Police Surrender Entire City Blocks To Lawless Rioters In Minneapolis
Local and state police allowed rioters to block roads and attack a hotel during demonstrations against immigration enforcement.
The Daily Caller News Foundation saw protesters block streets with objects on Saturday and crowd a block outside a hotel on Sunday and vandalize it with little law enforcement response for hours. Federal officials have publicly criticized what they see as a lack of local help in quelling the unrest, which escalated after immigration agents fatally shot two activists accused of impeding their operations on Jan. 7 and Saturday.
Protesters smashing windows and vandalizing a hotel here in St. Paul, local authorities have not arrived on the scene and it’s been chaotic for over an hour now. Just a lone officer on the scene at the moment @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/HySc0Ql38H
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) January 26, 2026
The Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) arrested three protesters on Friday at the Whipple Building in Minneapolis for alleged obstruction of legal process, unlawful assembly and public nuisance, an MSP spokesperson told the DCNF. They were released with citations. The agency also arrested one person on a riot charge in the area of 26th Street and Lyndale Avenue on Saturday.
The MSP did not report any other protest-related arrests in comments to the DCNF despite the barricades on Saturday and Sunday and the hotel riot. The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
The DCNF observed the crowd protesting at the hotel for more than two hours while blocking the road with debris. The MSP and DNR was about to “encircle the group for arrests,” but “federal agents arrived without communication and deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group,” the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) said in an X post.
While they collaboratively worked to encircle the group for arrests because the demonstration was not peaceful, federal agents arrived without communication and deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group. The State Patrol and DNR are no longer on scene.
— Minnesota Department of Public Safety (@MnDPS_DPS) January 26, 2026
🚨 TENSE moment last night as federal agents arrived on the scene in St.Paul after protesters attempted to enter a hotel where ICE agents were possibly staying.
Tear gas was deployed, which cleared out some of the crowd.
🎥: @VenturaReport for Daily Caller News Foundation pic.twitter.com/A7afJVVJKH
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 26, 2026
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