The Dictatorship
ICE wants to make Minneapolis cower in fear. The opposite is happening.
MINNEAPOLIS — It is a tender moment in Minnesota, where the Twin Cities have been forever marked by twin tragedies: killings by law enforcement officials not quite six blocks and six years apart.
The working-class neighborhood where both Renee Nicole Good and George Floyd were killed has experienced more than its fair share of anguish. I was raised about a mile south of both scenes. In recent days, I have found myself reporting on another incident of police violence in my hometown close to the same streets and alleys I used to ride my bike up and down as a kid.
The Twin Cities have been forever marked by twin tragedies.
The killing of Renee Good happened on a stretch of Portland Avenue — a major thoroughfare where residents are known for their community ties. There are block parties and puppet shows and extravagant yard decor. At least three homes have massive dinosaurs replicas in their front yards.
For residents of this stretch of south Minneapolis, this latest killing added to deep-seated trauma that has not healed, though the lawsuit state and local officials announced Monday to block the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation may help.
The Twin Cities were ravaged by riots, rage and looting after Floyd’s death. The Third District police precinct was set ablaze. The acrid sting of smoke and tear gas lingered in the air for days. People in this area still talk about the protesters who used backyards as bathrooms and porches as impromptu havens while residents had to decide whether to approach strangers or remain safely huddled inside. Their houses and apartments were close enough to the unrest to see the sky glow orange.
These residents struggled to move on after the trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin played out on national television. Faded Black Lives Matter signs are still in windows, many now sitting next to vivid “De-Ice Minnesota” or “ICE-OUT” placards (a play on words with particular sentiment here not only about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge but also because so many locals keep canisters of de-icer spray handy for frozen windshield wipers and car locks during frigid winters).
“How much can one neighborhood take?” said Nikesha Lust, who works with a group that is trying to deescalate tensions. “This is something nobody wants, or nobody asked for, but it’s here. There are people who come here just for that reason, to cause problems and go home, and then we are stuck with no gas stations to go to. No grocery stores. And everybody is just mad. We finally got to a point where we were getting back on our feet here.”
George Floyd’s death is never really in the rearview mirror for Minneapolis, especially for a particular stretch of the near southside.
George Floyd’s death is never really in the rearview mirror for Minneapolis, especially for a particular stretch of the near southside. Property values are down since 2020. There are visible reminders in the graffiti, the murals and the mountain of stuffed animals and dried flowers still standing as a makeshift monument. Residents see it in the neighborhood businesses that clawed their way back to viability and the ones that never recovered. They deal with it in their daily egress around the busy intersection at 38th and Chicago, where cars, buses and bicycles must navigate the memorials and tourists. Yes, tourists: People from around the world still arrive to take photos where Floyd was killed and leave mementos.
A few blocks away, makeshift memorials have been amassing to the more recent high-profile victim. Flowers, candles, stuffed animals and crowds have accumulated to honor Good and protest aggressive immigration enforcement. Amid bonfires and stacks of pizza delivered several times a day, people sing and chant and leaders with bullhorns make speeches. For residents near 34th and Portland, there is now another monument to pain right outside their front doors.
There are deep worries about anger spilling over into unrest, infused with concern about the aggressive militarized law enforcement tactics not seen before on Minneapolis streets.
It’s not lost on people here that Floyd’s killing ignited a national debate about police reform and restraint. And the irony that the hundreds of immigration officers who have descended on Minnesota wearing masks and military gear are operating in a manner that appears blind to the hard-won reforms that followed the Floyd tragedy.
In essential ways, the tensions gripping the Twin Cities revolve around tolerance. Minnesota has historically prided itself on tolerance. The state is known for its progressive politics and its open-armed approach to diversity and immigration.
Those values have been tested somewhat in recent years as large waves of immigration strained the state’s welfare system, and by a political scandal that involved hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud perpetrated by a small circle of scammers. A renewed focus on a years-old fraud case and its Somali offenders helped escalate the immigration sweeps roiling neighborhoods.
