It's By Design
Almost immediately after Renee Good died while trying to ram a federal law enforcement officer with her SUV while he was part of a group trying to arrest her, the left sought to make her the first and most notable martyr for the anti-ICE cause, which really is a component of the left’s larger anti-American cause.
The refrain on the right was, “Now they have their martyr,” just like George Floyd. We all knew the playbook, and we could tell it was coming. The shadowy schemers behind the protests against ICE’s law enforcement set out to create an environment where one of their pawns would get wounded or killed, so that they could use that individual to put an end to illegal immigration enforcement, to undermine the Trump administration, and to hamper Republicans going into the country’s midterm elections.
Cynical? Yes. True? Yes.
On Jan. 14, our own Sarah Anderson reported that federal law enforcement officers in Minneapolis stopped an illegal alien in what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called a “targeted traffic stop,” as opposed to a random one. DHS said the subject fled the scene in his car, and when an officer caught up with him and tackled him to the ground, two others came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle. This was an ambush. The federal officer was outnumbered and under attack.
DHS said, “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. All three subjects ran back into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside.”
While the organizers of the Minneapolis anti-ICE mob used this incident as an excuse to escalate the violence in that city, you could feel the left’s disappointment in that they didn’t get another dead “victim” to use to spur even more unrest.
The conditions you’re seeing in Minneapolis were a very long time in the making. Ever since the concept of “sanctuary cities” came about, the left has been looking for a real-world test lab to determine which facets of these policies are most effective at blunting federal enforcement of immigration law.
President Donald Trump’s emphasis on immigration law enforcement in his second term provided the left with this opportunity. NGOs, leftist operatives, and local Democrat politicians knew what they had to do. Their job was to create an environment to foment violence against federal agents, to provoke them to shoot someone.
Attempts to create this scenario have been going on for the better part of the past year in places such as Portland, Seattle, and Chicago. But the city that gave the instigators their best chance at game-changing shootings was Minneapolis.
The groundwork for this had already been laid.
The Sanctuary City Policy
Minneapolis has a “separation ordinance,” also known as a sanctuary city policy, that legally prohibits city employees, including Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers, from participating in federal immigration enforcement or assisting ICE on immigration matters. The city updated and reaffirmed this policy in late 2025.
Under this policy, MPD will not:
- “Provide information to immigration enforcement agents for the purpose of locating a person solely for immigration enforcement actions.
- Remove or transport people in immigration enforcement proceedings.
- Assist with immigration enforcement at any immigration enforcement-related events.
- Participate in detaining people based solely on immigration status (like during a traffic stop or at a checkpoint) or assist in the enforcement of immigration laws
- Escort federal immigration agents to enforcement locations unless there is a clear and immediate threat to life, serious injury, or destruction of property.
- Close streets when there are no traffic or public safety issues unless there is a clear and immediate threat to life, serious injury, or destruction of property.
- Conduct crowd control when members of the public are peacefully assembling and exercising First Amendment rights, when no threat to public safety exists.
- Mask or shield their identities as officers when interacting with the public. The only exception is when officers are officially undercover for other purposes.”
What this means is ICE officers are left to hang out to dry when they come under attack or have to deal with the threat of violence from the increasingly violent mobs that are overtaking Minneapolis. They are on their own. No local law enforcement, as a matter of policy, is permitted to provide aid in the form of safety and security for both federal officers and the public at large.
Of course, there is some language in this policy that will raise red flags, in addition to raising the hair on your neck.
The sanctuary city policy specifically states the MPD will not escort federal agents, close streets, or conduct crowd control “unless there is a clear and immediate threat to life, serious injury, or destruction of property.”
That ship sailed weeks ago, even before Renee Good tried to evade arrest and was shot in the process.
A Do-Nothing Police Chief
Minneapolis Chief of Police Brian O’Hara, also known as the city’s mayor Jacob Frey’s BFF, has had countless opportunities to interpret this policy in the best interest of public safety and send officers to where the greatest risks were, and he did not.
We all know why. He works for Frey, and if he actually did his job and enforced his city’s own sanctuary city law to the letter, he’d lose that job. I can’t read his mind. Maybe he agrees with Frey on the loose interpretation of what constitutes “clear and immediate threat to life.” Maybe O’Hara, too, wants a martyr to come at the hands of a federal officer. I have no idea.
What I do know that if he were to fulfill his responsibility to his country and to the people of Minneapolis, he’d defy Frey’s wishes and start working to ensure protesters can protest safely and peacefully, and federal agents can do their jobs without having to look over their shoulders for an out-of-control anti-ICE Karen who doesn’t realize the volatility of law enforcement situations.
Minneapolis’s sanctuary city policy is intentionally vague to allow for real-time interpretation of what constitutes “a clear and immediate threat to life, serious injury, or destruction of property.” This gives the MPD an excuse not to be there, or not to get there too quickly. The architect of the policy wanted headlines to be made, viral videos to be captured, and federal law enforcement officers to be demonized.
This was built into the design.
In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued New York City in federal court, alleging the city’s sanctuary policies interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration law and put law enforcement officers at risk. All of the same dynamics cited in that lawsuit are in play in Minneapolis right now.
As our Matt Margolis reported, now the DOJ has opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Frey to determine “whether they are impeding federal immigration enforcement from doing their jobs. Subpoenas are expected to be issued soon.”
This all traces back to statements both men have made with regard to immigration law in their jurisdictions, along with decisions they have made that not only deny federal officers with local police protection, but appear to encourage MPD officers to confront ICE officers.
In a press conference this week, Chief O’Hara got a taste of his own medicine, and spoke out on it. Through from his silence up until that point, it seems he had no problem when the crowds in Minneapolis were targeting federal officers, but when the crowds turned that same vitriol on MPD, he drew the line.
He had the audacity, after allowing this to happen for weeks to federal agents, to complain that people were throwing fireworks, ice, rocks and “other projectiles” at his officers.
“It has absolutely become an unlawful assembly,” he said. “It is well past the line, and people need to leave.”
The obvious question then is, Brian, what are you going to do about it? That’s rhetorical, I know. He’ll do nothing, because the powers that be want him to do nothing, so that one day, they’ll get their next George Floyd. That’s what sanctuary city policies are all about.
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