A seventeen-second video<\/span> shows a dark-haired man rapping his pale knuckles gently below the tinted windows of a silver minivan. He stands back, shoving his hands into the pockets of his puffer coat, his boyish face twisted into a severe expression. The car drives off, and the camera pans<\/a> to follow it down the suburban Minneapolis road. No words are spoken.<\/p>\n Splashed across the screen, a bright red and white caption reads, \u201cICE was circling a local elementary school. I knocked on their door to have a conversation, but they ran away instead.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The man is Matt Little, 41, a former mayor and state senator from nearby Lakeville seen as the front-runner to replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota\u2019s 2nd Congressional district.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s staking much of his campaign on one of the most politically salient issues in the Twin Cities. In a series of videos pinned to his campaign Instagram<\/a> under the name \u201cGET ICE OUT,\u201d Little documents himself at protests and in encounters with immigration enforcement agents. \u201cWhen I\u2019m elected to congress,\u201d wrote Little in a January post<\/a>, \u201cwe will hold ICE accountable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Not everyone in his district is buying it.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it smells like, \u2018I\u2019m going to try to use this to bolster my chances in a time of crisis,\u2019\u201d Paul Peterson, a local ICE rapid responder, told The Intercept. \u201cNever let a good crisis go to waste, right?\u201d<\/p>\n In his mostly suburban Minneapolis district, Little\u2019s top political issue is at once highly motivating and highly fraught. As 3,000 federal agents descended on Minnesota for \u201cOperation Metro Surge,\u201d killing Alex Pretti<\/a> and Renee Good<\/a> and wounding<\/a> or abducting<\/a> scores more, Minnesotans who had not so much as lifted a protest sign a year ago joined<\/a> ICE rapid<\/a> response networks<\/a>. Given the gravity of agents\u2019 often unpredictable violence, many saw their work as putting their lives on the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n Democratic politicians are eager to turn engaged protesters and observers into door-knockers and voters. Nationwide examples point to a proof of concept: Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka\u2019s approval ratings skyrocketed after he was arrested for trespassing while monitoring an immigration detention facility<\/a>. Brad Lander, then a New York City mayoral candidate who is now running for Congress, saw his star rise<\/a> after his arrest<\/a> outside of a Manhattan immigration court. Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh finished second<\/a> in a crowded primary after generating high-profile headlines for her federal indictment<\/a> over a protest<\/a> outside an ICE processing center near Chicago.\u00a0(Baraka\u2019s charges were dropped days after his arrest, and on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said they planned to dismiss<\/a> felony charges against Abughazaleh. Lander rejected<\/a> a deal to drop his charges last year and said he\u2019d prefer to go to trial.)<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of personal for me because my wife is an immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n In the area around Minneapolis, the surge was \u201csurreal,\u201d Little told The Intercept in a joint interview with his wife, Coco. \u201cIt was kind of all-encompassing there for many months. We knew we had to be out there. That was kind of personal for me because my wife is an immigrant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Intercept spoke with nearly a dozen people involved in ICE rapid response networks in and around the Minneapolis suburbs, including in leadership positions, several of whom felt that Little was \u201ccosplaying\u201d as an observer and overstating his activism for political clout. Others speculated that the outrage was manufactured to ruin his chances at the nomination.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an inherent tension between enraged protesters who take matters into their own hands, outside of official political channels, and politicians who want to harness their rage into electoral energy. It raises the question of who gets to wear the mantle of resistance and blurs the line between when politicians are supportive \u2014 and when they\u2019re extractive.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many different legitimate ways for politicians to amplify our movements, like resistance to ICE,\u201d said Justin Hansford, executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard Law School, \u201cbut how they do it is of the utmost importance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the suburbs of Minneapolis, the question of \u201chow\u201d would eventually tear a small community in half.<\/p>\n Jessica Vinar carries<\/span> with her the hallmarks of progressive Minnesota politics. She\u2019s a teacher, wearing a school lanyard adorned with pride pins, political buttons, and a small 3D-printed whistle, the preferred ICE-alerting tool<\/a> seen on residents\u2019 keychains and in small bowls at cafe entrances across the city.<\/p>\n In a bustling coffee shop in the heart of Minneapolis\u2019s South Side, Vinar recounted the events of February 17, when she joined a group watching the roads for blacked-out SUVs in the once-sleepy Minneapolis suburb of Savage. An online ICE-monitoring website had reported multiple federal agents armed with weapons and clad in tactical gear.