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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 02:12:51 JST Paul Cantrell

   ICE continues to terrorize MSP. It continues to be distressing and exhausting; the incredible volume of counter-organizing and community action continues to give me heart.

   One thing that’s not surprising but I haven’t seen covered much: ICE is redlining. They swarm over very specific neighborhoods; the abductions (so far) happen almost entirely within clear boundaries. Those boundaries don’t entirely correspond to where immigrants live. They do, however, seem to correspond pretty closely to •political• boundaries that are majority white.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 02:40:41 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     One guess is that they got some region-based data on where the brown and Black people are, and are just going off that.

     Another guess is that are targeting specific city council members. This I doubt — unless they’re getting that from local police depts, which I could totally believe.

     My own theory is that they really, really, really don’t want white people to see what they’re doing, except through the eyes of the right-wing camera crews that follow them around.

     Whatever it is, it’s pretty striking.

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   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 02:40:47 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Misuse Case

     @MisuseCase
     We have a (unanimous! even the crummy mayor supported it!) strict separation ordinance here that strictly prohibits city policy from assisting immigration enforcement in any way.

     The Mpls Police have been trying work around it (there’s video of them fist-bumping ICE), but mostly can’t. However, the •county• police have stepped in to that role. Grrr..

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     Misuse Case (misusecase@twit.social)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 02:40:49 JST Misuse Case

     in reply to

     @inthehands In DC ICE also focused on majority-nonwhite neighborhoods. The DC Metropolitan Police Department escorts them and helps them target neighborhoods. I bet the Minneapolis police are doing something similar for ICE there.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 05:17:22 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Eleanor Saitta

     @dymaxion
     All of Minneapolis is heavily Democratic, but there are still some big divides. I do suspect that they’re working off some list provided a local source and drawn on political lines: maybe Minneapolis Police, maybe some part of the Republican state caucus.

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     Eleanor Saitta (dymaxion@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 05:17:23 JST Eleanor Saitta

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     They wouldn't really have the local knowledge to know which communities are where in more detail, I think? Like, yes, there are probably data sources they could use to find that data, but that would require it to be less of a shit show. It wouldn't actually surprise me that they were targeting on the basis of which districts vote more democratic.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 05:20:40 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Tormod

     @airwhale
     There are certainly public databases of the racial makeup of the population by sub-city geographic region. Looking at the map, however, my •guess• (but very much a guess) is that it’s at least as much a political thing, targeting specific city council members and/or MN state reps. But who knows.

     Whatever it is, it sure looks like •somebody• drew lines on a map.

   • Embed this notice
     Tormod (airwhale@beige.party)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 05:20:42 JST Tormod

     in reply to

     @inthehands

     > One guess is that they got some region-based data on where the brown and Black people are, and are just going off that.

     Voting districts are public information, I guess. Would that not be sufficient indicators of where the brown and black people live in very many cases?

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 05:30:41 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Tormod

     @airwhale
     I think one is already under way, as a sort of “cold civil war.” I agree that it will get worse before it gets better, and hope that it remains “cold” as it were.

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     Tormod (airwhale@beige.party)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 05:30:43 JST Tormod

     in reply to

     @inthehands

     I've been thinking for quite a while that the US are heading for a new civil war.

     This won't fix itself by Democrats doing well in the mid-terms or the "next presidential election". It's gonna be much worse before it gets better, I'm afraid.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 12:11:34 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Krzysztof Sakrejda

     @wronglang
     If you’re publishing things at the level of ZIP codes or city wards or the like and not specific addresses, I really really doubt you’re exposing anything they don’t already have.

     The thing that’s striking about the ICE activity is that if they were following demographic data like what you describe — or some kind of database of specific people! — the lines would be much more ragged. In Minneapolis, from what I can gather from neighbors, there are some sharp lines they’re just not crossing. Is this just tactics, how they divide the turf? Is it strategic in some way, as my second post posited? Regardless, it’s not the result of data like your being abused.

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     Krzysztof Sakrejda (wronglang@bayes.club)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 12:11:35 JST Krzysztof Sakrejda

     in reply to

     @inthehands I do a fair bit of detailed spatial analysis on health equity and this is one thing that gives me pause. I've definitely considered dropping it and walking off because maybe the government shouldn't know more about where vulnerable people are.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 14-Jan-2026 02:21:21 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Update on the thread above:

     I’m not seeing this pattern anymore; the sharp boundaries no longer show up where you look at where ICE is hurting people. It now has more of the feeling you’d expect it to have if they were targeting people based on race, instead of based on political boundaries. Whatever pattern I was noticing above, real or imagined, it doesn’t hold now.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 14-Jan-2026 02:22:22 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     One thing that is still true: ICE are •mostly• avoiding affluent white neighborhoods, even ones where some immigrants live too. I’m sure there are people in places like Kenwood and Minnetonka who are seeing nothing and hearing nothing from their neighbors, and just do not understand What The Big Deal Is Anyway.

     Basically ICE is keeping the StarTribune’s core constituency nice and comfy.

     There are hints that pattern is eroding too, though, particularly in St. Paul.