The Washington Free Beacon continues its investigation of the Twin Cities anti-ICE riot brigades in “Anti-Israel Group That Stormed University of Minnesota Building Now Leads Illegal Anti-ICE Agitation” (“The school’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter is one of several far-left groups that have shifted their focus to ICE in recent weeks”). Jessica Costescu reports (links omitted):
A University of Minnesota student group has emerged as a leader behind illegal—and sometimes violent—anti-ICE agitation gripping Minneapolis. It’s a significant shift for the school’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter, which roughly one year ago stormed a campus building in an anti-Israel raid, trapping employees inside and causing tens of thousands of dollars in property damage.
The group, known as UMN SDS, organized a Jan. 28 protest outside a hotel located on campus that was allegedly housing ICE agents. Dozens of agitators swarmed the Graduate by Hilton and rocked police barricades, pounded on drums and pans, set off noisemakers, and shouted “Fuck ICE” at local and state law enforcement. University police eventually declared it an unlawful assembly and arrested 67 protesters, including Jack Louis Nimz—a public school teacher, the president of SDS’s national arm, and one of the radicals arrested for storming the campus building in October 2024.
It was the third time in as many weeks that UMN SDS rallied more than 100 radicals outside the hotel, encouraging supporters to confront the “homicidal kidnappers” it claimed were residing there. At a Jan. 13 protest it organized, three agitators were arrested after the crowd damaged property and created “hazardous conditions for the public and law enforcement,” according to the University of Minnesota. The next week, while promoting a Jan. 21 protest on Instagram, the group wrote, “We’re not done just because Minneapolis pigs tried to scare us away.”
“Let’s go back to the Graduate louder than ever to demand the UMN cut ties with the Graduate or they tell us the ICE agents staying there are gone,” the Instagram post continued. “The UMN community needs peace of mine [sic] that murderers aren’t sleeping next door. Bring the noise.”
More:
UMN SDS also holds weekly “rapid response trainings” on the University of Minnesota’s campus. It organizes school walkouts as well.
Besides promoting its own work, UMN SDS has also boosted other anti-ICE groups. It’s repeatedly circulated a list of hotels created by the Twin Cities chapter of the Sunrise Movement which supposedly house ICE agents and has encouraged its supporters to join other protests. It advertised one that turned violent, when dozens of anti-ICE agitators hurled objects, smashed windows, lit fireworks, vandalized the building, and damaged the hotel’s façade.
UMN SDS also helped promote a virtual training hosted by the Sunrise Movement Twin Cities, titled “No Justice, No Sleep,” that instructed attendees on how “to kick ICE out of your city” and “shut down hotels that are housing ICE.”
Wednesday’s arrests further underscore the burgeoning anti-ICE ecosphere. The only protester besides Nimz who was booked, Teiryn Cooper Glick, is a canvasser for Clean Water Action, according to her LinkedIn profile. The environmental advocacy group is backed by the Left’s premier foundations, including the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the Tides Foundation.
And Nimz, a transgender individual who goes by “Celia,” is an organizer with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a Marxist-Leninist group working to “build a new, revolutionary, communist party” in the United States. Nimz is also a K-12 physical education teacher for the Minneapolis Public School District, according to the Minnesota Educator Licensing and Standards Board.
Costescu sought a comment from the Minneapolis Public School District. She reports that the district “did not respond to multiple requests asking whether Nimz would be disciplined for Wednesday’s arrest or if it was aware that the radical violently stormed a campus building before obtaining a teaching license.”
Costescu’s story make a valuable contribution to understanding what is happening in the Twin Cities, as does her previous Free Beacon stories here (with Chuck Ross, January 14), here (January 15), here (January 19), and here (January 26).
Costescu’s current story is detailed, illustrated, full of relevant links, and worth reading for its contribution to our understanding alone. If, like me, you have a fascination with what is not to be found in the Star Tribune as the anti-ICE crime wave continues in the Twin Cities, please be sure to take a walk on the wild side with Jessica Costescu — whole thing here.
