DHS and Protesters Face off at Whipple Federal Building

Fort Snelling, MN – Friday morning, Department of Homeland Security officers marched down a drive-way of the B. H. Whipple federal building that was being used exclusively as an entrance and exit for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents spread throughout Minneapolis as part of a surge in immigration enforcement by the federal government. On the opposite side of the street, dozens of protesters shouted at the men.

“Shame!” A man shouted. “Fuck you, you traitors to the republic!”

The officers, arrayed in a mis-matched assortment of denim and camouflage with no particular uniform, continued their march, firing pepper balls into the crowd to force the protesters off the road.

“Back up!” One agent yelled, balls cracking against the asphalt and exploding into noxious white fumes. “Back the fuck up!”

Through tears and coughs, protesters continued berating the officers, hacking and wheezing though the chemicals as sirens blared from bull horns. Reporters, which numbered in the dozens, stumbled over each other to get the best angles.

This was the second day of protests at the Whipple building. The first – held just the day prior – was an escalation of protest tactics in response to the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Since then, the federal building has been the site of over a dozen arrests as protesters chant and ridicule the agents, shaming them as they enter and leave the facility while others attempt to block the roadway.

The site of the protest, which is expected to continue throughout the Homeland Security surge, is located directly south of the facility on Minnehaha Avenue, on a slick patch of ice off to the side of a Minnesota Department of Transportation services building.

“I think this is on purpose,” a woman said, watching another person slip and fall onto their back.

At noon, a convoy of vehicles with tinted windows and out-of-state plates rolled down Minnehaha Avenue, and all of the protesters gathered around to shout at the passengers as they passed. The Jeep Wagoneer in front stopped abruptly and all of the officers poured out onto the street to begin manhandling a man and a woman in the crowd.

The man was thrown down by officers and arrested in front of the Jeep – kicking him as they took him down. Officers brought the two of them behind the Whipple building’s metal fence to be arrested.

At 1 p.m., the far-right agitator Jake Lang appeared with an entourage, blasting Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby.” Lang held up a hand-written sign reading “We [heart] ICE” and a large, heart-shaped Valentine’s Day balloon. [Lang was jailed for attacking police on January 6, 2021 and last November tried to burn a Quran in Dearborn, Michigan, and described people of color as “chimps” according to the Guardian.]

“This is what it means to stand for your nation,” Lang shouted into his megaphone as reporters flocked around them. DHS officers met the commotion by firing pepper balls into the crowd to disperse it, firing wildly along the road to create a perimeter.

As the agents pushed back the crowd of protesters, they left Lang and his entourage untouched behind them to wave their flags and gloat over the crowd. As the crowd writhed in the fumes, a flashbang exploded.

“We have a right to defend our country from these mongrel invaders,” Lang shouted, DHS agents looming behind him. “All they want to do is come here and get on social welfare, steal our money, take our jobs and rape our women.”

Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, far-right activist Jake Lang.

“You’re so brave!” A man shouted from the crowd. “You’re so fucking brave with a private army protecting you! Fucking bitch!”

At one point, a man quickly emerged from the crowd to swipe away his sign, and as he walked off with it he ripped it in half and broke it over his knee. Later, a woman from the crowd dumped her water bottle on top of him.

The group remained in the crowd, yelling back and forth with protesters for hours.