ICE activity seems to have been relatively quiet the last couple of days in my part of Minneapolis.
I heard they’ve been super active recently in the outer suburbs and rural areas, and it sure doesn’t seem like anybody’s assuming we’re done with their awfulness here in the middle of the city. But I’m happily embracing the chance to take a breath.
I •do• actually expect to see some kind of shift over the next week. I don’t think their “Victory! Now we’re leaving(ish)!” press conference last week was something we can take at face value, but I also don’t think it was just a ruse.
After they murdered Alex Pretti, the writing was on the wall. One killing of a white observer they could try to write off; two is a pattern. They’re losing support they desperately need — from politicians, from the press, from judges, from less-extreme right-wingers — and the longer they continue doing what they’ve been doing, the further they dig themselves in a hole. I’ve been expecting for a while that they would declare MISSION ACCOMPLISHED and change strategy.
@inthehands They’ve inconvenienced and assaulted the “Contented Class”. People who have never protested are on the move.
@inthehands they do seem to be shiffting focus elsewhere, though, I doubt they'll pull out of MN completely. I get the impression they don't have enough people to keep their presence there *and* assault the other communities on their hitlist - especially since hiring is one of the things more likely to be disrupted by the DHS shutdown, and the bad press has likely made it harder for them to get many people to sign up for the job either way.
Note I say “change strategy,” not “leave” or “stop.”
Who knows what’s next, but my expectation is for them to switch to things that are less visible, things that don’t look so bad on video. Maybe that means night raids? More likely, I’m guessing it means more rural action, targeting of remote job sites (e.g. farms), nabbing people from prisons, more activity in detention camps that disallow observers, that kind of thing.
@inthehands The rural action part seems to be bearing out already
ICE/CBP has been given like $100 Billion to carry out ethnic cleansing. They will do it one way or another. The only thing we can do at this point is to force them to use less efficient ways of pursuing their mandate, slower, more dollar per capture, more difficult to get orders of final deportation, etc. It's a battle of attrition to turn public opinion and Congress and the courts against these fascists as quickly as possible.
Whatever’s next, organizing continues here in Minneapolis. And I’m glad for a chance to breathe while it does.
@inthehands wired is reporting on their expansion plans...
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/
@inthehands Yes. You called this before :(
