ICE Fishing

A man walks out onto the ice with a stool and an ice auger and begins to drill a hole. A booming voice echoes from above: "There are no fish under the ice!"

The man looks up in surprise, moves a few metres away, and starts a new hole. He hears: “There are no fish under the ice!” He moves a few steps further, starts drilling, and hears the same warning. He looks up and asks: “Is that you, God?” The voice replies: “No, this is the arena manager!”

Ice fishing is a popular sport in Canada. Especially on real lakes with a thick layer of ice. Sometimes you’ll find parked vans and a few tents right in the middle of a lake, where people are drilling and fishing away with great enthusiasm. The Canadian climate obliges this icy pastime with solidly frozen ice well into March, or even April.

In Minnesota, in the United States of America, a few citizens took up a similar kind of pastime. People with no genetic connection to Latin America began decorating their vehicles with Mexican flags and stickers. Then they drove back and forth through Minneapolis — to lead ICE agents on false trails. The story spread like wildfire on social media. I jumped on it immediately, of course. Läppli, Švejk — the little man who drives the powerful to the brink with feigned stupidity. Too tempting not to believe.

If only it were true. It isn’t.

By then, Minneapolis was already the epicentre of a massive anti-ICE movement — “ICE Out” demonstrations with tens of thousands in the streets. Documented reports show the opposite: it was ICE itself that deceived the public. Agents appeared in construction vests and helmets — in vehicles with phantom licence plates — so as not to alert citizens.

The operation was called “Operation Metro Surge.”

Two people were shot by ICE agents. One died in custody.

Renée Nicole Macklin Good — January 7, 2026, Minneapolis

37 years old, U.S. citizen, writer and poet, mother of a six-year-old child. Not an activist. Her Honda Pilot was sitting crosswise on Portland Avenue during a large-scale raid; agents reached through the open window, she put the car in gear, ICE officer Jonathan Ross — Iraq veteran, SWAT member, firearms instructor — fired three shots. She died at Hennepin County Medical Centre.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti — January 24, 2026, Minneapolis

37, intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, licensed to carry a firearm, no prior convictions. He was filming agents at the corner of 26th and Nicollet and helping protesters. He was pepper-sprayed, knocked to the ground, surrounded by around six agents. Then more shots were fired — while he was already motionless on the ground. Two Border Patrol officers fired.

Victor Manuel Diaz — January 14/15, 2026, Camp East Montana, El Paso

36, Nicaraguan, arrested by ICE in Minneapolis on January 6th, transferred to Texas, found dead in his cell. ICE called it a suicide; the family disputes this. The official cause of death had not been finalised at the time of writing.

The “ICE Out” day on January 23rd brought around 50,000 people into downtown Minneapolis — in a bracing minus 29 degrees. On January 30th, the “National Shutdown” following Alex Pretti’s death, tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators again filled the city. Minneapolis police reported for that day: no arrests, no injuries, no property damage. One participant put it plainly: “We’ve learned so much from the Floyd protests — now people know you speak up and act peacefully.”

On January 23rd, more than 100 clergy were arrested — at a prayer action at Minneapolis–Saint Paul Airport. That, too, was planned civil disobedience. Not the slightest trace of violence.

When citizens begin to organise and protest peacefully against injustice, that is on the one hand pure democracy, and on the other the spirit of passive resistance. As a former Basler, I have a genuine soft spot for that perennial favourite, HD Soldat Läppli. When humour and childlike open questioning meet in the thousands on the streets, some of the powerful start to sweat.

What a shame the ICE fishing story is made up.

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