Minnesotans have responded with a robust effort to monitor and document ICE activity. Networks of citizen patrols use whistles, kazoos and car horns to warn immigrants and neighbors about sweeps. The organization behind that effort runs deep. A constellation of ICE monitoring groups has sprung up all over the state but is especially prevalent in the Twin Cities. They send out communications on how to mobilize and monitor activity. They track geographic positions and license plates on vehicles used by immigration agents. “Heat maps” show where sweeps have been carried out. Not only are there trainings on how to conduct this work, but they have also set up legal hotlines. Instructions have been vetted by lawyers to help ensure that ICE monitors do not cross lines.
“They said they are going after the worst of the worst but are the worst of the worst mothers dropping their kids off at school?” asked Andrew Fahlstrom, a leader with a citizen monitoring group called Defend the 612. (The name draws on the original area code for Minneapolis.)
“When it’s really bad in our neighborhoods, it looks like from 5 a.m. until about 7 p.m., packs of cars roaming the streets trying to grab anyone they can. It looks like cultural malls — Somali malls, Latino markets — being targeted. People being grabbed left and right,” Fahlstrom told me. “It looks like bus stops on Lake Street where three cars pull over, armed agents with masks on, who don’t identify themselves, taking a human being and throwing them into a car.”
Fahlstrom said he thinks the raids are meant to instill fear. But instead of driving people underground, residents continue to sign up as monitors. As of Saturday, more than 4,000 had volunteered.
“Renee Good could have been any one of us. She wasn’t doing anything different than what thousands of people on the street were doing. People are committed. People are showing up. People are taking to the streets to protect each other. I’m not afraid. I’m here to make sure that we protect each other. And that’s what we’ll do every day as long as we can,” Fahlstrom said.
State political leaders have said they think that Minnesota is being used as a proving ground for what Americans everywhere will accept from a law enforcement agency that operates without clear identification and using military-type uniforms and tactics.
“This is in essence a federal invasion of the Twin Cities, and it must stop,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday, announcing the lawsuit to end the ICE presence in the state. “This surge has made us less safe.”
The Trump administration calls the immigration sweep in Minnesota “Operation Metro Surge.” Although residents are traumatized, they are resilient. Some have taken to calling the immigration patrols the Ice Storm — and noting that Minnesotans are used to dealing with those.
Michele Norris is a senior contributing editor for MS NOW.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polls, even after last year’s tax law fulfilled several of President Donald Trump’s tax-related campaign promises.
In fact, a new Fox News poll indicates people are more upset about taxes than they were last year. The findings from the survey, which was conducted in late March, are another sign that Americans are on edge about their personal finances as the U.S. experiences a spike in inflation and sluggish economic growth. Other polling finds that frustration goes beyond personal tax obligations, with many believing that wealthy people and corporations are not paying their fair share, while others worry about government waste.
The surveys come after Trump and Republicans passed a massive tax and spending cut bill last year. The legislation enacted a range of tax breaks, including a boosted child tax credit and new tax deductions for tips and overtime. Tax refunds are up this seasonand many households are expected to see more income from the Republicans’ tax legislation, but the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will ultimately give the largest benefits to the richest Americans.
Republicans have touted the law as evidence that they are making life more affordable for working families. But polling shows that many Americans may not be feeling the benefits, especially as their tax refunds get eaten up by higher prices.
Most say taxes are too high
About 7 in 10 registered voters say the taxes they pay are “too high,” according to the Fox News poll. That’s up from about 6 in 10 last year. The poll shows heightened concern among very liberal voters and Democratic men, but there has also been a sizable increase among groups that Republicans want to court ahead of the midterm elections, such as moderates, rural voters and white voters without a college degree.
