Anti-ICE Agitators’ Latest Method of Resistance: Checkpoints
“I want to show you a new form of resistance against ICE — another “ICE-out” method — that’s growing and developing.”
Who puts up checkpoints? Well, authoritarian leaders do. East German head of state and communist Walter Ulbricht, who was instrumental in building the Berlin Wall, comes to mind. Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing between East and West Berlin, became one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War.
That’s why it was kind of crazy that anti-ICE agitators in Minneapolis — who are so fond of calling ICE the Gestapo and Trump a fascist — would set up a checkpoint. The group stopped all vehicles with out-of-state plates and logged their numbers into a database to “verify” that none were associated with ICE.
🚨 JUST IN: Anti-ICE rioters in Minneapolis are now DETAINING vehicles with out-of-state license plates while they run the plate through their database
This is FALSE IMPRISONMENT
Tim Walz and Jacob Frey have SURRENDERED the city to leftist militants pic.twitter.com/M0UFTlhWBv
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 1, 2026
Below is a photograph of one of the checkpoints. Note the protester resting on a recliner.
https://t.co/sF2jWnMjlI pic.twitter.com/qd09f8y4ze
— Minneapolis Spring (@mpls_spring) February 1, 2026
One X user claimed that the individuals manning the checkpoint are Antifa members, which is very likely true. He noted, “This isn’t protest — it’s organized interference with federal law enforcement + felony-level impersonation of authority. 18 U.S.C. §§ 912 and 913 say this is a crime.”
In the video below, Minneapolis police officers approach one of the blockades. The officer says, “Hey guys, what can we do to hurry this up because we have firetrucks and ambulances that might need to get through here.”
A protester replies, “They can come through here.”
The officer said he wants to make sure that “their neighbors” have access to emergency services.
“We’re all here. When they come, we’ll move it for them,” the protester assures him. Pointing to the parked police cruiser, he added, “Frankly, you’re the one blocking it now.”
After a bit of friendly back-and-forth, the officers — rather than insisting the protesters dismantle their blockade — walked back to their vehicle and drove off. The protesters are heard laughing among themselves, likely at how easy it had been to dismiss the police.
Police have left. The community proves stronger than feds once again. https://t.co/EKmL2OvOdO pic.twitter.com/LH4Ot73nHJ
— Minneapolis Spring (@mpls_spring) January 31, 2026
Kind of a fascist thing to do, huh? Kind of hypocritical too as the X user points out below:
In order to stop the U.S. government from defending our borders, checking IDs, and removing people who don’t have a right to be here, we must set up a border, check IDs, and remove people who we don’t want here.
"In order to stop the U.S. government from defending our borders, checking IDs, and removing people who don't have a right to be here, we must set up a border, check IDs, and remove people who we don't want here." https://t.co/5SIKlzcHp2
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 2, 2026
A reporter from local media outlet KARE 11 said Sunday he had seen four separate blockades in the city so far that day. He informed viewers:
We are currently in the South Side of Minneapolis where I want to show you a new form of resistance against ICE — another “ICE-out” method that’s growing and developing.
There are these road blockades. This is at least the fourth one in just the one-mile radius I’ve seen. I talked to one of the demonstrators here and they said it’s about more than resistance. It’s about bonding with your neighbors.
They also have flyers they’re issuing out that call for 10, 100, and 1,000 blockades.
So this is really a response to ICE’s rapid grab-and-go methods where they’re trying to move as quickly as they can through city streets.
In the following clip, an X user shows how she would have dealt with a checkpoint!
YEAH SO THAT’S NOT HAPPENING!
THIS IS ME! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/mdPnu16pUv
— Won’t Stop 🇺🇸 Can’t Stop 🇺🇸 (@No_Apologee) February 2, 2026
So who puts up checkpoints? Authoritarian regimes do — or at least that’s the accusation. Yet in Minneapolis, activists who loudly denounce fascism found themselves reinventing its most recognizable tools: roadblocks, ID scrutiny, and selective exclusion. In the name of opposing federal authority, they’ve built their own miniature border regime.
The contradiction is hard to miss. When you have to erect checkpoints to prove you’re fighting authoritarianism, you may want to pause and reconsider who you’re starting to resemble.
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
Insane
If I had a large truck I would make a point of running through those
A$$holes Nazi / commie road blocks
Sure makes me want to get into my SuperDuty and take a vacation up north. Maybe if these nuts are still at it after the ice melts so I can get some fishing in
You don’t ice fish? What would you go to Minnesota for, then, eh?
This has got to be illegal.
And…? This is Minnesota.
Not Sparta though.
The actual fascist have revealed themselves. I have scenes from Mad Max in my head. Put a plow on a truck and blast through this BS.
Why are my comments not showing
Sometimes there’s a lag. I had four last week that took 24-36 hours to populate into the comment section.
Insane
If I had a large truck I would make a point of running through those
A$$holes Nazi / commie road blocks
they win
until they dont
So the local police refused to enforce the law. Can residents sue them over that? Can the federal government (since it is intended to interfere with federal law enforcement)? Can RICO charges be brought against the people organizing this?
