ICE activity has continued in Minnesota, and the locals aren’t happy. From the left-leaning outlet Minnesota Reformer,
Dozens of federal agents raid St. Paul business, sparking protest.
The outgoing mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, wrote yesterday on Twitter (X),
There’s ICE operations under way today in Saint Paul. I was on scene at BroTex and share your fear and concern. I’m in close contact with our City Attorney’s Office and police. Remember you have rights.
At this point, I think there may be a real misunderstanding as to the scope of those rights. They are not absolute in the sense that they completely shield you from any consequences arising from your behavior or actions. Law is n0t magic.
Last week, another left-leaning outlet, Sahan Journal, wrote about another operation conducted in the exurban city of Northfield,
Family demands answers after ICE breaks car window to arrest Northfield worker
Sahan Journal writes,
The forceful arrest of an undocumented Northfield house painter this week has sparked outrage in Minnesota and beyond, with thousands of people resharing videos of the arrest.
The arrest occurred Tuesday morning as Adan Nunez Gonzalez, his nephew and another coworker arrived at a worksite on a residential street in Northfield.
At the scene,
Nunez Gonzalez’s nephew told agents the men knew their rights and weren’t going to open the car or windows, and were going to consult a lawyer.
Invoking one’s “rights” is not a magic spell. Saying the words does not mean the traffic stop must be abandoned and the police prevented from bothering you ever again in the matter.
You have to skip down to the twelfth paragraph to have it confirmed,
Nunez Gonzalez has lived in Minnesota without work authorization and legal status for about a decade.
In other words, Nunez is an illegal alien and subject to deportation. Somehow, this idea has taken hold that if you are in America long enough, or have American citizen children, you are exempt (or should be) from following the nation’s laws.
Sahan Journal reports on the most recent St. Paul raid, mentioned above.
Erik Godinez Alarcón rushed to Bro-Tex on Tuesday after hearing that his uncle, Camilo Morales Sanchez, and cousin, Jamie Solano Godinez, had been arrested. In an interview with Sahan Journal on Wednesday afternoon, he said his family was shaken by the raid.
Adding,
They both had a goal to eventually return to their home country, he said, but the federal raid upended their plans. His uncle planned to return to their home country and retire, he said, while his cousin intended to eventually return “enjoying the fruits of his labor.”
I find this attitude baffling. The men in question appear to have no allegiance to America, but expect to be allowed to come and go as they please, because they have “rights.” They want “the fruits,” but none of the accompanying obligations.
I have no idea of what to make of this quote,
“Every single person that comes into this country does not intend to make this place their country,” Godinez Alarcón said. “They know that they’re on borrowed land.”
Is the idea that they are harmless, they aren’t trying to take over the place? Or it a vow to never assimilate?
On Monday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote about changing federal tactics,
Judges quick to end immigrants’ asylum cases as ICE agents wait outside courtroom.
Hundreds of people have seen their immigration case dismissed, only to be arrested outside a Fort Snelling courtroom and placed in expedited removal.
This is all taking place within federal Immigration Court. The idea here is that by the government moving for dismissal of the pending Immigration Court cases, the illegal aliens can be placed into an expedited process for quicker deportation.
This has occurred more than 225 times so far in 2025 in the Minnesota district, the Star Tribune reports. Naturally, “immigration advocates” are outraged. The glacially-slow pace of Immigration Court had been their ally. Cases could linger for years, decades, without reaching any conclusion, with the defendants free to live and work as they chose.
Advocates counted on their continued asymmetrical advantage: immigrants could “work the system” but the system was never allowed to change.
In my layman’s understanding of the concept, “rights” are meant to somewhat level the playing field between an all-powerful state intent on enforcing the law and the relatively powerless individual.
In the framing of “advocates” rights instead should operate more like force fields, protecting the defendant from the law, erasing the existence of the law.
Now they must expect the unexpected.
