The Faces—and Middle Fingers—of the ICE Resistance in Minneapolis

Despite subzero temperatures, the people of Minneapolis have come out in force to protest ICE’s brutal tactics, which include the killing of Renee Nicole Good and detaining a 5-year-old boy to bait his parents. Photojournalist Ron Haviv has covered more than 25 overseas conflicts in the last three decades, from wars to revolutions to coups d’état. He documented the January 6 raid on the Capitol and the start of the war in Ukraine for The New Republic. For the past week, he has been on the streets of downtown Minneapolis, capturing the resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Here, he shares his perspective:

This needs to be documented, but at the same time the administration wants these images to be seen. They want people to see that they are doing what they said they would do. Second, they want it to create motivation for self-deportation. It is a very complicated formula.
This expansion of ICE, in terms of budget, personnel, and territory, is shocking for many people to witness, especially their masked presence and their weapons. Immigration policy isn’t black and white. In some areas, there’s agreement with what they are doing; in others, total opposition. But adding an element of cruelty, when things could be handled better, doesn’t make sense.
I’ve photographed under dictators, societies on the cusp of breakup, and outright invasion. One of the closest comparisons I see, in terms of class, economics, and values, is the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. People talked about being in a conflict over religion, but it was really about power and money, convincing people that those who were different were the enemy. That led to years of war. We are not there yet, but when rhetoric is backed by armed force, that’s how escalation begins. We’re starting to get used to the visualization of militarization on the streets. It feels like this is only going to increase. There’s no de-escalation. Minnesota is becoming a standard for activist reaction to ICE deployment.