By Larry Etkin
A recent commentary in the Sunday Minnesota Star Tribune by Crosslake, Minnesota mayor Jackson Purfeerst took exception to the way Minnesota’s Metro area residents responded to the recent ICE surge in Minneapolis. He maintained that outstate Minnesotans largely disagreed with the focus of media coverage being on the ills of ICE rather than about “ensuring the rule of law.”
Toward the end of his commentary he wrote, “ICE’s presence in Minnesota did not occur in a vacuum. To many it reflects growing concern that our state has not upheld the framework governing legal immigration… Had we consistently upheld the integrity of our federal immigration framework, Operation Metro Surge would likely not have been necessary.” The honorable mayor seems to have completely ignored the long-standing antipathy our current President has towards the “progressive” nature of Minnesota’s larger population and politics.
Trump continues to insist he actually won all three presidential ballots he was on in Minnesota, despite clear evidence to the contrary. He’s had his administration looking desperately for any excuse to drive our electorate away from the polls in our upcoming elections next November.
Trump’s “surge” used the excuse of widespread fraud in our state to justify sending in nearly an army regiment-sized body of ICE “enforcers” to deliberately try and generate a George Floyd-type riot response in Minneapolis. Why? Apparently to justify a declaration of martial law allowing him to take control of Minnesota! Trump’s gambit failed only because Minnesotans in general, and Metro area residents most specifically, simply refused to take the bait!
The truths behind all the federal “justifications” for ICE in Minnesota have been pretty thin. Fraud? Why just Minnesota? Indiana, a so-called “red” state, has also had significant documented fraud in its federal programs, but no surge showed up in Indianapolis. And since when does “immigration control” even have jurisdiction to investigate fraud? Isn’t their empowerment to investigate “illegal immigration” activities? Which ICE official actually spent their time here looking through account ledgers for evidence of fraud? Which “legally” empowered ICE official actually tried to talk to operators of the so-called fraudulent daycare centers to find out if they were actually legitimate businesses?
Many MAGA oriented people try to blame the compassionate residents of Minnesota for being the problem. The refusal of most Minnesotans to accept illegal activities, including kidnappings of people legally in the U.S., should be cheered. Supporting our neighbors of color is honorable.
As for the perceived “need to uphold the law” supposedly held by outstate Minnesotans, where was the “law” in bursting into people’s houses without a proper judicial warrant? Where was the “law” in arresting people and shipping them immediately out of state to detention where they had no access to an attorney? Where was the “law” as people of color were targeted far in excess of their proportion of our population? Where was the “law” in federal officials simply ignoring court orders? Where was the “law” in allowing dubious displays of injurious and even lethal force against demonstrators to go largely uninvestigated? Where was the “law”… you get the point.
Arresting, gassing, pummeling, and even killing demonstrators should be abhorrent to every Minnesotan. Events showed clearly that they were abhorrent to the overwhelming majority. Minneapolitans’ refusal to go “George Floyd” and riot, and instead show compassion, is something everyone, even Mayor Purfeerst, should find commendable.
Larry Etkin, Minneapolis
list of the most egregious criminal aliens they’ve arrested during their surge in the sanctuary state of Minnesota, & it’s the most disturbing list I’ve ever seen, including numerous convicted child rapists/sodomizers & ten convicted killers, most with deportation orders going back many years. Several from Laos, Somalia, and Sudan.
WARNING GRAPHIC – Highlights below:
Sriudorn Phaivan, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of strong-arm sodomy of a boy & strong-arm sodomy of a girl with a deportation order since 2018.
Tou Vang, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of sexual assault and sodomy of a girl under age 13 and procuring a child for prostitution with a deportation order since 2006.
Chong Vue, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of the strong-arm rape of a 12-year-old girl and kidnapping a child with intent to sexually assault her, with a deportation order since 2004,
Ge Yang, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of strong-arm rape, aggravated assault with a weapon, and strangulation with a deportation order since 2012.
Pao Choua Xiong, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of rape and child fondling with a deportation order since 2003.
Kou Lor, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of rape, rape with a weapon, and sexual assault with a deportation order since 1996.
Hernan Cortes-Valencia, Mexican illegal alien convicted of sexual assault of a child and DUI with a deportation order since 2016.
Abdirashid Adosh Elmi, a Somalian illegal alien convicted of homicide.
Gilberto Salguero Landaverde, a Salvadoran illegal alien convicted of three counts of homicide with a deportation order since June 2025.
Gabriel Figueroa Gama, a Mexican illegal convicted of homicide who has been previously deported in 2002.
Galuak Michael Rotgai, a Sudanese illegal alien convicted of homicide.
Thai Lor, a Laotian illegal alien convicted of two counts of homicide with a deportation order since 2009.
Mariana Sia Kanu, an illegal alien from Sierra Leone convicted of two counts of homicide with a deportation order since 2022.
Aldrin Guerrero Munoz, a Mexican illegal alien convicted of homicide with a deportation order since 2015.
Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, a Somalian illegal alien convicted of manslaughter with a deportation order since 2022.
Mongong Dual Maniang Deng, a Sudanese illegal alien convicted of attempt to commit homicide, weapon possession, and DUI.
Aler Gomez Lucas, a Guatemalan illegal alien convicted of negligent homicide with a vehicle and DUI with a deportation order since 2022.
Shwe Htoo, a Burmese illegal alien convicted of negligent homicide.
These are the pieces of work the left insists are your ” good neighbors”
Without borders,you have no country.
The comment is characteristic of the Trump tactic of using the cases of a tiny fraction of the targeted community to motivate and justify the persecution and deportation of entire ethnic groups in gross violation of the US Consitution and many other laws. There are 18 names in this list. ICE itself has claimed several thousand arrests in Minneapolis during the surge. Many people who had committed no indictable offence were sent to facilities far from Minnesota and held under appalling conditions for months. The object was not justice, but terror.
There are many more details in this carefully documented Wikipedia piece:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Metro_Surge
Woods Halley
Thank you for this piece.
When I see anyone try to use the ” Rule of Law” defense for actions coming out of the Trump Admin, it is equal parts laughable and sad.
A comment I put up on why the the Trump Admin’s actions in an MN, as you pointed out, had absolutely nothing to do with combating white collar crime..below
“To date, most, if not all of those charged and convicted in MN for these fraud schemes, were legal residents or citizens. We do not deport U S citizens regardless of how egregious their crimes are. It takes a lot of effort to try these cases and the alleged perpetrator needs to be here, in the US, to do that, and to follow the money trail to try to get some of that stolen money back. If a person is simply suspected of these types of crimes and they are not here legally, AND we just send them back…to wherever they came from, well, they may have just gotten away with this crime….AND they may even have these stolen monies/ properties, etc, waiting for them outside of the country.
*The US Attorney’s offices in MN, and in other states, have been gutted of their most experienced investigators, leaving the prospects of making arrests, with successful prosecutions, much less likely to happen now. Thompson, and so many others, were forced to quit, so mass resignations occured, because they refused to do the unethical, retribution work that they were being pressured to do related to the ICE surge/seige INSTEAD of doing the jobs they had been successfully doing.
Thompson, who left the U S Attorney’s Office, was one very impressive investigator/ prosecutor. With so many like him leaving federal employment, it is impossible to overstate what a LOSS this is for all of us in MN and the country.
*Have to scroll thru a bit on this link to get to the beginning. It is well worth viewing.
Check out this video, “thompson on fraud” https://share.google/yhMI5HpRynXEbUjEH