BREAKING: Federal agents shot and killed a man in south Minneapolis this morning, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. I watched a video of the shooting on the Minneapolis Star Tribune live updates. This is an unfolding story. This marks the third shooting (the second fatal) in Minneapolis by federal agents since Metro Surge began.
Here’s the post I was working on when I learned about today’s shooting:
MINNESOTANS REMAIN STRONG and undeterred in their opposition to ongoing ICE enforcement in our state. Nowhere was that strength of resistance more publicly visible than Friday afternoon in downtown Minneapolis.
Thousands (some estimates are 50,000) bundled up and marched in a double digit subzero wind chill to protest ICE actions, gathering afterwards for a rally inside Target Center. Those protesters included my cousins who live in south Minneapolis. They want ICE out of their neighborhoods, their city, our state. So do I.
I should note that not every Minnesotan opposes ICE’s massive enforcement efforts here. I don’t understand how anyone can be OK with the often aggressive, violent and unconstitutional ways in which these federal agents are operating in Minnesota. This has gone well beyond their originally-stated goal of gathering and deporting “the worst of the worst,” violent criminals who are here illegally.
I should also note that ICE’s reach stretches well beyond the Twin Cities metro. Agents are detaining people in my community of Faribault. Likewise in Rochester (home to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic), Mankato, St. Cloud, Northfield, even small towns like St. James and many more places in between.
Momentum against ICE is growing as the impact on people is being felt in multiple ways. Healthcare workers say patients are afraid to seek care and that their physical and mental health are being affected. Plus, doctors and nurses are under tremendous stress, especially when ICE agents enter clinics and hospitals.
ICE has stopped off-duty law enforcement officers of color in instances of reported racial profiling.
Students are walking out of classes, concerned about their classmates, some of whom have been taken by ICE. Others are not coming to school. Schools are going to virtual learning.
Labor unions have publicly stood up against ICE.
At the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, local clergy and clergy from across the country gathered outside terminal one on Friday to protest deportation flights in and out of the airport and ICE’s presence in Minnesota.
Educators are speaking out about the fear they are seeing in their students, about the students who are not coming to school, about the students who have been taken by ICE.
And then there’s the group of “Women with Walkers” who gathered in the chapel of a senior living community in St. Paul Friday afternoon to pray and protest in their own quiet way.
I can’t write any more. Not in this moment. I am too angry.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Commentary: No longer free to speak, to… April 11, 2025
Tags: college campuses, commentary, detained students, Freeborn County, freedom of speech, international students, Mankato, Minnesota, Minnesota State University Mankato, opinion, protests, student newspaper, The Reporter, visa revoked
IN THE 1970s, students at my alma mater, Minnesota State University, Mankato, protested the Vietnam War. Today MSU students are protesting the detainment of an international student and the revocation of visas for five others who attend this southern Minnesota college where I studied journalism.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also detained a student from Riverland Community College in Austin, Minnesota, and from the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. Other international students from colleges across the state have also had their visas revoked. The same is happening at college campuses throughout the country. Students snatched off the street, from their apartments, by ICE. Pffff, gone, just like that with no explanation and no initial access to their friends, families and legal assistance. This does not sound like the United States of America I’ve called home my entire life.
I’m not privy to specifics on why particular international students were targeted. But I have read and heard enough reliable media reports to recognize that these are likely not individuals committing terrible crimes, if any crime. In most cases they have done nothing more than voice their opinions whether at a protest or via social media. College campuses have always been a place for students to speak up, to exercise freedom of speech, to be heard. To protest.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has labeled students with revoked visas as “lunatics.” Really? Name-calling doesn’t impress me. Nor do actions to intimidate, instill fear and silence voices.
I’m grateful that student journalists at The Reporter, the Mankato State student newspaper where I worked while in college, are aggressively covering this issue. In particular, I reference the article “SCARED TO LEAVE MY HOUSE’—Mavericks react to ICE-detained student, what’s being done by Emma Johnson. She interviews international students who, for their own protection, chose to remain anonymous. It’s chilling to read their words. Words of fear. Words of disbelief and disappointment in a country where they once felt safe and free. The place where they chose to pursue their education, jumping through all the necessary legal hoops to do so. And now they fear speaking up and are asking their American classmates and others to do so for them. So I am.
MSU students, staff and community members have rallied to support their international community and to voice their opposition to ICE’s action. In neighboring Albert Lea, where the MSU student is being held in the Freeborn County Jail, a crowd gathered on Thursday to protest ICE action against international students. Of course, not everyone agrees with the protesters and it is their choice to disagree. They can. They are not international students here on visas.
I should note that the sheriffs in Freeborn County and four other Minnesota counties—Cass, Crow Wing, Itasca and Jackson—this week signed agreements to cooperate with ICE.
These are troubling times. In my life-time, this has always been a nation where we’ve been able to freely express ourselves, where that freedom has been valued. We can agree to disagree. Respectfully. Without name-calling. Without the fear of suppression, retaliation and/or imprisonment. But I see that changing. Daily. And that, my friends, is cause for deep concern.
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NOTE: I welcome respectful conversation. That said, this is my personal blog and I moderate and screen all comments.
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling