A demonstrator waves a US flag in front of federal law enforcement officers. Photo / Getty Images
Minneapolis authorities and neighbourhood groups are bracing for a demonstration led by a right-wing provocateur who was among the pardoned January 6 rioters, during a time of heightened tension after United States President Donald Trump dispatched thousands of immigration enforcement agents to the city.
An event page for the demonstration at Minneapolis City Hall states that Jake Lang, who was pardoned with 1600 others on Trump’s first day in office, had obtained a permit for the rally billed as a peaceful protest “intended to unite Christian and conservative voices”.
Lang has previously invoked anti-Semitic tropes, attempted to provoke Muslims by trying to burn the Quran and used other incendiary language in his calls for action. Counterprotests are also being planned.
The demonstrations also come amid a federal immigration enforcement surge, two shootings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and threats from the White House to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests.
Fears of violence have grown after an Ice officer fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother-of-three, who was in her car witnessing federal enforcement actions on a residential street in Minneapolis.
On Friday (local time), Trump slightly walked back his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, telling reporters, “I don’t think I need it right now”.
At the same time, however, the Trump Administration has further sown divisions between local and federal authorities as it readies to send subpoenas to Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, two of Minnesota’s highest-profile Democrats.
A federal judge in Minnesota issued a ruling prohibiting Ice agents from arresting, pepper-spraying or otherwise retaliating against people “engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity”.
State and local agencies and the Minnesota National Guard said they would monitor the demonstrations and continued to urge people to keep their protests peaceful.
“While peaceful expression is protected, any actions that harm people, destroy property or jeopardise public safety will not be tolerated,” Minnesota Department of Public Safety commissioner Bob Jacobson said.
“Demonstrations must remain safe, and they must remain lawful.”
Lang, who was charged with beating police officers with a baseball bat on January 6, 2021, has relished online his role in provoking outrage and anti-immigrant sentiments.
On X, he has claimed that thousands will show up for a “CRUSADER MARCH” on “‘Little Somalia’”.
The protest’s name, March Against Minnesota Fraud, draws on the renewed attention cast on Minnesota officials by the President and other right-wing influencers over failing to stop alleged welfare fraud among the state’s Somali immigrant community.
Lang had sat in jail for four years after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol as he was awaiting trial.
During that time, he tried to organise an armed militant group while detained pending trial, refused to adhere to jail rules, and left the court “no basis to conclude that he poses anything but a continuing danger to the public”, a federal judge assigned to his case wrote last year.
Lang, originally from New York state, has also launched a long-shot bid running as a Republican in a special election for US Senate in Florida for the seat that Marco Rubio vacated after he became Trump’s Secretary of State.
A counterprotest is also planned at the federal building in downtown Minneapolis nearby, despite reports that people were being encouraged to stay home, according to the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jaylani Hussein.
A group calling itself the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump announced on Instagram that it would gather to protest against Lang’s efforts to bring “his hateful anti-Islam rally to City Hall”.
It is unclear how large the crowds either side will draw; subarctic conditions will prevail this weekend, with temperatures expected to drop to almost zero degrees (-17C).
Some Minnesotans – long acclimated to icy weather and blistering winds – have embraced the elements as an advantage against immigration agents unaccustomed to Minnesota’s coldest month of the year.
The Minnesota National Guard will be ready to respond if needed, Jacobson said, but he noted that the troops did not have to act during demonstrations in the city last weekend and said state officials are “optimistic that will be the case” again this weekend.
The potential for clashes, and for harassment of the city’s Somali American enclaves, was the subject of a heated public safety meeting the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. State Representative Mohamud Noor was worried that the protest could move from the downtown area to the Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood roughly 2.4km away, where there is a large Somali population.
“We need to provide more support to the community, so that they know that everybody has got a right to be here, and everybody will be protected from this nonsense and the mayhem that is happening all over the city,” Noor said, according to the Star Tribune.
Asked about concerns relating to the Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood, Jacobson said the state was working with local law enforcement agencies and would be prepared “to address any safety issues that may come up”.
“We will have a good footprint of staff that will be available in that area, but we are just calling for peace,” he said. “We want to be there to be helpful, we want to be there to keep the peace.”
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.