nominal uptick from hitting his second-term low of -15% last week.
Immigration/ICE: Support for Trump’s signature issue has dropped precipitously as of this week, most critically among Republican voters. The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 58% of U.S. voters across the board disapprove of ICE’s handling of immigration enforcement. An Economist/YouGov poll published on Tuesday showed for the first time that a majority of Americans with “no confidence” in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and 51% wanted to see funding decreased for the agency.
Economy: U.S. consumer confidence declined sharply in January, hitting the lowest level since 2014 as Americans grow increasingly concerned about their financial prospects. An update from The Conference Board Tuesday showed that its consumer confidence index cratered 9.7 points to 84.5 in January, falling below even the lowest readings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gas and grocery prices remained a concern, but there was also an uptick in concerns about tariffs and trade, politics, and the labor market as well as health insurance and war.
