"People’s level of militancy in the Trump 2.0 era has dramatically increased. They’re getting more and more experienced with protest. People are figuring out more how to organize themselves, learning safety, learning how to be more effective tactically."

"There was clearly significant involvement from both members of DSA ... PSL [Party for Socialism and Liberation] ... Freedom Road Socialist Organization and also anarchists. ... they knew what to do, … and were able to keep people who were less experienced in protesting safer."

"I’ve seen a huge uptick in these kind of immigration defense trainings being offered by both things like MIRAC and another organization called Monarca in Minnesota. And I think that’s part of what enabled such a robust response."

"Even though we went into this not thinking that we’re going to be able to stop them, at the very least, we could slow them down and make their life and make their operations more difficult."

"There were a few FBI agents, and I’m not sure if this was because of sexist reasons, but they happened to be female, who honestly kind of seemed like they were there just chaperoning. They seemed sort of aloof, and sort of staring off into space, emotionless."

"Agents start pushing some people away and then when it’s not as successful as I think they wanted it to be, that’s when they broke out the pepper spray and we got it in the face, along with probably at least a dozen other people."

"Once they broke through the chain [of demonstrators], they started shutting down the perimeter ... as individual agents were getting into their unmarked cars to leave, all these spontaneous confrontations were happening. The protesters would walk up on each... taunt them to leave."

"I recognized people from DSA [Democratic Socialists of America], and they understood ahead of time… that there was a high likelihood of escalation. ... A lot of the people who were clearly ... prepared with with gas masks or masks of some type, N95s, water."

"There was clearly a split among the overall attendance, to be honest. ...Older people ... clearly more traditional, like DFL liberal types. The majority of the people ... had been previously involved with either socialist politics or on the ground activism, in particular immigrants’ rights groups."

"I think that the [community] response that came and how it came so quickly, I got the impression that at some point [agents] made a decision that, 'We need to get the fuck out quick.' And that’s why we suddenly saw all these escalatory tactics in a very short window."

"I was very impressed with how many people came, how quickly, and a number of media outlets have even described the number as hundreds.... It definitely increased like an order of magnitude or an order of magnitude and a half."

"[There were differences in] the kind of facial expressions that agents had like, you could tell that there were some agents that maybe were a little bit hesitant to be involved in this operation. But there were other agents that you could just tell were very happy to be doing this work."

HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) is part of ICE. See Unicorn Riot’s Icebreaker series for unredacted HSI internal agent manuals. https://unicornriot.ninja/tag/icebreaker/

Two participants in the November 21 resistance shared their firsthand experience with Unicorn Riot, providing valuable insight about what they saw at the Bro-Tex facility operation. In the wake of recent raids, and with an eye toward future encounters, the participants reflected on what happened.

At least one person was detained outside Bro-Tex, according to Bluesky posts, and brought to the Bishop Henry Whipple Building at Fort Snelling. A federal agent shouted at the spouse, “Fuck you. You’re not even real Minnesotans. You’re all from Canada.” https://bsky.app/profile/mnorthstar82.bsky.social/post/3m5x3vsiizc2e

In recent weeks, as the Trump administration bears down on the Twin Cities area, activists have responded to a slew of immigration raids. Organizers in Minnesota have adapted and learned from each encounter. https://unicornriot.ninja/2025/ice-arrests-observer-maces-press-detains-people-as-agents-are-confronted-across-minneapolis/

Fourteen people were detained by the time the raid was over. This was the largest federal operation in the Twin Cities since the controversial June 3 “Homeland Security Task Force” deployment on Lake Street.
https://unicornriot.ninja/2025/ice-led-homeland-security-task-force-raid-draws-large-mobilization-in-minneapolis/

Agents used pepper balls, OC canisters and pepper spray on the crowd as they tried to clear a path for a convoy of their vehicles, some of which carried detained migrants, to leave the area. The crowd quickly grew into several hundred people by the time federal agents left the area.

Within minutes of federal agents with ICE, the DEA and FBI arriving at the workplace, a rapid response network mobilized to confront the agents carrying out an immigration raid at the Bro-Tex distribution center in St. Paul.

NEW: Insight from the Bro-Tex Raid: What Activists Saw While Confronting ICE
Last month, dozens of community members were alerted to a raid at a warehouse in St. Paul.
https://unicornriot.ninja/2025/insight-from-the-bro-tex-raid-what-activists-saw-while-confronting-ice/