Tempers Flare as Hundreds of Somalis Protest ICE Operation at Minnesota Strip Mall
Sadiq Daud, a Somali man, told the outlet, “They just showed up, spraying people and this is not good. Everybody is scared. They are scared for their life.”
The agitprop coming from the Left has been hyperbolic since the death of Renee Good, the protester who was fatally shot after accelerating her vehicle toward an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week. Despite the fact that Good went to extraordinary lengths to impede a federal law enforcement operation, blocking ICE vehicles, sounding her horn for minutes on end, dancing, and finally striking an agent with her car, the Left has tried desperately to present her as an innocent figure — and ICE officers as villains — in order to stoke nationwide outrage.
The skewed portrayal of this event by the legacy media, Democrats, and members of Congress has had the effect of legitimizing extreme and even illegal behavior by protesters against any and all ICE agents.
On Monday, hundreds of Somali protesters descended upon a St. Cloud, Minnesota, strip mall that is home to many Somali-owned businesses, where ICE was carrying out an immigration enforcement operation.
CBS News Minnesota described the scene as follows:
The sound of whistles and shouting drew attention to a mall at Third Street and 33rd Avenue in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Monday. That’s where dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were met by hundreds of protesters.
Protesters screamed and yelled profanities at federal agents as they attempted to leave the parking lot. Many wanted to know who ICE was targeting at the mall.
Federal agents arrested one person as part of the raid, and later, two protesters in the parking lot.
CBS, of course, presented only one side of the story. Sadiq Daud, a Somali man, told the outlet, “They just showed up, spraying people and this is not good. Everybody is scared. Everybody scared. Most of the people are scared, they are, like, you know, they are scared for their life.”
How about not interfering with federal agents who are carrying out lawful duties? Unlike Somalia, America is a nation of laws.
A second protestor said, “I don’t know why. This community is a peaceful community. It was a peaceful community before ICE arrived. The only reason they keep coming back is to destroy the businesses that are here.”
No, ICE is not there to destroy legitimate businesses. They are there to apprehend individuals who entered the U.S. illegally and those who have been defrauding the government.
In the video below, to his credit, Minnesota State Sen. Aric Putnam (D) is shown trying to diffuse the situation, telling the crowd, “Don’t even get close.”
🚨 BREAKING: Hundreds just showed up to protest dozens of ICE agents at a Somali strip mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
You can also see Sen. Aric Putnam (D) trying to hold the crowd back.
“Don’t even get close.” pic.twitter.com/JScmXsBj1H
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) January 12, 2026
As helpful as Putnam was in holding the crowd back, his true loyalties became clear when he spoke to the CBS reporter:
You just saw 50, 60 soldiers occupy a parking lot in a perfectly reasonable and respectable neighborhood. So, it’s here and it’s real.
The idea that you need 50 people with weapons and tear gas, and I’m not speaking real well because I got a little bit of pepper spray, those things are not needed for a normal, regular, authentic, genuine law enforcement operation.
This has been done for ratings and popularity and to make people afraid. And the more that we show up peacefully and solid in our experience and convictions and commitment to justice, the more likely that this is going to stop.
Two days earlier, ICE agents attempted a similar enforcement action at the same mall. Although the crowd was smaller, without Putnam on the scene to help de-escalate the situation, the interaction between the agents and the demonstrators appeared more direct.
New footage from St. Cloud, MN: Somali mob rushes DHS agents during a raid with overwhelming numbers.@Sec_Noem – agents need reinforcements and National Guard on the ground.
Without superior force, these mobs will feel unstoppable, and you will have Mogasota on your hands. pic.twitter.com/jn41BRlCAF
— Kim "Katie" USA (@KimKatieUSA) January 10, 2026
Over the weekend, conservative Matt Whitlock published excerpts from a “MN ICE Watch” training manual on X which suggested tried and true ways of “de-arresting” comrades who have been detained by law enforcement officers. It should be noted that Renee Good belonged to this group.
According to the manual, “each de-arrest is a ‘shaking off’ … a micro-intifada which can spread and inspire others until we may finally shake off this noxious ruling order all together.”
For example, if a comrade is caught in the grasp of law enforcement, the manual suggests “using a secure grip like the Gable grip that’s illustrated above, hug the arrestee and pull them out of danger.”
Another goes a bit further, instructing comrades on how to pull and push “an officer off of an arrestee and/or break their grip on an arrestee.” Users are warned of the risks associated with this tactic because “it requires physical contact with an officer, which could lead to assault on an officer charges or escalate the LEO response.”
The least risky of the suggestions involves “pressuring police to release the arrestee(s). Activists should “totally surround the officers who have the arrestee … chanting ‘Let them go!’ and the like until the LEOs cave to the mounting pressure.”
Look at the training “MN Ice Watch” (which Renee Good belonged to) gives:
They train activists to assault law enforcement, to swarm, pressure, and open their car doors.
And they say each “de-arrest” is a “micro-intifada.” Do with that what you will.
H/t @StrackHaley pic.twitter.com/5TjXzJfljy
— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) January 11, 2026
MN Ice Watch is just one small group that few of us had ever heard of until now. There are many such activist organizations whose sole purpose is to train people in how to defy laws they disagree with.