WHAT IS THE GOP DOING TO HELP PEOPLE FIND ANSWERS?
(That last question is rhetorical. The GOP is utterly useless, on a good day)
We could set up our own barricades at polling places demanding photo ID’s and proof of citizenship via a birth certificate or passport.
The cops already established that those blockades are fine.
No, the cops have not established that these blockades are fine, but merely that they choose not to do anything about them. They would definitely do something if you tried it at polling places. Selective enforcement is not a defense.
Yes.
No. The police have discretion when to enforce the law. So does the city.
Definitely not. The city has no duty to federal law enforcement at all.
Probably, but why bother with RICO? It’s a criminal conspiracy already. If the US Attorney can identify those involved he can get a grand jury to indict them, and send US Marshals to arrest them all at their homes.
If federal agents are actually obstructed, they can arrest everyone on the spot. But they’d have to come prepared with overwhelming force. And Trump has just instructed the federal government not to get involved with putting down local riots like this unless the city begs for help; if the locals are OK with their city being destroyed, far be it from Trump to stop them.
So would someone please at least give me one good reason why I shouldn’t simply hit the gas pedal and drive right on through these idiots blocking a public street. That is all.
eot
Hitting a pedestrian is the law they will choose to enforce not to mention the civil liability for a deliberate act (your insurance won’t defend you in that lawsuit).
If anyone chooses unsanctioned violence against sanctioned violence, they had better know how to do it while being invisible.
Honestly this is why sane people flee these hell holes. I could jump in and wrestle with criminals who have nothing to lose- get hurt and arrested and spend that money and that year on my legal defense when I am ultimately pushed over the edge by sanctioned violence, or I could spend it on buying a house in a place that enforces the law. It is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah of our age.
When I look at how down hill my blue hell hole has gone even since I left, I count leaving as one of the smartest and shrewdest moves of my life. As a fairly productive member of society, that’s saying something.
Is someone camped out in the street forming a blockade a pedestrian? I’m not sure the law says that but I wouldn’t trust MN judiciary to enforce the law as it was written and intended.
And if someone is stupid enough to illegally stand in the middle of the street and block it with wooden pallets and then demand to run your plates through their “database” they’ve pretty much given up their right to sue anyone later on when a vehicle runs their sorry hind-ends over. You know, it’s the whole FAFO thing. You wanna try and illegally stop me? Go ahead, make my day. FAFO is the rule of the day and you will certainly Find Out what happens if you try.
I was in fear of my life because of the past violence these people have committed and didn’t feel stopping was in my best interests. So I hit the gas and drove right on through them because I was worried and scared they might commit violence against me. And you can’t flecking prove otherwise. Period.
eot
“Forsooth! HIGHWAYMEN!”
“Give me all the lupines you’ve got!”
And in a blue shithole like that they’ll toss you in jail and throw away the key. The law picks sides there. You’re not wrong, and I had the same thoughts as you did, but it doesn’t matter. The mob rules in Minnesota.
illegally stop me
This is the key. And you don’t know what they will do once they have you stopped.
“I feared for my life. It appeared to me that the bandit in the roadway had a black object in his hand. Maybe a gun.”
Yeah, that only works in the paranoid fantasies of anti-gun propagandists, trying to roll back common-sense self-defense laws such as SYG. It’s not how the law actually works, anywhere.
Don’t get too comfy, they’re coming for you sooner or later.
I’m sure you’ll first be appropriately in fear for your life.
These people are, after all, highwaymen.
The proper action for a close ambush is to drive through.
The follow-up is to flank them and attack. But might not be a good choice as a civilian.
No moral reasons, only practical and legal ones. As Andy points out, you’re likely to be arrested and also sued, and your insurance won’t cover you. And while you might get off on the criminal charges (even that is very doubtful), you’re incorrect when you say they’ve “pretty much given up their right to sue”. You say “it’s the whole FAFO thing”, but “the whole FAFO thing” is not the law.
That wouldn’t work even in a criminal trial, because the standard isn’t that you were in fear for your life, it’s that a reasonable person in your place would also be in such fear. And with them not being actually violent at that time, the fact that people with similar views have been violent on other occasions does not create a reasonable fear that they will be violent to you.
Also, even if you were in reasonable fear if you were to break through the blockade, you have the simple option of doing as they tell you and turning around and going back where you came from. There is certainly no prospect of violence if you do that. Minnesota is a duty to retreat state, so since you are able to retreat in perfect safety you would have a legal duty to do so and could not claim self defense.
It gets even worse in a civil trial, where they don’t have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you weren’t reasonably in fear of your life, you have to prove on the balance of probabilities that you were.
So if you can smash through their blockade and get away with it, by all means do so. Wear a mask, put false plates on your car, or just come in massive force and beat the **** out of them. You won’t get an argument from me. But make sure not to get caught.
I soon expect to hear that Minneapolis agitators will build border walls.
That should be encouraged.
We need a few patriotic tractor trailers to just plow right through these “checkpoints”.
Yes. Just don’t get caught.
