WASHINGTON — The snow fell on Portland Avenue Wednesday morning, the way it always falls in Minnesota in January, quiet and indifferent to what happens beneath it.
Emily Heller lives near 33rd and Portland. She woke up to noise outside her window. Federal agents in the street. A woman in a maroon car.
What happened next is the only thing that matters in this country right now.
The woman was trying to turn her car around. That’s what Heller saw. Trying to leave. The ICE agent walked to the front of the car and placed his midsection against the bumper. Then he reached his arm across the hood and shot her in the face. Three times. Maybe four.
The car rolled forward anyway, the way a car does when the foot on the brake goes slack. It traveled a hundred feet and hit a utility pole. The woman slumped over inside. She was an American citizen, according to her Senator Tina Smith.
In Washington, they will tell you she was a terrorist. They already have. The official statement from the Department of Homeland Security disparages her a “violent rioter” who “weaponized her vehicle” in “an act of domestic terrorism.”
This is what they do now. They shoot you and then they tell everyone you had it coming. They put out the press release before the body is cold.
But Emily Heller was standing right there. She saw a woman trying to turn around. She saw an agent lean on the hood of a car and fire into the windshield.
A bullet hole in glass tells you which direction the shot came from. The photographs from Wednesday show the hole punched inward. From outside the car, into it. Into her.
This happened one mile from the corner of 38th and Chicago, where Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes in May of 2020. The people of this neighborhood already know what it looks like when the government kills somebody and then lies about it.
They know what comes next, too. The union statements. The administrative leave. The promises of investigation. They activated the State Emergency Operation Center on Wednesday. The same apparatus that spun up after Floyd died.
The difference now is that the killing was done by federal agents who answer to Washington, not Minneapolis. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says she’s pushing for a local investigation. Good luck. These men came from somewhere else. Two thousand of them, according to DHS. They drove into town Tuesday in trucks with tinted windows and out-of-state plates.
Kristi Noem was here that same day, the Secretary of Homeland Security, smiling for cameras while her agents fanned out through the neighborhoods.
By Wednesday morning, one of those agents had his service weapon out on Portland Avenue, leaning across a car hood, firing into a windshield.
They say a doctor was on the scene. They say the agents wouldn’t let the doctor perform CPR.
Think about that for a moment. A woman is dying in her car and a physician is standing right there and the men who shot her won’t let anyone try to save her life.
The agents eventually left the intersection. They used chemical irritants on the crowd first. People had been throwing snowballs. The agents gassed them for it, then pulled back.
A photojournalist named King Demetrius Pendleton got the chemicals in his eyes. Someone flushed them with water. The photographs show him grimacing, another man’s hands on his face, trying to wash the burning out.
The woman in the maroon car was somebody’s daughter. Maybe somebody’s mother. Senator Tina Smith confirmed she was a citizen of this country, for whatever that’s worth anymore.
Her car is still there as of this writing, surrounded by yellow tape, airbags deployed, blood visible through the shattered windshield.
The snow will cover it eventually. The snow covers everything in Minneapolis. But the people of Portland Avenue saw what happened Wednesday morning. They won’t forget it. Neither should you.
ICE deploys 2,000 agents to Minneapolis in “largest immigration operation ever”
The Trump administration has launched what it describes as the “largest immigration operation ever,” deploying approximately 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. The operation targets alleged welfare fraud involving Somali-operated childcare centers.
On Monday alone, over 150 individuals were arrested. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was photographed in tactical gear accompanying agents during raids. Governor Tim Walz condemned the operation as “a war being waged against Minnesota.”
Federal agents are experiencing difficulty securing hotel accommodations, with the Hilton Hotel chain canceling reservations for DHS personnel, prompting allegations of a “coordinated campaign” against federal agents.
Why it matters: Two thousand federal agents occupying an American city—the Homeland Security Secretary personally leading raids in tactical gear—150 arrests in one day. The administration is calling this the largest immigration operation in history. The target is Minnesota’s Somali community. The excuse is welfare fraud from a YouTube video. This is military occupation dressed up as enforcement.
USCIS orders re-review of every approval since January 2021 for travel ban countries
USCIS issued a new memorandum expanding adjudication holds for foreign nationals from countries on the new travel ban list. The policy requires re-review of immigration benefits approved since January 20, 2021, for applicants from affected nations. Employment-based petitions are explicitly subject to the hold policy.
Why it matters: USCIS just ordered retroactive reviews of every immigration benefit approved in the last four years for people from travel ban countries. Green cards, work permits, visas—all subject to reversal. If you were approved under Biden, your status is now provisional and under investigation. The administration is hunting for approvals to revoke.
Federal judges reject mandatory detention 1,600+ times, administration ignores rulings
Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy in over 1,600 cases, with 308 judges rejecting the administration’s position compared to just 14 judges supporting it. Judges describe “shocking mistreatment” and have begun issuing carbon-copy rulings due to the volume of cases challenging the policy that reverses 30 years of detention practice.
Why it matters: Sixteen hundred rulings. Three hundred and eight judges—including Trump appointees—say mandatory detention without bond hearings is illegal. The administration keeps doing it anyway. Judges are copying and pasting their rulings because there are too many cases to write individual opinions. The judiciary has spoken. DHS doesn’t care.
DHS pushes Venezuelans to return “voluntarily” as TPS termination takes effect
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans remain in limbo following the Trump administration’s removal of Temporary Protected Status late in 2025. DHS is now pushing for voluntary returns to Venezuela, though migrants express deep fears about the Maduro regime remaining in power. The fate of approximately 350,000 Haitians is also at stake as federal courts weigh challenges to the termination of Temporary Protected Status.
Why it matters: DHS revoked TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians—now they’re “encouraging” voluntary returns. Venezuela is a dictatorship. Haiti is in collapse. The administration calls deportation to failed states “voluntary.” It’s coercion with a humanitarian veneer.
Travel ban expansion adds seven countries, application freeze hits 20 more
Restrictions affecting individuals from Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Syria took effect January 1, applying to both immigrants and nonimmigrants. These restrictions are in addition to longstanding bans from 19 other nations. Following the January 1 travel restrictions, USCIS paused assessment of all outstanding applications for visas, green cards, citizenship, or asylum from 20 additional nations. The agency will also reassess applications from these countries dating back to 2021.
Why it matters: Seven more countries added to the full ban list—20 more to application freezes. The travel ban now covers 46 countries with complete or partial restrictions, predominantly targeting Africa and the Global South. Every approval since 2021 is subject to retroactive review. This is systematic shutdown of legal immigration from entire continents.
H-1B visa overhaul eliminates lottery, prioritizes high earners
New restrictions on H-1B visas took effect this week, implementing a weighted wage-based selection system that prioritizes higher-paid workers and eliminates the previous random lottery process. USCIS officials argue the change will “strengthen America’s competitiveness” by preventing abuse of lower-wage hiring practices.
Why it matters: The H-1B lottery is gone—replaced with a wage-ranking system that prices out most applicants. International students who studied at US universities can’t stay to work unless employers pay premium wages. The administration converted skilled immigration into a pay-to-play system for the highest bidders.