What the Renee Good case ultimately revealed is a well-worn strategy: delegitimize law enforcement, distort the facts, and inflame public emotion before the truth has any chance to surface.
A society cannot long endure when organized activists are trained to physically interfere with law enforcement, elected officials echo their distortions, and large segments of the public are conditioned to view the rule of law as optional.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Time to federalize the Guard
Time to remove discretion. I don’t care if you have to bring in Greyhound busses to take transfer the arestees. Arrest every single person who interferes with law enforcement whether that interference is physical contact or blocking the streets. Put every single one of them in jail, and arrest anyone who tries to interfere with their arrest as well. We need to show these retards that consequences exist and we need to make those consequences as expensive as possible.
The up vote wasn’t enough. I couldn’t agree more other than to say hold them in detention for 71 hours if they cannot be charged to dissuade them.
Paintball guns. Mark the protesters who interfere for later arrest when making the initial detention. (CS paint balls exist). There’s a sort of spray foam that expands and hardens near instantly that’s designed for crowd control. Use it when these folks lock arms to prevent an arrest, bind them together and take them all. There’s a chemical spray that causes near instant diarrhea and another that causes nausea. Get some gas masks and use those. When the mob has stuff coming out of both ends they’ll likely to find somewhere else to be.
I’d suggest they start using ‘decoy’ operations. Stage substantial additional assets, agents, busses for transport, barriers off site. Go in to make the arrest, then when the mob shows up bring in the additional assets and surround some or all of the mob with the goal of arresting the mob. Bring them to a Federal facility and book them, run them through and see who has warrants. Maybe they didn’t register for selective service. Maybe the didn’t file taxes. If that Federal detention facility with the capacity to process and hold them happens to be out of State …well we can’t be too careful when concerned with safety of prisoners and staff. Sucks if it was a Minneapolis mob taken to Louisiana or Alabama to ensure their safety but MN mob has already attacked ICE agents, Federal facilities, hotels suspected of housing ICE. Safety first!
Baiting is a huge opportunity to expose the real left. Let them howl.
Plenty of room at Alligator Alcatraz. They already have judges on site too.
Publish the names on a web site for all to see especially employers.
soros doesnt care
Like being a demonrat politician/henchman, “Stinky” Soros & Sons view a criminal record as a resume’ selling point.
If ICE makes anyone uncomfortable they can simply leave to another mall or come back after ICE leaves. It’s not rocket science.
The idiot protestors seem to know where to go. Are ICE employees leaking. If so they need fired.
No. As mentioned, they have set up networks to alert people where ICE has shown up. The protesters don’t have regular jobs, so they can drop everything to show up.
This IS their job.
There are apps to let anti-ICE folks announce when and where they see them so illegals can leave and protesters arrive.
Personally I think everyone who supports deportation of illegals should try to get on these apps (maybe a cheap burner phone?) and alert at every store, business, and neighborhood they can so there are too many places calling for protests and the idiots are spread thin.
“The idea that you need 50 people with weapons and tear gas, and I’m not speaking real well because I got a little bit of pepper spray, those things are not needed for a normal, regular, authentic, genuine law enforcement operation.”
Gee, I wonder why such numbers are necessary and who is responsible for making it so? I also wonder, who was it who made “normal, regular, authentic, genuine” law enforcement operations impossible?
Actually, those things are EXACTLY necessary for authentic law enforcement operations.
There is a video of the ICE agents trying to make an arrest at this same location a few days ago. They were confronted by a mob, and decided to leave, rather endanger themselves to a volatile situation. The 50 agents showing up is a response to that prior action.
They should do this again, but next time, show up with 200, and arrest everyone in the mob that interferes.
The lefty wokiesta members of the mob seem to believe that LEO are supposed to allow themselves to be stalked, harassed, attacked, their operation interfered with and all it is supposed to be allowed by some.sort of leftist/woke ROE. The overly permissive, inaction by many local/State LEO during the ‘summer of love/ fiery but mostly peaceful riots’ in ’20 has set up the mob for severe disappointment when they are dealing with Federal agencies who don’t follow ‘stand down’ directives or use kid gloves.
At least the Vietnam protestors didn’t want to get their asses shot off. What the hell motivates these imbeciles to turn against their own kind in favor of criminal, blood sucking savages?
Being a leftard comes with a lot of toxic baggage.
It requires training to remove the conscience and rational thought. Like other cults.
“Somali strip mall ”
There’s your problem. If it’s a “Somali strip mall” wouldn’t it necessarily have to be in Somalia?
If it’s in the US, it’s not “Somali”. They don’t get to set up their own little “country within a country” here. They need to go to France or the UK for that.
Great point.
It’s Minnesota. There are several Indian reservations that are literally sovereign nations. Some are open to US citizens and some are closed. FBI and tribal police have jurisdiction. You don’t want to be arrested by the tribal police.
And none of that applies to Somalis.
No but it applies to the mindset of Minnesotans and their willingness to let their state be subdivided.
