madi mcvan

If the admin's strategic goal was to break public resistance to immigration enforcement activities, it was a tactical mistake to go to the Twin Cities.

It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

8 weeks under siege in Minnesota • Minnesota Reformer Frank has a hard time explaining to his 8-year-old daughter why they rarely leave their home in the Twin Cities. Why she can’t go to school, and why he can’t work. “The only thing we tell her is that ...

I spoke to families at risk of deportation to understand how they've experienced the last 8 weeks of the federal siege on Minnesota minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/23/8...

The man in the photo, Johann Duran, came to the US after passing a background check in Venezuela as part of a Biden-era program called humanitarian parole. He was allowed to stay under TPS — he came here legally, and now tens of thousands of people in his situation are considered undocumented.

Trump canceled temporary legal status for more than 1.5 million immigrants in 2025 • Minnesota Reformer It’s the most rapid loss in legal status for immigrants in recent United States history.

And, by revoking Temporary Protected Status for people from various countries, the Trump administration effectively created a new class of undocumented people.

Being documented vs. undocumented is a spectrum. Lots of the people being detained and deported by ICE have permission to be in the U.S. — pending asylum claims or visa applications.

Frank has a hard time explaining to his 8-year-old daughter why they rarely leave their home in the Twin Cities. Why she can’t go to school, and why he can’t work. “The only thing we tell her is that soon everything will be over. Everything will be over soon, and she’ll go back to school like before,” Frank said in Spanish. The truth is, no one knows when the federal siege will end. It may not be soon.

Frank knows a dozen people who’ve been deported — several in just the past couple weeks, including a co-worker on a construction job site. His kids, three of whom are U.S. citizens, switched to online school. He stopped going to work, and he and his wife never leave the house together, lest they both be detained and separated from their children. Frank, who has no criminal record save a couple traffic tickets, is the main breadwinner for his family. They’ve been able to live off savings, although he recently had to ask his mother in Mexico for help. “We still don’t have enough, but we have a little bit to survive on,” he said.

Max and I interviewed Frank, whose has a work permit and a pending application for a U visa — a visa available for victims of crimes in the U.S., so they can cooperate with law enforcement without fearing deportation.

8 weeks under siege in Minnesota • Minnesota Reformer Frank has a hard time explaining to his 8-year-old daughter why they rarely leave their home in the Twin Cities. Why she can’t go to school, and why he can’t work. “The only thing we tell her is that ...

8 weeks under siege in Minnesota, by my colleague @maxnesterak.bsky.social minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/23/8...

ICE says it has arrested 10,000 ‘criminal illegal aliens’ in Minnesota, but offers little proof If accurate, that total would represent a substantial share of the state’s undocumented immigrants.

Takeaway: It’s nearly impossible to independently verify any of ICE’s numbers. The agency has refused to release information or provide names of all those detained, and immigration court has become increasingly opaque, with hearings held in secret.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan wearing a whistle at a campaign event in Prior Lake tonight.

DHS version

White House version

The White House posted an edited photo of the activist involved in the Minneapolis church protest, made to look like she was crying.

my wife (not named nicole neri) suggested i issue a clarification

to be clear nicole is my friend, and my “partner” in a journalism way

@cmcvan.bsky.social

This is Liam. He's 5. My story: sahanjournal.com/education/ic...

ICYMI last night.

Renee Good shot in left temple, per independent autopsy • Minnesota Reformer A gunshot wound to the left temple likely killed Renee Good, according to an independent autopsy released Wednesday by Good’s family’s attorneys.  ICE agent Jonathan Good shot and killed Good in her c...

ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good in the left temple.

The bullet exited the right side of her head, per the preliminary findings of an independent autopsy. The other two bullet wounds were not immediately-life threatening. New in @minnesotareformer.com

unmarked vans

thanks, lara!

Immigrants to Minnesota know about instability and political violence. Many recognize familiar signs in their adopted homeland. Immigrants to Minnesota have experienced political instability back home. Now they're debating if the U.S. is nearing a democratic crisis.

thinking a lot about this piece i wrote for @sahanjournal.bsky.social in the runup to the 2020 election.

she is the best — both in her photography and her attitude on the ground!

We’re one-quarter of the way through President Donald Trump’s second term.

link to the full newsletter from yesterday in case you wanna read/click links prod.cdn.everyaction.com/emails/van/S...

thanks brian! i'm a huge fan of yours!

I’m no historian, but having studied the rise and fall of Latin American dictators, I know that the conditions surrounding the ascent of fascism are often very specific to that time, place and culture — and conditions now are different than they were in Europe in the 1930s. But David French of the New York Times wrote today about a phenomenon first described by the German Jewish lawyer Ernst Fraenkel, who finished his book “The Dual State” after fleeing to the U.S during WWII. I’ve been struggling to articulate to my family and friends what it’s been like to alternate between the world of immigrants and ICE observers, who face daily violations of their constitutional rights, and my daily life: grabbing a drink with friends, reading at a café, watching football. French, writing about Fraenkel, put the experience into words: “The two components of the dual state are the normative state — the seemingly normal world that you and I inhabit, where…the ‘ordinary legal system of rules, procedures and precedents’ applies — and the prerogative state, which is marked (in Fraenkel’s words) by ‘unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees.’ …While we’re thankfully not yet close to the Nazi reality, you can see the emerging dual state in action in Minneapolis right now. In much of the city, life is routine. People create new businesses, enter into contracts, file litigation and make deals as if life were completely normal and the rule of law exists, untainted by our deep political divide. But if you interact with ICE, suddenly you risk coming up against the full force of the prerogative state.”

the best way to follow our work at the @minnesotareformer.com is to subscribe to our daily newsletter. the whole team (5 full-timers!!) takes turns writing it.

minnesotareformer.com/subscribe/

from my newsletter this week:

thank you, holly!

you can thank nicole for bringing you iconic photos of the resistance, including this exceptional action shot of will stancil: bsky.app/profile/cing...

copy that🫡

and finally, a shoutout to my partner Nicole Neri, who has been with me every step of the way, capturing photos that bring these stories to life.

DMs always open to tips/feedback/etc. please reach out and say hi!

In the Twin Cities, ICE resistance goes mainstream • Minnesota Reformer The week before an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in south Minneapolis, her 67-year-old neighbor Terri Sullivan heard that a school in nearby Richfield that serves mostly Latino students needed ...

today i wrote about how in the twin cities, the organized resistance to ICE is everywhere.

These are the arrests you’re not seeing • Minnesota Reformer A man shelters alone under the heaters of a south Minneapolis bus stop on a cold January morning, the hood of a grey sweatshirt pulled over his thick dark hair. He unzips his black outer coat and look...

i'm trying to capture aspects of this moment that are flying under the radar — like the quiet arrests that are still happening despite observers' best efforts.