Discontent about taxes has been rising for the past few years. Recent polling from Gallupconducted in March, found about 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the amount of federal income tax they have to pay is “too high,” a finding that’s been largely consistent in the annual poll since 2023. That’s approaching the level of unhappiness found in Gallup’s polling from the 1980s through the 1990s, before President George W. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
Now, about half of Democrats and about 6 in 10 Republicans say their federal income taxes are too high. Republicans tend to view their tax bill more negatively than Democrats, but Gallup’s polling shows that this gap often shrinks when a Republican is president.
Many believe the rich aren’t paying enough in taxes
Most Americans are troubled by the belief that some wealthy people and corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in January. About 6 in 10 Americans said each of those notions bothers them “a lot,” a measure that is largely unchanged in recent years.
By contrast, only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults in that poll said the amount they personally pay in taxes bothers them a lot.
About 8 in 10 Democrats are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that some corporations and rich people aren’t paying their fair share, the Pew survey found, compared to about 4 in 10 Republicans. Government spending is a bigger issue for Republicans, according to the Fox News poll, which found that 75% of registered voters — and a similar share of Republican voters — say “almost all” or “a great deal” of government funding is wasteful and inefficient.
That points to a perception problem for many Americans. Even if their own tax bill is manageable, the idea that the wealthy are underpaying — or that the government is wasting their dollars — bothers many. About half of Americans, 49%, in the Gallup poll say the income tax they will pay this year is “not fair,” which is in line with the record high from 2023.
Broad unhappiness with Trump’s tax approach
Americans’ tax frustration was rising before Trump re-entered the White House, but it’s still a problem for the president’s party — especially if Americans are not feeling the relief that he promised.
The Fox News poll found that about 6 in 10 registered voters, 64%, say they disapprove of how Trump is handling taxes, up from 53% last April. Disapproval has risen most sharply among independents, but also among Democrats and Republicans.
This aligns with a broader feeling that Trump isn’t doing enough to address inflation. Most Americans said Trump had hurt the cost of living “a lot” or “a little” in his second term, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in January. Roughly 9 in 10 Democrats and about 6 in 10 independents said Trump has had a negative impact on the cost of living.
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This story has been updated to correct that less than half of Republicans, 43%, said Trump has helped the cost of living, while 33% said he hasn’t made a difference and only 23% said he has hurt it.
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The Fox News poll was conducted among 1,001 registered voters from March 20-23. The Gallup poll was conducted among 1,000 U.S. adults from March 2-18. The Pew Research Center poll was conducted among 8,512 U.S. adults from Jan. 20-26. The AP-NORC Poll was conducted among 1,203 U.S. adults from Jan 8-11.
The Dictatorship
Democrats to confront Trump budget director Russ Vought about his ‘stone cold silence’
When White House budget director Russell Vought appears before lawmakers on Wednesday, he will almost certainly face questions about a ballooning Pentagon budgeta special war-funding request and an extended Homeland Security shutdown. But Democrats also plan to press him on an issue closer to the Capitol: why he has spent months dodging their questions altogether.
Vought is set to testify Wednesday before the House Budget Committee and again before the Senate’s budget panel on Thursday. It’s a long-awaited chance for Democrats eager to question him on several fronts — including the cost of the Iran war, cuts to health care spending, a demoralized federal workforce and what the government’s own watchdog has described as the illegal impoundment of federal funds.
Lawmakers also have a growing to-do list that involves Vought, including a war supplemental for President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran and a reconciliation bill that would fund immigration enforcement agencies. Congress is also supposed to adopt a budget, though that may slip after the president’s budget was weeks late and omitted any information about projected federal debts and deficits.
But Democrats see Vought as “missing and reclusive,” ignoring their questions for months, the Budget Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, told MS NOW. Vought didn’t testify before the committee last year, a break with tradition. And written questions to Vought have been met with “stone cold silence,” Boyle said.
In JanuaryHouse Democrats pressed Vought for answers on the administration’s health care plans, its compliance with congressionally approved funding laws, its attempt to withhold nutrition aid during last year’s government shutdown, and plans for federal layoffs.
