At least according to CNN, the answer is yes after they glowingly described the efforts of a sixteen and a seventeen year old from Chicago willing to take any risk for the anti-ICE cause.
According to Democrats and their progressive allies, Minneapolis is a war zone, the site of a classic struggle between good and evil, where “vigilantes,” in The New Yorker’s phrasing, are facing off against, occupiers and thugs, Bruce Springsteen’s phrasing. They have called it “The Battle for Minneapolis,” also The New Yorker, a “Gettysburg Moment,” The Bulwark, questioned whether it is the equivalent of the incident that started the Civil War, Fort Sumter, Governor Tim Walz, who also claimed that his citizens were being physically assaulted on the streets. People have been hurt and even died. Whether some of this is hyperbole or not, it seems to be about the last place on the planet or at least the United States for children, and yet CNN of all places found itself cheering on the efforts of sixteen and seventeen year old brothers, Ben and Sam, who have “sacrifice[d] normal teenage life to be full-time ICE watchers in Minneapolis — and say they won’t regret it” as though there were absolutely no risk to do doing so and indeed, they hadn’t a care in the world roaming increasingly violent streets by their own descriptions. Instead, they blithely described how the the two brothers, who apparently interact with ICE and Border Patrol so frequently, they are nicknamed “the brothers,” wield cell phones and take down license plate numbers. Even stranger, the dynamic young duo isn’t even from Minneapolis or Minnesota. They began their ICE resistance career in Chicago, but now “the boys are trailing agents in Minneapolis, following the epicenter of immigration enforcement in the US as it’s shifted north to the Twin Cities” over 400 miles from their home. In fact, the two are currently homeless, “couch surfing between family members’ homes and Airbnbs, intent on documenting what some describe as the unprecedented aggressiveness of Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.” “(Federal agents are) constantly pushing people and beating them up, kneeing them in the face when they’re down on the ground, or shoving their head into ice or pavement so that they’re scraped up,” Ben explained. As a result, “The homeschooled boys spend their days in south Minneapolis following suspected federal vehicles in their silver 2018 Toyota Corolla, writing down license plate numbers and sending immigration agents’ locations in group chats with other observers. When the agents stop, so do the brothers, jumping out into frigid temperatures to film operations on their phones and Sam’s chest-mounted GoPro camera — videos they upload online.”
While most of us are probably wondering why they aren’t spending more time at school (they are technically homeschooled) and preparing for their future, “the boys said they’re finding themselves more often sacrificing schoolwork for patrolling” because of the sheer size of the effort. Presumably, their parents find this acceptable because their mom, Audrey, “juggles teaching, child-rearing and advocacy work,” which we can also presume means that she’s a diehard progressive activist herself. Though some, like say me personally, may take their spending so much time out on the streets to mean that their education, not to mention their social and recreational development, has been impeded, we shouldn’t worry about such niceties as growing up in a normal environment because progressive street activism is apparently a type of education in and of itself. “Here, it’s been more difficult, but this is almost like an internship. We’re seeing things that most Americans will never see again in their lives, hopefully,” Ben explained. “The people we’re getting to meet and the experiences we’re getting, and the things you learn through this work, is invaluable.” Of course, some may also wonder whether these children are in harm’s way and rather incredibly, it seems that they are and CNN practically brags about it. According to Ben, compared to their initial efforts in Chicago, they have seen a “step up in terms of aggression” and “lawlessness” in ICE and Border Patrol tactics. “It’s been just a blatant disregard for human rights,” he said. “They brutalize people.” According to CNN’s “reporting,” “In one incident captured by the brothers on January 21, a clash erupted between protesters and federal agents — which ended in someone being pepper sprayed directly in the face while they were held down by three agents. It’s unclear what started the clash, or what led the agents to restrain and spray the protester. The federal agent who sprayed the person can be seen earlier holding the pepper spray canister toward other protesters and yelling at them to ‘get the f**k back’ multiple times.” Rather incredibly, CNN seemed altogether thrilled that the brothers did more than merely observe. Instead, they inserted themselves into the situation and started calling out ICE. “In a second video of the incident filmed by Ben, you can hear his voice in the background: ‘This is what happens when they have ICE in Minneapolis. They don’t know how to do their job!’” What could go wrong?
