The Star Tribune has failed to cover the organized resistance to ICE in the Twin Cities, or the support of the DFL establishment for it. That is in part because the Star Tribune is itself a component of the DFL establishment.
If you want to learn about the organized resistance, you have to go elsewhere, as I have done in several posts highlighting stories such as the Washington Free Beacon’s “Who Funds the Groups Harassing ICE Agents in Minnesota? The Left’s Premier Foundations and Dark Money Networks Have Given Millions, Records Show.” In that story, Jessica Costescu and Chuck Ross report on the collaboration of Sunrise Twin Cities with Unidos MN and Defend the 612 to drive anti-ICE demonstrations.
At the center is the Sunrise Movement, which has shifted from climate activism into anti-ICE agitation in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Sunrise operatives on the ground in the Twin Cities are circulating lists of hotels housing ICE agents and coordinating late-night disruption… pic.twitter.com/61Oz1Jvpnn
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 14, 2026
Both maintain ties to MN ICE Watch, a covertly maintained Instagram page that posts training slides calling on its followers—a group that reportedly included Renee Good’s wife—to block, push, and otherwise obstruct officers making an arrest. pic.twitter.com/D0bpZWf1sI
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 14, 2026
Now the Manhattan Institute’s Christina Buttons focuses on Defend the 612 in the City Journal column “Inside Minneapolis’s ICE Watch Network.” Buttons reports:
In Minneapolis, one key organizer of these activities is “Defend the 612.” The group, the membership of which apparently included Renee Good, oversees a massive network of Signal chats dedicated to monitoring and protesting ICE activity. It has become the beating heart of the city’s resistance to federal immigration enforcement. (The group’s name refers to the Minneapolis area code.)
City Journal reviewed Defend the 612’s trainings, entered its Signal network, and traced its organizational support. Our reporting reveals that members and related officials have encouraged protesters to impede law enforcement; pushed civilians toward legally and physically risky confrontations; and helped mobilize a counterprotest that turned violent.
This barely scratches the surface. Buttons has much more here, all of it must reading for those of us who live in the Twin Cities news desert.