Great sound bite from the Paiute cops busting up the “demonstration” blocking the road to Burning Man two years ago:
“You don’t need to… we’re nonviolent!”
“We’re not.”
Do you have the same objection to Chinatowns? Are the shopping streets there not Chinese strip malls?
Come to Brooklyn and I can show you several Jewish strip malls, though we don’t use that term here, we just call them commercial blocks or something like that.
Why does it not surprise me you’re from Crooklyn?
The Rotten Apple spoils the apple barrel
Over 99.9% of the Jews in Brooklyn came here legally, mostly at the turn of last century; you’d be looking at their descendants if you went there now.
Not the point. Most of the Somali population in Minnesota were born here, the vast majority are citizens, and almost all arrived legally. Sailorcurt objects to the very existence of a “Somali strip mall”, even if everyone working there is a third-generation US citizen. I wonder whether he has the same objection to Chinese and Jewish strip malls.
Hey, this is terrific news!
Used to be that ICE had to go out hunting for deportees.
Now the deportees come to them!
CBS – Constantly Bull S_itting, 24/7.
Harping for a “Four Dead In Ohio” moment.
Did auto-cucumber get to you?
I like that term, though I use autocorrupt. I’ve even trained my phone to pull it up as a suggestion once I’ve typed “autoc”.
Most of the people are scared, they are, like, you know, they are scared for their life.”
Bull hockey. If they were scared they wouldn’t have shown up to interfere with armed LEOs.
Only thing they’re scared of is losing their cushy little scam.
“I wuz scared” is a common refrain among people who fight police, run from police, flee in their cars recklessly. Then they treat cops like dirt, cursing and slandering them and continuing fighting.
It often seems like they’re not really scared of police, just trying to provoke them.
They need to scared, be like, you know, scared for their life. Really scared for their very lives.
They need to be so scared that they cannot leave their houses without fear drifting through every thought, every action, every move.
If it’s a “Somali strip mall” then there are “Somali shops” and presumably people have to work in them. So there’s a vanishingly small possibility that this spokesperson was employed there and didn’t just “show up.” I say vanishingly small because if that were true, the weasel media would surely have mentioned it.
They can find a Grandmother in the middle of the Rocky Mountains who happened to be in DC on Jan 6, but they can’t geofence these protesters and their enablers? Take down the financing system for these paid protesters. Arrest and incarcerate those training these rent a mobs in insurrection.
not -to distant -future headlines…
war torn minneapolis erupted again…..
Stop sending cargo ( especially food) to Minnemogadishu. Then it will really remind them of home.
Maybe they should go back to Somalia if they’re scared. They seem to have no problem expressing themselves to the government, so they could use this skillset back in the homeland.
The level of scared they need to experience is “American Blackhawk pilot crashed in Mogadishu” level scared.
Especially since they came here supposedly because they were scared there
Police use pepper spray all the time. As well as 40mm beanbag rounds, tasers, and actual firearms. Maybe if people didn’t insist on interfering with law enforcement, there wouldn’t be violence.
Someone who is obstructing law enforcement is not protesting. They are committing crimes.
It seems to me that those publishing and distributing this “ICE Watch manual” go well beyond merely advocating criminal activity (which is constitutionally protected speech) and all the way into conspiracy to commit these crimes, and that is not protected.
Start with those handing the manual out at “ICE Watch” training sessions. They are directly communicating with the people who plan to act on the training they are receiving, and on the advice that is in the manual. In other words they are all in agreement that a crime is to be committed by some of them, and at least one person has committed an overt act in furtherance of that agreement. That’s conspiracy.
Now go back a step to the manual’s authors and publishers, who have also made the same agreement, and at least some of them have delivered the manuals to those whose role in the conspiracy is to distribute them. That brings them into the conspiracy as well.
So it seems to me that there is a solid case for rounding them all up and charging them, and the first amendment should not be an issue.
It would be very different if they kept a strict separation between those responsible for the manual and those who are intended to act on it. Prepare the manual, put it up on the web, and wait for people to download it and act on it independently. That would let the publishers hide behind the first amendment. But not what they seem to be doing.
Agreed. I’ve seen some really disingenuous arguments for the actions of these ‘ICE Watch’ goon mob tactics.
They position themselves in front of a vehicle with a cell phone. Vehicle can’t proceed without running them over or the vehicle occupants dismount and move the mob out of the way. They claim they are ‘filming/recording’ and b/c filming/recording isn’t a crime….their actions are now ‘legal’. Same for stalking, harassing and using vehicles to block roads and/or pin ICE vehicles. These goons claim they are ‘driving’ and b/c driving is legal there isn’t any crime. Beyond that are the goofy takes on the ICE shooting at the driver… suddenly the leftist wokiestas have decided that putting yourself in the way of a vehicle, which they routinely do, was in this case a bad thing and in essence the ICE agent shouldn’t be in the street unless he wants to get hit by a vehicle.
If only the Minnesota State Sen. Aric Putnam (D) would “diffuse” the Somalis back to Somalia.
Maybe he was trying to “defuse” the situation.
I suspect that so many Somalians were imported into the country because someone thought we were brining in lost of Samolians. Big difference!
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