If the people of Minneapolis are indicative of a growing resistance to ICE against an emerging police state, Americans will not lose their democracy to the dreams of a would-be authoritarian tsar in the White House. Across the country, Americans are organizing an intrepid and effective resistance to police brutality and overreach—not only against immigrants, but increasingly against American citizens as well.
In 2025, resistance to ICE intensified. There were massive demonstrations under movements such as “ICE Out for Good” and “No Sleep for ICE,” targeting locations where ICE agents were staying. The year also saw large-scale protests opposing the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations that drew millions of participants.
The recent killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Good, along with the Trump administration’s refusal to investigate the case, appears to be an important inflection point in American resistance to mass deportation efforts. Residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul are organizing in effective ways, attempting to frustrate ICE’s cruel and abusive activities aimed at purging cities of undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration has routinely villainized immigrants, falsely accusing them of being criminals who drain and endanger American society. Increasingly, Americans are rejecting these false narratives and pushing back against the lies and bigotry that sustain them. Citizens are organizing to resist what many see as the totalitarian impulses of an administration animated by autocratic ambitions.
American independence in the eighteenth century was forged in the fires of resistance to cruel, autocratic rule. Colonists rebelled against a monarch whose policies they viewed as oppressive and unjust. In many ways, the sanctioned cruelty of ICE has awakened that same spirit of resistance—a refusal to accept authoritarian power and normalized injustice. It is a spirit that longs for liberty, justice, and human dignity, and that refuses to submit quietly to tyranny.
The cruelty of ICE operations has stirred many Americans to pursue justice for the oppressed and the vulnerable. As Scripture reminds us, we are called to “seek justice” and “correct oppression” (Isaiah 1). And when justice is pursued, the prophet envisions it flowing freely—“like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5).
It is no small irony that ICE’s assault on the people of the Twin Cities has coincided with the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In that spirit, I offer a brief prayer:
Gracious God,
You have made all people in Your image and call us to live in justice and love.
Forgive our silence and complacency, and renew our courage to stand for truth when it is costly.
Send us forth as builders of peace and servants of justice,
until Your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
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Donald E. Williams is a United Methodist pastor and Duke University graduate. He completed his doctorate at Duke University in 2022 and is the author of An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Aristotelian Eudaimonia and Christian Discipleship: A Thomistic Perspective, Wipf and Stock Publishers. His website is https://www.virtuespromise.com/.
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