Jesse Watters is right to call out what he calls an “underground resistance” shadowing federal immigration agents in Minneapolis — this is not the kind of civic engagement that protects neighborhoods, it’s the kind of organized harassment that invites tragedy. Local activists have turned surveillance of law enforcement into a tactical sport, coordinating whistles, phone alerts, and mass show-ups that can quickly become dangerous confrontations.
This escalation didn’t happen in a vacuum: the federal government’s Operation Metro Surge was sent to Minnesota to crack down on a sprawling criminal fraud network and to arrest dangerous illegal-alien criminals, and federal officers have been on edge amid nonstop tailing and provocation. That mission has been politicized by local leaders and media into a spectacle instead of a sober enforcement effort.
The consequences have been horrific and real: two Americans, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, died after encounters with federal agents in a matter of weeks, and videos of those incidents have inflamed both sides of this conflict. The footage raises serious questions about tactics on the ground, but the bigger story is how public mobs and coordinated tracking of agents create chaos that ends lives. Americans deserve facts and accountability, not mobs celebrating mayhem.
Organizers of so-called ICE Watch and rapid-response teams boast of their ability to shadow agents and mobilize large numbers of people at a moment’s notice, 40 or more on short notice in some cases, which turns lawful enforcement into a confrontational circus. This isn’t “community oversight,” it’s a playbook that mirrors tactics developed by militant activist networks in other cities, and law enforcement leaders say it makes operations exponentially harder and more hazardous.
Worse still, Minnesota’s political leadership has at times coddled and encouraged this behavior, treating it as righteous civic duty rather than a dangerous escalation that compromises safety and the rule of law. When governors and mayors signal that harassment of federal officers is acceptable, they are inviting vigilante-style enforcement and undercutting the very institutions that keep citizens and legal immigrants safe.
Federal courts and litigators are now wading into the mess, with emergency motions, injunctions, and appeals over how agents may respond to observers — a legal thicket that reflects the national stakes of what began as a local enforcement surge. While accountability is essential, the answer isn’t to paralyze federal agents or to reward street-level intimidation; it’s to insist on clear rules, real transparency, and consequences for those who weaponize public protest into obstruction.
Patriotic Americans should insist on protection for lawful enforcement and for innocent bystanders alike: we can demand investigations and body-worn camera transparency while refusing to tolerate a radical fringe that treats policing like a sport. If Minneapolis becomes a blueprint for letting mobs dictate enforcement, every city will be less safe — and that’s a price no hard-working family should be forced to pay.