<\/p>\n Vinar learned that one of her companions was congressional candidate Matt Little, and the others were journalists from the New York Times. Dashcam videos from the scene shared with The Intercept show Little standing with two other people next to a dark gray car that appears to be his, and one white SUV, which he identifies as ICE\u2019s. \u201cThere\u2019s two more down that way,\u201d Vinar tells Little in the video. He responds: \u201cAll right, will you hang out here with us for a little bit?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a six-minute gap in the dashcam video, when Vinar\u2019s car is off and she\u2019s standing outside. Vinar said she watched as the journalists photographed Little interacting with ICE agents and standing outside of a home. Then, \u201cI hear him say something like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna see if they\u2019ll chase me,\u2019\u201d Vinar recalled. \u201cAnd they all pile into his vehicle, and they drive off.\u201d<\/p>\n The day\u2019s events received coverage in the New York Times and The Intercept<\/a>, and Little confirmed this version of the events. But Vinar and Little disagree on what happened next.<\/p>\n In Vinar\u2019s telling, she was left standing outside, alone, with an ICE vehicle behind her. When she gets back in her car and turns the camera back on, Little\u2019s gray SUV is gone, and three other cars she identified as ICE\u2019s are present. Masked people who appear to be federal agents drive past Vinar in the white SUV, waving and recording her. Then Little returns, following the white ICE vehicle as it drives past Vinar\u2019s car a second time. The whole thing is over in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n Little, who said he has not seen the dashcam video himself, told The Intercept that he thought the only ICE vehicle in the area had pulled out to follow him when he left, so he didn\u2019t believe he\u2019d left Vinar with the agents by herself. Vinar claims he did know and notes that, as captured in her video, she told him. Little told The Intercept that he believed that the additional vehicles she\u2019d mentioned had left.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Several rapid responders in the area told The Intercept they have a strict protocol to never leave another observer alone with ICE, though one said people do get left alone from time to time. (Several activists spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from federal officials.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Peterson, who patrols for rapid response throughout the wider region and was in the chat, said he \u201cisn\u2019t politically involved,\u201d and did not know who Little was ahead of the incident. \u201cI don\u2019t care about the theatrics of it,\u201d he said, \u201c[but] he put one of my people at risk, and that\u2019s not OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The incident blew up across an intricate network of Signal chats, the local rapid response groups\u2019 digital, decentralized town square. Was Little \u201ctrying to be helpful,\u201d one chat member posed to The Intercept, or, as some suspected, \u201cwas Matt just staging a photo op?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In a message reviewed by The Intercept, one person accused Vinar of changing her story after realizing it was Little. In Vinar\u2019s initial message, she said that ICE agents had followed Little and circled back to harass her; she then clarified that Little had left the scene with agents still present. Another observer wrote that Little was claiming Vinar\u2019s story was \u201ctypical last-minute misinformation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Little told The Intercept he \u201ccan only speak from\u201d his own experience, but he and his wife are framing the activists\u2019 anger as a manufactured political play. Vinar caucused for his opponent, state Rep. Kaela Berg, at a convention following the incident, Little added in a written statement after his interview. Pointing to his wife, he wrote, \u201cCoco believed and still believes this is<\/em> being spread as a political attack.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Coco also reached out to Savage resident Mark Kloempken and his wife, whose home was at the center of the February 17 incident. Kloempken said he was enjoying the day\u2019s mild weather, unconcerned about the ICE agent parked by his driveway.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m waving to them and saying \u2018hi,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThey seem friendly. They\u2019re not a big deal.\u201d Kloempken left to get some lunch, playing\u00a0\u201cIce, Ice, baby,\u201d as he drove off.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[She] hates that I did that,\u201d he said, indicating his wife, who asked to remain anonymous when they spoke to The Intercept over Zoom from their Savage home.<\/p>\n The couple had met Little a week prior to the incident. They said the politician was handing out whistles in their neighborhood when he offered to take Kloempken\u2019s wife along with him to an immigration raid on a nearby apartment building.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m old,\u201d she told The Intercept \u2014 meaning, she\u2019s not in any of the Signal groups. But she believes that Little was not being performative. \u201cThe day I went on that impromptu ride with him, there were no pictures, no photos taken of anything,\u201d she said, adding, \u201che had me film what was going on so that he could drive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She said Little instructed her not to go out alone. \u201cYou always have to have two people,\u201d she recalled him saying.