Politicians Call Minnesota Protests an Insurgency After Fatal ICE Shooting

The day after federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Republican politicians and Trump administration officials began describing protests over immigration enforcement as an "insurgency," The New York Times reported on Jan. 31, 2026. Graham Platner, a Democratic U.S.

Senate candidate and Marine combat veteran, urged supporters in Kittery, Maine, to form "watch groups," "rapid response teams" and "intelligence collection networks" to alert communities to federal agents, and likened the nonviolent measures to text chains used in Syria and Ukraine, the Times reported.

Some Republicans framed the actions as revolutionary or insurgent: Representative Eli Crane called the demonstrations a "communist insurrection" and urged military intervention, and Tucker Carlson described them as "the beginnings of a color revolution," the report says. Experts warned that martial language can legitimize violence and mischaracterize the protests.

Seth G. Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said treating opponents as "terrorists or insurgents" legitimizes violence and that protesters who send text alerts and blow whistles are "nowhere near" an insurgency, according to the article. The Times noted federal immigration officers’ helmets, camouflage, tactical gear and masks, which officials say protect them from retribution; Emma Sky, who advised U.S.

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