ICE shooting returns Minnesota to epicenter of upheaval
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Photo illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios. Photos: Christopher Juhn/Anadolu, Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Nearly six years after the murder of George Floyd, Minnesota is bracing for unrest under a Trump administration far more inclined to use federal force than it was in 2020.
Why it matters: Few states capture the convulsions of modern politics as vividly as Minnesota, where the fatal ICE shooting of a U.S. citizen has again inflamed America's deepest divisions.
The big picture: Once touted by Democrats as a model of blue-state governance, Minnesota has become the epicenter of the Trump era's most consequential political conflicts.
- Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer — just one mile from where an ICE officer shot 37-year-old mother Renee Good on Wednesday — unleashed a nationwide reckoning over race and policing in 2020.
- The pendulum swung back hard in 2024: President Trump's MAGA movement vowed to never forget the images of Minneapolis burning in the summer of 2020, and Trump expressed regret over not crushing the protests by force.
Zoom in: After Trump took office for his second term and pledged mass deportations, an emboldened MAGA movement fixed its attention on Minnesota's large Somali community.
- Allegations of widespread welfare fraud involving Somali immigrants were elevated by MAGA influencers into a national proxy fight over assimilation, multiculturalism and Democratic governance.
- Trump described Somali immigrants as "garbage" who "contribute nothing" — then halted federal child care payments to Minnesota as authorities investigated alleged daycare fraud.
Trump also launched a massive immigration crackdown targeting Minnesota, deploying 2,000 federal agents this week in what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the "largest immigration operation ever."
- It was amid that surge that Wednesday's fatal shooting took place.
- Thousands of Minnesotans turned out to protest at the site of Good's killing, largely heeding Gov. Tim Walz's (D) call to remain peaceful and deny Trump any pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act.
Between the lines: Gov. Walz, at the center of the state's standoff with federal authorities, ended his re-election campaign this week as scrutiny mounted over his handling of the fraud scandal.
- His exit marks a striking fall from grace for a once-popular Democrat who was elevated to the national stage as his party's vice presidential nominee in 2024.
- It's also a symptom of broader Democratic soul-searching after the crushing defeat in that election, which exposed vulnerabilities in how the party defends its record in power.
Zoom out: The widening battle between Minnesota and the Trump administration is playing out in a state already scarred by recent political violence.
- The assassination of two Minnesota state lawmakers last year remains a fresh memory for Walz and other top Democrats — particularly after Trump amplified a false conspiracy theory last week that politicized the killings.
What they're saying: "This relentless assault on Minnesota, for whatever reason, is just cruel. So, please just give us a break," Walz pleaded on Thursday.
- "And if it's me, you're already getting what you want. But leave my people alone. Leave my state alone."
