Trump laying 'siege' to Minneapolis with 'military occupation': Minnesota paper

A protesting community member attempts to protect themselves as federal agents fire munitions and pepper balls in north Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 14, 2026.

The largest newspaper in Minnesota on Thursday published a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump's massive ICE surge in the state, with the editorial board decrying the operation as a "military occupation" that so far "seems to prioritize volume and spectacle over judgment and care."

The Minnesota Star-Tribune's editorial board likened the massive enforcement operation in the state to a "siege" and argued it was like nothing the embattled state has seen before, with violence and indiscriminate ICE stops of "any American they encounter in the street but especially people of certain colors," going far beyond what the stated pretext might call for.

"Minnesota has endured unrest before. What the state is now experiencing looks and feels different," the board wrote. "Battalions of armed federal agents are moving through neighborhoods, transit hubs, malls and parking lots and staging near churches, mosques and schools. Strangers with guns have metastasized in spaces where daily life should be routine and safe. It feels like a military occupation."

As the board laid out, the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem have claimed that the enforcement surge in response to recent stories of welfare fraud in the state, which has already been documented, prosecuted and resulted in convictions, despite renewed right-wing media attention. Noem also claimed that ICE agents would only target "criminal illegal aliens hurting Americans," but the board countered that this "is not what Minnesotans are currently experiencing."

"What we are witnessing is the storming of the state by the federal government," the board continued. "Fraud investigation and immigration enforcement in Minnesota have become a pretext for a sweeping federal show of force that bears little relationship to the problem it claims to address. It is indiscriminate. Noncitizen immigrants without legal status make up roughly 1.5% of Minnesota’s population — less than half the national average. Nothing about that figure justifies the scale, posture or tactics now widely deployed."

The board conceded that immigration enforcement efforts must not be done away with entirely and cast doubt on the possibility that ICE would be outright abolished. Instead, it insisted that reforms must be put in place to rein the agency in, force it to comply with the rule of law and subject it to accountability measures that "must also have teeth."

"It must be structured to operate within the same constitutional norms that govern other law-enforcement bodies," the board argued. "That means clear rules of engagement. Training must be rebuilt, not lightly adjusted. Rigorous de-escalation training and understanding of the community impact of enforcement actions must be prioritized. The current ambiguity invites overreach and more deaths. Clear limits on force and escalation protect civilians, undocumented residents and agents alike."

The board added: "The central question ahead is not whether immigration enforcement will continue, but whether it can credibly continue under the current structure and imprimatur of ICE. If battalions of militarized federal agents can occupy American cities under the pretext of combating fraud, arresting undocumented felons and targeting any American seemingly at will without transparency or accountability, then no state is immune. It is currently happening in Minnesota. It’s wrong, and it must be stopped."

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