“He sent us not one word in response,” Boyle said. “And in doing so, it shows their contempt for the United States Congress, and it shows their contempt for our constitutional system.”
Boyle told MS NOW he plans to introduce legislation to legally require Office of Management and Budget directors to testify before the House Budget Committee, after Vought didn’t do so last year. He also said he aims to require that the OMB director respond to members of the committee.
Democrats didn’t hear back from Vought about testifying to the committee until March, when Boyle displayed a picture of Vought as a missing child on a milk carton. That prompted Vought to respond on X that, “I am coming to testify on April 15. You should get up to speed.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, had previously assured reporters that Vought would testify in 2026, but Boyle said Democrats hadn’t gotten confirmation until the milk carton incident.
“That’s what shamed him into it,” Boyle said of Vought.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Budget Committee, also said Vought had not been responsive to questions from Democratic members of the Senate, including on the cost of the Iran war. She said she’d press Vought at Thursday’s hearing on whether he would distribute funds appropriated by Congress.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he’d ask Vought questions “around this ‘traumatizing the federal workforce’ stuff,” and whether DOGE wasted money by firing employees who needed to be rehired later. And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he’d ask Vought “how he’s not a corrupt stooge of the fossil fuel industry.”
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, say they haven’t been pressing Vought hard for answers. For example, the missing debt and deficit data in the budget proposal — which Maya MacGuineas, president of the fiscally conservative Committee for a Responsible Budget called “an astonishing lack of information — hasn’t prompted pushback from conservative lawmakers.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he was unbothered by Vought’s decision to leave out the debt data in the president’s budget request.
“Nobody looks at it anyway,” Scott told MS NOW. “It’s just for you guys to write something.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said he’d ask Vought “to give a great update on the progress that we’ve made” in reducing the deficit. When asked about the missing debt and deficit information, Moreno said he didn’t know about it.
“I haven’t had a chance to see the whole thing, to be honest with you, so I’ve got to see what that’s all about,” Moreno told MS NOW.
In prepared remarks obtained by PunchbowlVought reportedly plans to say that, “when President Trump took office, the nation was facing financial catastrophe under the failed leadership of the Biden Administration and decades of status quo spending strangling our nation.”
But federal spending, according to the Treasury Departmenthas increased under Trump. And the federal deficit is going up. (The federal deficit was $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2025 and is projected to be $1.9 trillion in fiscal 2026according to the Congressional Budget Office.)
Republicans have also been patient with the lack of information about the cost of the Iran war.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday he still hasn’t seen a request and doesn’t know how much it will cost.
“The only thing I think I’ve seen is what you guys report,” Thune told reporters.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told reporters he’d want to scour the funding request’s details before he decides if he’ll support it.
But when pressed whether the administration had answered his questions on the topic, Johnson made it clear he hadn’t focused on those details yet.
“Haven’t really asked,” he said.
Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University.
The Dictatorship
Justice Department moves to erase Jan. 6 convictions of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys’ leaders
The Justice Department requested on Tuesday for a federal appeals court to erase the seditious conspiracy convictions of a group of leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys — two right-wing extremist groups who were involved in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The request asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the individuals’ convictions, effectively erasing their guilty verdicts, and to dismiss the charges with prejudice. A dismissal with prejudice prevents the government from bringing the cases again.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump had already either pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of most of the roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the 2021 attack on the Capitol after Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. While most of the defendants received pardons, wiping their convictions, Trump only commuted the sentences of 14 high-profile defendants to time served, which upheld their convictions while allowing them to leave prison.
The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and erase all the convictions for the extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodeswho didn’t receive pardons last January.
Only 12 of those defendants were referenced in the Justice Department’s request on Tuesday. Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 yearsin prison, is among those who would benefit.
“The government’s motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Trump himself faces criminal a series of civil lawsuits related to his incitement of the Jan. 6 attack. A federal judge earlier this month rejected his efforts to end the suits ahead of his trial, which has not yet been scheduled.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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