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This story is on our minds, of course, because the Minneapolis mess just keeps growing and growing in scope. This series began as a single item, and then we accepted that it would have to be two parts, then three, then four. Well, we've done the first three parts, plus an intermission, and today we have Part IV. And guess what? We are going to have to do at least two parts AFTER this one. Today, we are going to insert an item that just updates everyone on all the drama since the last time we wrote about this subject. Then, tomorrow, we'll (hopefully) be able to proceed on to an item about the other acts of violence from ICE, and then finally we will do an item about the response thus far. Maybe we'll complete it this week, though the universe might have different ideas. For now, the latest:

Minnesota Resists

There aren't too many states that have a more interesting political culture than the North Star State. It's center/center-left, of course, but beyond that there's a strong current of self-reliance, and some populism, and a fair bit of rebelliousness. There is a reason that this is the state that give election victories to Hubert H. Humphrey, Paul Wellstone, Al Franken, Gov. Tim Walz (DFL-MN), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) Jesse Ventura and Walter Mondale, among others. Those are some pretty different kinds of politicians (excepting the Wellstone/Franken pairing and maybe the Humphrey/Mondale pairing), but they all express well-established elements of the Minnesota milieu.

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What it amounts to is that there MIGHT be states that would allow themselves to be invaded by ICE, without much in the way of complaint. We are not sure what states those might be, but they COULD exist. What we do know is that Minnesota definitely is not one of them. Certainly it's not a state that WE would want to try to impose our wills upon. And that's before you add in the cherry on the sundae, at it were, namely what season of year it is. There's a humorous observation going around right now, first brought to our attention by reader P.K. in Marshalltown, IA, that goes like this: "ICE made the decision to attack a city... full of the descendants of Vikings... in the middle of the winter."

The most prominent figures in pushing back against the Trump government, of course, are Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey. Walz has mobilized, and is getting ready to deploy, the Minnesota National Guard to protect his citizens. Trump may well try to seize control, but recall that the law says that's only legal when states are refusing to enforce federal law (most obviously, this happened during the Civil Rights Movement). If the White House does try to take over, it will claim that is what is going on here, and Walz will run to court so fast that it will make Trump's head spin. At that point, the administration will have to try to convince a judge that what it's doing is legal, and what Walz is doing is illegal. This is not likely to turn out the way the administration wants.

Meanwhile, Frey has been all over the media, and has been sharing some strongly worded verbiage. For example, he appeared on Face the Nation on Sunday and referred to ICE as an "occupying force." He added that "This is not about safety. What this is about is coming into our city by the thousands and terrorizing people simply because they're Latino or Somali. And yeah, people in Minneapolis are speaking up. They're speaking up peacefully."

Some of Frey's widely circulated remarks have been, uh, a bit less family-friendly. Still, he's young (44), and a man of conviction, and he's very charismatic and telegenic. He could well have a future at the state, or national, level. And with Walz being somewhat calmer and older and wiser, they make a pretty interesting pairing, something along the lines of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, or Jean-Luc Picard and Will Riker, or Batman and Robin.

In addition, the citizenry of Minneapolis (and other places in Minnesota) is up in arms, and is taking it to the street, despite the frigid temperatures. There have been a lot of protests and protesters, and, as Slate's Aymann Ismail writes, they are turning into a disciplined resistance movement. Their anti-ICE activities have become regularized (e.g., people taking assigned shifts monitoring agents) and they are developing a vocabulary appropriate to the context (e.g., tailing ICE agents in unmarked cars is now known as "commuting"). These are folks who look to be in it for the duration, however long ICE decides to remain in town.