Gosh I really hope no Federal agents get stopped by a makeshift militia checkpoint which seeks to illegally detain them and prevent their movement. That would be really bad, especially if the Feds just happened to come with transportation capacity and enough LEO to overwhelm the makeshift militia, arrest them and take them to a Federal detention facility… it would need to one far out of State to mitigate the risk of local bad actors seeking to help or harm the prisoners.
Yes, this is precisely what ought to happen, but Trump has decided on the opposite approach, to let them foul their own nest and wait for the city to come begging for help.
A further descent into anarchy. Heckuva job, MLPS!
So the left does believe in barriers, walls, checkpoints, and photo ID checks…how about that?
It shows they understand the principles behind borders and selective exclusion and believe in its employment under certain circumstances. Now waiting to hear from them why they think control of a national border isn’t one of those circumstances.
Oh, yeah. According to Billie Eilish, border control is illegitimate because we’re all on stolen land. Therefore, no national borders are legit/enforceable. So, the US government can attack cartels in Mexico and she wouldn’t consider that a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty?
Against their fellow citizens, how about that!?
Of course they do. They always have. This isn’t about right and wrong, it’s about their wish to defy the authority of the United States, and ultimately to overthrow it altogether.
The po-leese are just following orders again. Pension uber alles.
Timmy and Jacob are leftist militants.
Signal chats show elected officials are actually calling the shots.
It’s not the first time!!
it’s about more than resistance. It’s about bonding with your neighbors.”
Yes, bonding with your neighbors in the middle of the street while pissing off commuters and playing wannabe fascist….so wholesome.
Here’s an idea. Timmy wants to play all “Civil War” and “Ft. Sumter,” so, in order to avoid conflict and bloodshed, Congress should pass a resolution both permitting and encouraging Minnesota’s withdrawal from the Union.
Propose to give Timmy what he wants and see how quickly he backpedals. Just for yucks and to prove a point – Timmy is all smoke and no fire.
Can we Ginsu drone him now. We can always blame his (un)timely slicing on runaway AI.
Shut off all federal money, first. Every dime, to any address in Minnesota.
See if you even need your bit.
Unfortunately Trump can’t do that, and even Congress can’t shut off every dime. Not so much that it would compel the state to comply with its wishes.
Agreed with a slight caveat, the vote is by each County. So if Hennepin County (Minneapolis) votes to leave they don’t get to override the rest of Minnesota and drag the other Counties with them.
The senate won’t pass it.
The same nonsense the “anti-Israel (see bigoted)” kids at UCLA did to Jewish students; the “Jew free zone” where students had to prove they weren’t Zionist if suspected of being Jewish and then if found out couldn’t go to that part fo campus including the library, several dorms and some building with classes in them. The UCLA police looked the other way and even helped the bigoted twerps enforce their fake borders.Wrist bands were handed out to the privledged elite antizionist students so they could easily pass through. All others were harrassed. Yes the anti-border people love to create borders and exclusion zones all while screaming that they are tolerant, righteous and inclusive. They are exactly what they do but say everyone else is: which is violent, stupid, prejudiced and bigoted.
They didn’t force the Jews to wear the wristbands, though, so it wasn’t at all NAZI-like.
/sarc
Nope in this case ; wrist bands were for the cool kids. So definitely not Nazi like except for that whole excluding others , discrimination, and hate thing. Other than that they are regular hippies !
The only thing that’s missing from these checkpoints, to achieve authentic Somali thug/terrorist flavor, are stacks of burning tires and the checkpoint-manning thugs chewing khat.
Do Xanax, Adderall, and Ritalin count?
hate crime as they are targeting pro americans
Nope. Opinion is not one of the grounds in any hate crime law I’ve ever heard of, and certainly not Minnesota’s.
So when does the shooting start?
Asking for a friend.
I’d love to see someone drive thru with a box of M-80s and toss them out of the car.
Kaboom
How about with one of those flame thrower devices mounted each side under the door sills? Some South African folks found them handy.
I don’t think this will help endear them to the local population
Yeah. Not just checkpoints, but border checkpoints in many cases.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
“ It’s about bonding with your neighbors”
WTAF? My foot will bond with your ass.
It’s more like the “neighborhood bonding” in Cuba or East Germany.
It’s past time to trade Somalisota to Canada for Alberta. Win-Win!
The first time someone blows through the checkpoint, it will all end but not before the Minnesota fascists and the media screech for several days.
Send in the bulldozers.
The Caterpillar D9Rs would work.
State and local cops are just pension-sucking thugs who would burn babies alive if paid overtime.
Zey chust follow ohrdehrs, mein Herr!
Hmmmm. Notice how this kind of thing doesn’t usually happen in Conceal Carry or Open Carry states. When I joined the Army, I took the Oath to defend against all enemies, foreign & domestic..
Where I live, there are dozens of abandoned & bottomless coal mines in no one has been in for a 100 years. They could be put to very good use. Failing that, nearly everyone knows someone w/a backhoe & 40-80 acres or knows someone w/hog farms
My impression is that Minnesota is fairly liberal with its gun laws. Even this Pretti character had one. It’s not helping with this.
Deploy the bulldozers.
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