Out-of-state protesters in Minnesota? Narratives flipped from 6 years ago

As protests continue in Minnesota following the killing of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, a familiar narrative has started to arise about those taking to the streets.

Several right-wing commentators and influencers, and even federal officials, have started to suggest that many of the protesters in the Twin Cities and around the state are not actually Minnesota residents. In fact, in a social media post on Friday, President Donald Trump even suggested that many protesters are “highly paid professionals.”

“They’re from all these different states, like Washington and Texas. A lot of them don’t have jobs or this is their job,” conservative influencer Nick Sortor claimed earlier this week.

Yet, despite these claims, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence supporting such statements.

RELATED: What are the rights of protesters and observers watching ICE operations?

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked local, state and federal officials on Friday about the claims, as well as any arrests or activities involving anti-ICE protesters.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) responded, “We don’t have any information to support that as we do not track who comes to Minnesota.”

Homeland Security, meanwhile, simply referred back to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin’s assertion that over 2,500 arrests have been made in Minnesota during immigration operations, but provided no details regarding protesters.

The narrative has started to arise as tensions in the community have escalated, including from Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act and send military troops to the state to quell protests.

RELATED: Trump threatens to use the Insurrection Act to ‘put an end’ to protests in Minneapolis

Six years ago, a similar narrative arose, but from the opposite end of the political spectrum.

“I want to be very, very clear, the people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents. They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region to prey on everything that we have built over the last several decades,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on May 30, 2020, less than a week after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officers.

“Every single person we arrested last night, I’m told, was from out of state,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said that same day, and Gov. Tim Walz added, “I think our best estimate right now that I heard is about 20% is what we think are Minnesotans and about 80% are outside. … I’m not trying to say there aren’t Minnesotans amongst this group.”

Instead, those claims turned out to be false, with most charges involving demonstrators from Minnesota and just a few exceptions.

Now, unlike six years ago, it’s Republicans making those claims. However, there does appear to be a key similarity to the Floyd murder protests: Minnesotans are upset and are making their voices heard.

That proved to be the case in 2020, and the evidence doesn’t indicate anything different in 2026.

The post Out-of-state protesters in Minnesota? Narratives flipped from 6 years ago first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.