Violent rioters in Minneapolis are ramping up their efforts to target federal immigration officers, while local police are simply standing down. According to a video report from Nick Sortor, Minneapolis rioters broke open a weapons locker in a federal law enforcement vehicle and stole what was identified in the video as an FBI rifle, in addition to ammunition. “There’s some bullets,” one of the rioters is heard saying in the video. Another urges, “Get that sh**.” A rioter smoking a cigarette is then seen ripping military and law enforcement badges off of the raided locker.

Sortor shared a second video in which rioters hooked up a cable strap to a civilian vehicle and forcibly ripped a weapons locker out of a federal law enforcement vehicle. Before the rioters began towing, one of the radicals is heard warning his comrades not to post video footage of the crime to “Snapchat” or else federal agents will “be on your ass.” Rioters cheered as the weapons locker broke free and chased it down the street to loot its contents. “Break that b****,” one of the rioters is heard saying as another tried to break the lock. According to Sortor, Minneapolis Police Department and Minnesota State Police officers refused to respond, standing down instead.

The attacks on federal forces follow a second incident Wednesday night in which a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot an individual in Minneapolis. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE agents attempted to arrest a Venezuelan national and illegal immigrant, who fled the scene, crashed his car, and then continued fleeing on foot. One of the ICE agents tackled the illegal immigrant when he was assaulted by two other individuals. The illegal immigrant freed himself and joined the assault, hitting the ICE agent with a shovel. “Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life. The initial subject was hit in the leg,” DHS reported. “All three subjects ran back into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside. The attacked officer and subject are both in the hospital. Both attackers are in custody.”

“This attack on another brave member of law enforcement took place while Minnesota’s top leaders, Governor [Tim] Walz (D) and Mayor [Jacob] Frey (D), are actively encouraging an organized resistance to ICE and federal law enforcement officers,” DHS charged in a social media post. “Their hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end. Federal law enforcement officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers.”

On January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot anti-ICE rioter Renee Good, a Colorado native who had only recently moved to Minneapolis with her wife, after Good used her SUV to obstruct ICE operations and then struck Ross after accelerating. Opposition to ICE operations in Minneapolis had already been ongoing, but rioting intensified in the wake of Good’s death. President Donald Trump and his administration defended Ross’s use of force as an act of self-defense, while numerous Democrats characterized Ross’s actions as “murder,” arguing that the ICE agent was likely not injured or even struck by the vehicle. However, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that Ross had been hospitalized after having been struck by Good’s car, and CBS News later reported that Ross had “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” as a result of the impact.

Nevertheless, Democrats have continued their attempts to obstruct ICE operations. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in federal court to halt a “surge” of immigration enforcement officers and military prosecutors to the state, demanding that Judge Katherine M. Menendez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issue an immediate temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt ICE operations. Menendez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, refused to do so, referring to the case as a “frontier” in terms of constitutional law and giving the Trump administration until Monday to respond to Ellison’s lawsuit.

Menendez is also hearing a similar case, Tincher v. Noem, filed by a group of Minnesota residents, including immigrants. Like Ellison’s, Tincher seeks a restriction of ICE operations in Minneapolis. The lawsuit accused ICE agents of “abducting” U.S. citizens for observing ICE activities and compares federal agents to “the masked secret police of pre-World War II Germany or Pinochet’s Chile” and “the mafia.” Also like Ellison, the plaintiffs originally sought a TRO, but Menendez denied the request and converted it to a request for a class-action preliminary injunction.

The Trump administration has disputed the accusations of the plaintiffs, arguing that ICE agents have only detained individuals who have actively interfered with enforcement operations or threatened federal agents and noting the increased use of threats and violence against ICE officers over the past year. The case, filed in December, is still being litigated.

At the federal level, Democrats have issued calls to impeach Noem, to drastically cut funding to DHS, and to bar ICE from particular operations and activities. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), who was born in India, announced that he will be introducing legislation to abolish ICE altogether. The cleverly-named Abolish ICE Act will “dismantle the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and end its current enforcement authority,” Thanedar touted in a statement.

“Since ICE was established in 2003, legal experts have argued that its mission could be carried out more effectively and justly by other federal agencies, because its design prioritizes terror over justice. Decades of terror tactics culminated in the killing of Renee Nicole Good, making clear ICE is not an organization bound by the rule of law,” his office continued. “When an agency’s structure consistently produces harm instead of justice, there is no way to reform it. We must fundamentally change the way we approach immigration.”