or How the Black Panthers’ Playbook Helped Minneapolis Activists Fight Trump

In the months before the 2024 election, Jill Garvey and colleagues in Chicago began "scenario planning" and formed States at the Core to train volunteers in tracking and documenting federal immigration agents. Their Zoom seminars on so-called ICE-watching now draw thousands, and in Minneapolis the tactic became central to opposition against the Trump administration’s raids.

Activists’ neighborhood patrols led to frequent street confrontations and, in two incidents, the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both captured on camera by observers. Those videos helped win concessions: Tom Homan announced the withdrawal of 700 federal agents and the reassignment of Gregory Bovino, though thousands of federal officers remain and raids have continued.

Federal agents were filmed stopping observers and making arrests. Garvey acknowledged her group’s role while saying that "there’s a debt of gratitude to Black liberation movements that really pioneered this," and that the strategies long predate her organization.

United States, Minneapolis