Myotus, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Multiple Minnesota elected officials have promoted or supported organizations facilitating ongoing riots and interference with federal immigration enforcement.
Elliott Payne, president of the Minneapolis City Council (DFL), publicly promoted Defend 612 on X, encouraging residents to join “community patrols” monitoring ICE activity. In January 2026, he credited the group with stopping an ICE operation at 23rd Street and Central Avenue.
Dan Engelhart, a Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board commissioner (District 1), has repeatedly promoted Defend 612 across Instagram (@engy5150), Threads, and Bluesky. Elected in November 2025 and sworn in January 2026, Engelhart posted videos urging residents to “register at defend612.com” for neighborhood watches and rapid-response actions. He also led a unanimous 9–0 Park Board resolution in January 2026 opposing ICE staging at Minneapolis parks and submitted a declaration in a December 2025 ACLU lawsuit against ICE activities.
Most politicians associated with anti-ICE organizations are connected to the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). Formed in 1944 through a merger of the Democratic Party and the progressive Farmer-Labor Party, the DFL is Minnesota’s state affiliate of the national Democratic Party. As of 2026, the DFL controls the governorship, both chambers of the state legislature, and many urban offices.
DFL-controlled bodies, including the Minneapolis City Council and Park Board, have passed measures opposing ICE operations and restricting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, aligning with Defend 612’s stated goal of community resistance to ICE raids.
The DFL’s influence is reinforced through its bottom-up caucus system, which begins at the precinct level. Every two years, thousands of activists gather in school gyms, church basements, and community centers to propose resolutions, elect delegates, and shape party priorities. Resolutions passed at precinct caucuses advance through organizing unit conventions, congressional district conventions, and ultimately the state convention, creating a direct pipeline from local activism to official party policy.
The party maintains both an “Ongoing Platform,” consisting of permanent principles requiring 60 percent convention approval, and a biennial “Action Agenda,” which can include up to 100 policy positions actively promoted between elections. This structure transforms the DFL from a candidate-focused party into an organization that coordinates activism around specific policy goals.
Minnesota’s Political Contribution Refund program further amplifies this model by allowing individuals to donate $75, or $150 per couple, to the DFL and receive full reimbursement from the state. This effectively makes the DFL a state-funded activist organization.
State Senator Doron Clark (DFL, District 60), whose district includes Cedar-Riverside, Southeast, and Northeast Minneapolis, published “ICE convoys going up and down Central” in a January 2026 Instagram reel. He also appeared on a January 2026 podcast titled “What Can MN Do About ICE?” A conservative post on X by @commonsensegay claimed that “local officials like Elliott Payne and Senator Doron Clark are tied to a militant group called ‘Defend 612’” that tracks federal agents. Clark’s district overlaps with areas targeted by Defend 612’s rapid-response network.
Governor Tim Walz (DFL) has implemented policies and issued directives that enabled groups such as Defend 612 by legitimizing the monitoring, filming, and obstruction of federal ICE operations. Following the January 2026 shootings involving ICE agents and protesters, Walz called for a “Day of Unity.” Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey of “collusion and corruption” with what he described as “anarchist protesters.”
On January 7, 2026, Walz stated, “We’ve never been at war with our federal government,” adding, “I don’t think any governor in history has had to fight a war against the federal government.” Around the same period, he issued a warning order directing the Minnesota National Guard to prepare for potential deployment in response to federal ICE operations.
Walz further escalated tensions during a January 14 address in which he urged Minnesotans to film federal immigration agents. He encouraged residents to carry their phones and record enforcement actions to “help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans.” Walz explicitly stated that the database was intended to “bank evidence for future prosecution” of federal agents and repeatedly promised that “accountability is coming… in court,” signaling potential civil or criminal action against individual agents.
Walz and other Minnesota officials also challenged the legitimacy of the federal deployment itself. He publicly referred to the presence of federal agents as an “occupation” and a “federal invasion,” calling on President Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to “end this… you’ve done enough.”
Such language vilifies federal law enforcement, turns public opinion against agents on the ground, and encourages filming and monitoring in ways that create opportunities for groups such as Defend 612 to follow, confront, and harass ICE agents under the guise of complying with the governor’s directives.
The post Minnesota Politicians Linked to the Riots: The DFL and Defend 612 appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.