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🔦 Fascism Flashlight
This site shines a light on:
What's happening in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area as it relates to Operation Metro Surge, an ongoing operation by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other cooperating agencies.
The Trump administration's activities, legal cases and other related news.
This site also features activism events, a learning center, great independent news outlets and GoFundMe campaigns to support, and much more.
On March 4, 2026, Rolling Stone released this article that offers a deep first-hand account of ICE's activities in Shakopee, Minnesota. The author interviewed locals, participated in food pack/delivery events, rode along with rapid response groups, and more.
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❓ Frequently asked questions
We found that many of our friends/family outside of the Twin Cities area didn't have a clear picture of what is going on here. They say things like "Wait, I thought federal agents just came to town to 'catch the worst of the worst'!"
But much more is happening, including the harassment, bullying, intimidation, kidnapping, detaining, deporting, and sometimes killing of Minnesotans - regardless of their status. These offenses are happening to ICE's "targets" as well as peaceful protesters and observers. (See the "Is ICE truly capturing just the "worst of the worst" criminals as promised? section for more information).
So we designed this site to be a general information hub of sorts for friends/family - highlighting important information, people, events, news, and other practical resources as it relates to ICE and the Trump administration's activities.
We "bring the receipts." Information here is attributed to reputable sources and/or from first-hand knowledge and experience. But as you read the information here (or anywhere!) and wrestle with how it lines up with your own morals/values/beliefs, make sure you also:
Use your own eyes to shape those views.
If you see something with your own eyes that makes you uncomfortable and challenges your views, don't let someone else tell you that you didn't see what you absolutely did see. At a Minnesota Senate DFL meeting, Senator Alice Mann of Edina did a great job of emphasizing how important your own sense are in judging what's happening - she did this in an Instagram reel:
"We have seen the videos, so do not sit there and tell me what I know to be true is not true:
- Peaceful protestors sitting on the side of the road while ICE agents drive by and throw tear gas canisters at them
- ICE agents going way out of their way to find legal and lawful constitutional observers so they can push them to the ground violently and knock their phones out of their hands
- Children being taken away without their parents and without their jackets in the middle of winter
- ICE agents dragging pregnant women across the street on the ground
- American citizens being executed on the streets
So you can deny the reality of what is happening all your want, but we have seen the videos and we have heard the people today especially. So I very respectfully ask that the people stop playing the "both sides" card because when you do that without pointing to where the violence is coming from, you are squarely on the side of the oppressor today."
The learning center is a good starting point.