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.
Below is a photograph of one of the checkpoints. Note the protester resting on a recliner.
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.
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.
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!
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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