\u00a0<\/p>\n At what point<\/span> do politicians\u2019 shows of solidarity become performative, or even counterproductive? It\u2019s a question that has troubled Hansford of Howard Law for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hansford, 45, got his start in activism in earnest in Ferguson, Missouri, shortly after police officer Darren Wilson shot an unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown,<\/a> igniting a firestorm of activism across the country. Over the years, Hansford has worked closely with politicians and movement organizers on shaping policy and finding common ground.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look up \u2018extractive\u2019 in the dictionary, it will be a picture of Nancy Pelosi with kente cloth on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Those relationships can end up being exploitative, said Hansford, pointing\u00a0to the aftermath of the protests against police brutality after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. In 2020, after Democrats harnessed the energy<\/a> of Black Lives Matter and other mass mobilization efforts to win a trifecta in the White House, the Senate, and the House, they failed to pass<\/a> any of the signature legislation<\/a> that movement leaders were calling for, instead favoring stunts like an infamous photo of Democratic leadership kneeling<\/a> in red and green Ghanaian kente stoles.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look up \u2018extractive\u2019 in the dictionary, it will be a picture of Nancy Pelosi with kente cloth on,\u201d said Hansford.<\/p>\n Still, \u201cit\u2019s smart for [Democratic] candidates to tap into the energy around ICE,\u201d said Nina Smith, a political communications strategist and former senior adviser to Stacy Abrams. \u201cTheir constituents are being harmed and impacted by this financially, mentally, and at times physically. So they have to talk about this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n In Minnesota, activists did point to examples of politicians who were quietly protecting the community without looking for a political moment. Many cited Aurin Chowdhury, a 29-year-old Minneapolis City Council member who speaks with the exasperation of someone who is as tired of the political establishment as she is committed to challenging it. By the time the federal occupation had ended, Chowdhury had been tear-gassed several times and became a mainstay in anti-ICE activities throughout the city.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have masked men and guns occupying your city by the thousands, killing people, taking children, separating them from their families, terrorizing pregnant women \u2014 that reality becomes right in front of your face,\u201d Chowdhury said. \u201cIt felt impossible to just sit at my computer and answer emails, or try to hold, like, a constituent meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n Tucked away in a quiet corner of city hall, Chowdhury seems aware of how easily popular movements can be used for individual political gains.<\/p>\n \u201cJust listen to what people are saying.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cI worry that that\u2019s something that can happen when the struggle of people is co-opted by high-level Democratic leaders who are seen as elites and are only willing to take incremental steps versus, like, actually addressing the heart of the issue,\u201d she said. She urged Democratic party leadership to worry less about questions like \u201cWhat is the message? And how do we get the American people on our side?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it\u2019s just listen to what people are saying,\u201d Chowdhury said, \u201cand be bold and take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Little is<\/span> polite. He says \u201cwhoa\u201d with a Midwesterner\u2019s elongated O-sound, revealing more surprise than irritation when met with a new accusation.<\/p>\n He has spent most of his adult life on the political scene. He was elected to serve on the Lakeville City Council in 2010, when he was 25 years old. Two years later, while in law school<\/a>, he became the youngest mayor in Lakeville\u2019s history, defeating heavy outside spending<\/a> from the Koch brothers\u2019 super PAC Americans for Prosperity with a large war chest largely from labor unions<\/a>. After one term as mayor, he was elected to the state Senate as a member of the Democratic\u2013Farmer\u2013Labor Party representing Lakeville, Farmington, and southern Dakota County, where he also served one term before he was unseated by Republican Zach Duckworth.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a congressional candidate, Little has positioned himself as a standard-fare progressive, focusing his campaign on largely local issues like affordability and \u201cgetting ICE out of Minnesota.\u201d His website boasts a section on an \u201cAnti-ICE Bill of Rights,\u201d which calls for a series of reforms, including banning federal agents from wearing masks and cutting ICE funding to pre-Trump levels. Little has not joined calls from other progressive candidates to \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d \u2014 instead calling to \u201creplace\u201d the agency with a different federal immigration agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Not unlike in his mayoral campaign over a decade prior, Little received endorsements from several labor unions, including the Minnesota Postal Workers Union and National Nurses United.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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