On Wednesday afternoon, Minneapolis Public Schools posted an unusual notice on their website: “Out of an abundance of caution, there will be no school on Thursday, Jan. 8 and Friday, Jan. 9.” Despite the January snow on the ground, the two-day closure was not due to severe weather, but due instead “to safety concerns related to today’s incidents around the city.” The notice came hours after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a woman who hit him with her vehicle — background which gives the notice an ominous tone.

The vague language leaves the true nature of the “safety concerns” up to the reader’s imagination. “Is this some sort of nonsense that teachers and students are afraid to go to school, for fear of being shot by ICE agents?” brainstormed one commentator. “Are they fearing riots? Anti-ICE protests getting violent?” Or perhaps the closure was ordered for reasons that don’t “have anything to do with safety,” rejoined another writer, such as accommodating “a significant number of the system’s teachers [who] want to go out and protest.”

Whatever the real reason, the two-day safety-related closure reflected a substantial belief that something dangerous or dramatic would, or could, happen.

That belief appears to be well-founded. National attention on Minnesota’s Somali welfare fraud scandal had already embarrassed the governor into abandoning his reelection campaign, not to mention putting an end to the city’s profitable grift. The arrival of thousands of ICE agents then added insult to injury, exploding the city’s fantastic illusions that it could practice modern-day nullification without interference. And, when those ICE agents encountered inevitable resistance — which unfortunately turned fatal — that incident only drove tempers past the boiling point.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) channeled what he perceived to be his constituents’ reaction, insisting in a press conference, “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bull****. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed. … To ICE, get the f*** out of Minneapolis. Somebody is dead. That’s on you.” Somali immigrant and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) went further, claiming that the ICE officer’s use of force constituted murder.

With public officials uttering such unrestrained comments, it’s no surprise that left-wing activists felt likewise unrestrained. A local activist group, Minnesota 50501, posted an “Emergency Response Alert,” while the Party for Socialism and Liberation called for action to get “ICE murders out of our communities.”

The action began early this morning, when at least scores of anti-ICE protestors assembled at 7 a.m. in sub-freezing temperatures to march on the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which holds ICE’s Minneapolis headquarters. Crowd organizers directed the crowd to cover all entrance points, where they jeered at federal employees showing up for work. At one point, federal security officers reportedly deployed tear gas to push back the crowd and clear the roadway.

Fortunately, the large crowd largely confined itself to verbal abuse. One video posted by the White House recorded vulgar threats hurled at arriving staff, “We’re going to f****** find you, and we’re going to f****** kill you! You’re going to f****** die, b****!” And progressives wonder why ICE officers now take measures to conceal their identity in public.

Less fortunately, this level of vitriol directed toward law enforcement officers is nothing new for Minneapolis. Nearly six years ago, the city exploded into fiery riots after a black man, George Floyd, died while being restrained by city police. Prominent politicians, media outlets, and celebrities added their voices to the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) cause, leading to a national debate over police tactics and whether or not they were racist.

The policy discussion lent ill-deserved legitimacy to the street demonstrations, which grew increasingly aggressive as politicians feared sending the police after anti-police protests. The rioters damaged some 700 buildings in Minneapolis alone, before the same tide of destruction spread to 20 states across the U.S., resulting in estimated damage between one and two billion dollars — the costliest riots in U.S. history.

Although what became the BLM movement had begun years earlier in Ferguson, Missouri, it leapt to its peak of national prominence after the riots in Minneapolis. Likewise, anti-ICE protests did not begin in Minneapolis, with tense clashes and rioting afflicting Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Chicago last year. But, as with George Floyd, the untimely death at the hands of law enforcement in Minneapolis (for which angry protestors will accept no justification) may vault the anti-ICE movement to yet higher prominence, and possibly violence.

Already, anger at the Minneapolis shooting has gone nationwide, with the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression scheduling an “emergency rally” Thursday in New York City, while a group calling itself “Refuse Fascism” advocated regime change outside the White House. “ICE murdered a woman in Minneapolis,” their online flyer read. “Take to the street everywhere! Trump must go now!”

Another feature of the BLM movement was grift. As millions of donation dollars poured into national, state, and local BLM organizations, not all the money went towards the cause it was supposed to help. In October 2024, an Ohio federal jury convicted Sir Maejor Page for defrauding donors to “Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta” of $450,000. In December 2025, an Oklahoma federal grand jury indicted Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson of bilking Black Lives Matter OKC of at least $3.15 million. And the national BLM organization remains under investigation after questionable activities by co-founder Patrisse Cullors, including the purchase of a $6 million mansion in Los Angeles.

Already, anti-ICE protest activities appear well-funded, although the source of the funding is not yet clear. If the incident in Minneapolis increases its profile, that could expose fraud or other criminal behavior lurking beneath the surface.

In short, parallels abound between the BLM riots of 2020 and the anti-ICE protests of 2025 and now 2026. Will another officer-involved death in Minneapolis be the spark that lights a nationwide forest fire? It’s too early to tell. At the very least, Christians can pray earnestly that God will extend America grace, so that it does not come to that.

On an encouraging note, at least some commentators are skeptical about the anti-ICE protests turning into a repeat. Perhaps the most compelling reason is the difference in the weather — yes, that’s right, the weather. Whereas the BLM riots dragged on through the steamy summer months, National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar expressed skepticism that the Minneapolis shooting will result in a rerun “because of the unavoidable reality that it is currently January in Minnesota.”