Perhaps most incredibly of all, CNN went on to claim that their parents are very, very concerned that something could go horribly, irrevocably wrong, terrified, even, but “how could I say no?” After recounting the fear their mother, Audrey felt when Alex Pretti was killed and she had no idea if her sons were caught in the middle somehow, “They were saying a White male has been shot,” she said “At that point, I was shaking. I finally found the video of the shooting, and I might be the only person on Earth that was relieved,” she asked, “As a parent, how could I say no? How could I say, ‘No, you need to stick to your book learning, and just ignore this for now, we’ll read about it in history books later.’ Like, are you serious?” (While I am not a parent myself, I can think of dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of ways she could’ve said no and millions of other parents who would have said no for obvious reasons). Regardless, Audrey watches “their videos clammy-handed and shaking, but also deeply proud” and she’s convinced that they belong there for some reason. “They’ve learned so much and been influenced so much by people’s faith and hope and strength and courage and integrity, generosity, humility.” “One thing we’ve tried to emphasize to them throughout their whole lives is to follow Jesus,” Andrew, their father, a professor, said. “And, as part of that, we see Jesus always going to the places of greatest need. … We’re not going to tell them not to do that.” As for the boys themselves, they insist that they’d rather be fly fishing, but some things, such as allowing minors to roam free in volatile situations bordering on a war zone, are worth the risk – any risk apparently, forget the fact that teenage boys have a notoriously hard problem assessing risk in the first place. As CNN described it, “For the brothers, any risk is worth letting people across the country witness the unprecedented operation as it unfolds.” “Every day we see how blatantly wrong it is and how hateful it is,” Sam said. “There needs to be this little sacrifice for people to go out there and document and stand up for what’s right.”
To at least some extent, CNN attempts to minimize the danger by claiming these two young men are “trained ICE watchers, documenting federal immigration agents’ actions with cell phone video and quickly warning of agents’ locations with whistles and car horns,” “reflective of a growing movement across the country as thousands of parents, teachers, clergy members and community organizers have sought training on what they can legally do when they see an immigration arrest.” Oddly, however, they are not remotely interested in the actual details of the training and who might be funding it, other than waxing eloquent about the enormous size of the movement and the effort. Fortunately, the conservative publication of the Manhattan Institute, City Journal provided at least some of the details. Behind the scenes, several groups that the average person has never heard of coordinate and support these efforts, some of which have histories dating back to at least 2017. They include Defend the 612, States at the Core, and Project RP. While they provide regular anti-ICE training, there are other goals as well including shaping media narratives and amplifying “local disputes into national stories.” Interestingly, these aspects are not limited to immigration issues; they have gotten involved in real estate and other matters. Though the media has largely focused on the “ICE Watch” aspect, claiming that people like Sam and Ben are merely legal observers, at least some of it goes much further and is potentially illegal. For example, Gabe Gonzalez, one of the organizers of Project RP explained as early as 2017 that the group was “about interfering with [immigration enforcement], confusing them, slowing them down so they can’t take more people, and doing it so well that they never want to come back.” More recently, he said that he wanted to make immigration enforcement “uncomfortable and inefficient.” Similarly, one of the instructors for Defend the 612, teaches his students to make ICE’s work “too expensive,” “too difficult,” and “too annoying” to continue. Even Minneapolis City Council Member Dan Englehart admitted, the goal was to “slow [law enforcement actions] down and cost them money.” Logistically, the groups communicate internally using Signal Chat, where they share strategies that make this happen. These include everything from the bizarre – getting oneself arrested “to be super annoying and waste” law enforcement’s “time and resources” to the obscene – throwing urine at agents, which was described as an “mvp” move – to the irritative – “noise making and interrupting their meals and bathroom breaks” because they “serve a critical role in draining their morale.” Even worse considering that children are involved, “Absent from the Defend the 612 training was any instruction to put one’s personal safety first. Instead, Lex Horan asked volunteers to ‘stretch’ their willingness to take risks.”
In terms of funding, City Journal identified the Hopewell Fund as a primary source, what even The New York Times described as a part of “dark money” network. As of 2023, the group had a whopping $170 million in assets and an annual revenue of close to $160 million. In addition to immigration, they fund a wide variety of left-wing causes including the “Economic Security Project,” which advocates for progressive pet issues like universal guaranteed income and government run grocery stores, and “Get America Covered” which supports Obamacare. The Hopewell Fund itself is managed by Arabella Advisors, a collective that The Atlantic considered the “mothership” of a “massive progressive dark-money group” and The New York Times claimed was “a Washington consulting firm […] that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars through a daisy chain of groups supporting Democrats and progressive causes” and “a leading vehicle for [dark money] on the left.” In total, they manage seven nonprofits with over a billion dollars in combined annual revenue. Top donors include a veritable who’s who of left-leaning billionaires such as Bill Gates, Hansjorg Wyss, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Pierre Omidyar, and Warren Buffet. Large, left-leading foundations also supported the cause, including the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Though Arabella announced that it would cease operations last November, the effort is transitioning to an even larger “public benefit corporation,” Sunflower Services, suggesting that it’s being repackaged into a new, bigger form. Whatever your politics, the idea that what’s happening in Minneapolis is the result of some spontaneous grassroots movement specific to immigration or even President Donald Trump that has no ties to the larger progressive movement and is focused merely on observation, is clearly false. Instead, it’s a well funded part of the progressive leviathan, organized by activists sourced from the professional classes and targeted primarily at disruption, things CNN might be interested in if it were anything resembling a real news organization. Last week, I asked if progressives truly believed it was a war or have just lost their minds. This week, I need to update it to wonder who in their right mind would willingly insert two teenagers into the mix and how CNN could possibly white wash what seems to me an obvious recipe for disaster. Can you imagine their reaction if one of these kids got hurt or killed? Who do you think they would blame?
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 