Lessons on Melting ICE from Minneapolis

by | Feb 19, 2026 | Opinions & Commentary

Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 23, 2026, Photo by Fibonacci Blue, Wiki Commons

Lessons on Melting ICE from Minneapolis

by | Feb 19, 2026 | Opinions & Commentary

Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 23, 2026, Photo by Fibonacci Blue, Wiki Commons

The citizens of Minnesota brought the fire we all need to destroy ICE, and a lawless Republican Party that means us harm.

Republished with permission from D. Earl Stephens

I had intended to write to you today that I had about reached my fill of stories about the demise of the malfunctioning Democratic Party.

Truth is both major parties in this country are bought-off wrecks, but at least Democrats don’t have their lips firmly planted on the ample rear end of an obese, decaying, 79-year-old bullshit artist, who treats his party like one of Kristi Noem’s puppies.

I had about 800 words in the can aimed at the premise that people, not parties, must be what moves us forward in America. Politicians and all the noxious billionaires who fund them work for us dammit, and it is long past time they understood that.

While I was plowing forward at about 60 mph, breaking news came careening onto my screen, which made my piece both less relevant and a helluva lot more timely at the same time.

Here was that alert from the New York Times:

“Trump administration to end surge of immigrant agents in Minnesota.”

Now let me translate that alert for you into something other than mush-mouth, dictator-enabling New York Times speak:

“Trump regime alleged to be winding down latest illegal, violent attack on U.S. state.”

This story is still percolating as I change course, and the legacy media makes good and damn sure to produce a sanitized version of events, so as not to upset the regime that owns a bigger and bigger piece of their cowardice, pompous asses each day.

As of this writing, it looks like the blood-thirsty Trump regime is drawing down some of its invading forces in Minnesota to presumably muster them elsewhere, and ready for another strike on yet another major American city housed in a Blue State.

Don’t get me wrong, there is good news here, but not near enough to make up for the hell this orange madman and his Gestapo-like forces rained down on Minnesota since launching their deadly attack on the state Dec. 1, 2025.

This strike followed similar, though sightly less lethal attacks in Los Angeles and Chicago, and myriad ongoing assaults in Blue State cities throughout this country during this regime’s quest to turn America into nothing but Putin’s failing province to the west.

And lest you think this was anything but a military attack, despite legacy media’s efforts to frame it otherwise, then you need to tell me why it was given a military name—Operation Metro Surge—and why Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan continually referred to a U.S. city under seige, as “a theater of operation.”

I have covered enough wars and dealt with enough of our folks in uniform to know a war zone when I see one.

As for Homan himself … well I can barely even stand to look at this hog-nosed deviant much less listen to him.

Remember, because it’s too damn easy to forget during this regime’s ongoing crime spree the past year or so, Homan accepted $50,000 in cash in a restaurant takeout bag from undercover FBI agents on Sept 24, 2024, in exchange for promising to steer government contracts to the companies that would be favorable to Trump were he to win the election later that year.

Are you reading that?

 

Despite that, but mostly it turns out because of it, Trump ordered the investigation shut down in early 2025, and tapped him for a job in his regime that entailed brutally attacking American cities in Blue states.

In other words, Homan, a stone-cold crook, was now in charge of caging, beating and murdering innocent people throughout the United States of America.

THAT is the most Republican thing ever.

And it is THAT man who smugly announced the alleged drawdown of his troops in Minnesota.

Look, you are just not going to see or hear about any of that in our legacy media today, but know this: Anything Homan says should be suspect, and not trusted. He is a crook who works for a crook.

Period.

Which brings me to the good news here, which is this: People—ordinary citizens—showed up in bone-chilling weather in Minnesota the past two-plus months and peacefully but urgently stood up for their neighbors and humanity through one of the United States’ worst attacks on its citizens in history.

Nobody depicted this heroism better than The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, and maybe when you are done with me here you can listen to him there for some real inspiration.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also inspired this morning in the wake of this news, and put down these words of steel:

“They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation. These patriots of Minneapolis are showing that it’s not just about resistance—standing with our neighbors is deeply American. We will show the same commitment to our immigrant residents and endurance in this reopening, and I’m hopeful the whole country will stand with us as we move forward.”

Frey added that the siege had been “catastrophic for our neighbors and businesses” and that Minneapolis was poised for a “great comeback.”

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who has battled hard in his war-torn state, had a message for Democrats in Congress who are in the middle of negotiations for new a Department of Homeland Security funding package with a deadline of midnight Friday:

“Hold the line until you get the minimum reforms necessary in this rogue agency.”

I am far more confident in my neighbors, and you dear readers, than I am in our Democratic elected officials, who are expert at making it plain what they want done, but lack the guts to follow through strong.

Trump’s temporary ceasefire was no doubt aimed at those negotiations and targeted at weak-kneed Democrats who have proven time and again they prefer the part of the coyote, instead of the roadrunner.

Here’s hoping the patriots in Minnesota have given them all something to think about.

 

D. Earl Stephens

D. Earl Stephens

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough

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