ROOKE: Anti-ICE Protesters Made Fatal Mistake In PR Battle Over Minnesota

Ever since President Donald Trump announced his mass deportation plan for illegal immigrants, leftists dominated the public relations war on immigration enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

Democrats and their cronies in left-wing media successfully framed raids as cruel, family-separating overreach, painted border agents as jackbooted thugs, and turned individual tragedies, such as the recent fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, into sweeping indictments of the entire system.

The power they’ve held over the American mind led them to fly too close to the sun. While basking in their hubris after Good’s death, leftist agitators have chased innocent civilians out of a diner because they thought they were ICE agents. They allegedly attacked a government vehicle, raiding the weapons locker and doxxing federal agents in a livestream. They harassed a man driving a white Chevy Suburban because his rental car looked like a government vehicle and made him prove his civilian status. They also targeted and followed another man because his rental car had Texas license plates.

NEW: Leftists appear to dox ICE and FBI agents after looting a government vehicle, proudly documented on a Meidas Touch livestream.

I have blurred out sensitive information.

“The ICE agent vehicles that were parked on the street in the shooting, they had to leave their cars… pic.twitter.com/drMdY67u5O

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 15, 2026

Still, the most egregious example happened Sunday when innocent Christians were gathered in worship at a Southern Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. A group of agitators, including former CNN host Don Lemon, stormed Cities Church during a Sunday service, chanting slogans and accusing church leadership of complicity with ICE. They invaded a sacred space where families were worshiping, just months after a left-wing lunatic opened fire on Catholic children celebrating a weekday Mass. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

🚨ANTI-ICE RIOTERS STORM CHURCH! How did Don Lemon react? Listen to his lecture. @DailyCaller 🚨 pic.twitter.com/uJ5C50e5m1

— Harold Hutchison (@HaroldHutchison) January 19, 2026

Americans across the political spectrum still overwhelmingly respect religious freedom and view churches as off-limits for political theater. When radical left-wing militants crossed that line, they handed their opponents a powerful visual of peaceful worshippers interrupted by shouting activists. Instead of righteous protectors, they now look like the aggressors, the awful kind, willing to trample basic civility to score points. Moderate voters, suburban parents, independents, even many Democrats, see this and think, “This isn’t my side.” It reminds them too much of the 2020 chaos when their neighborhoods burned to the ground and their favorite stores were looted for so-called social justice.

At its core, the fight over illegal immigration and deportation policy has always been a PR battle more than a pure policy debate. The Trump administration would have to stomach the slander and negative publicity to correct the wrongs committed by past administrations. (Biden-Era Judge Sabotages Fraud Probe, Saddles American Taxpayers With $80 Million Tab)

Most Americans agree that the system is broken and serious criminals should be removed, but they’ve been hesitant because the left has owned the emotional framing. These Minneapolis incidents, culminating in the church storming, help flip that script.

🚨WATCH: Unhinged protester SCREAMING vulgarities at law enforcement in Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/Omk8ucNUc8

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 18, 2026

It won’t happen right away, but slowly and surely, more and more footage of the left acting like rabid animals, targeting innocent people just trying to eat lunch, go to work, and pray in church, is going to give regular Americans flashbacks of the 2020 hysteria.

If this footage keeps circulating (and it will), public sentiment will shift toward supporting the raids. This is not because hearts suddenly hardened —the Affluent White Female Liberal (AWFL) meme is correct for a reason — but because the protesters made ICE raids look reasonable by comparison.

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