We Shall Never Surrender

Some good news after a hard week

Protestors march during the Minnesota ICE OUT General Strike, 1/23/2026

So many horrific things happened this week. ICE’s brutality in Minnesota is at the center of many of them. A photographer for the Minnesota Star-Tribune caught a now-viral photo of an ICE agent spraying chemical spray directly into someone’s eyes while two other agents pinned the person down on the ground. They arrested a five-year-old boy named Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were in the US legally, and shipped them off to Texas where they’re currently being held, possibly for deportation. The vice president defended ICE agents’ arrest of 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, asking “what are they supposed to do?” as if the only answer was to put a child in a concrete cell. He also begged people to cooperate with ICE as they terrorize Minneapolis, because ICE is “going to make mistakes sometimes.” Meanwhile, ICE broke down the door of an elderly US citizen and arrested him, then dragged him out of his house with nothing but his underwear and a blanket to cover him in subfreezing temperatures. Only after putting him in the back of their car, driving away, and forcing him to stand outside while they photographed him, did they turn around and take him back to his house to get his ID, then let him go. And a memo released by a whistleblower this week shows that ICE has been telling its agents that they do not need a warrant signed by a judge to force their way into a person’s home, openly flouting the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and its protection against warrantless searches and arrests in people’s homes.

Over the last week, I have been astonished at how openly the MAGA regime has revealed what it really is. During its first year in power, it was careful to try to hide behind a veneer (albeit a thin one) of competence, chest thumping, law and order, and Christian nationalism (“we’re taking back America for God”). It wanted to look like a powerful, respectable, unshakeable empire. It wanted people to look at the polished, perfected image it tried to curate over the last year, and see something they wanted to be part of. It wanted to brand itself as the defender of good old-fashioned American patriotism, and it wanted its critics to look like hysterical, shrieking alarmists and terrorists.

Instead, what the MAGA regime got was a year of peaceful protests in every state across the nation. Up to 7 million people stood on their sidewalks and street corners with funny signs and inflatable unicorn costumes, chanting “this is what democracy looks like!” And that is what democracy looks like–the freedom to express your opinion on your street corners and at the ballot box. And the results of almost every election held in November 2025 were terrible for the MAGA regime. They lost race after race, school board after school board, one legislative seat after another. On the legal side, the MAGA regime has lost court case after court case over its policies and executive orders. And the lawsuits, election losses, the peaceful protest chants, and the angry phone calls demanding that Congress stand up to the regime just keep coming. For a full year since the MAGA regime rose to power, the losses have not stopped. No matter how many times they bloviate in press conferences, sign themselves up for oblivious photoshoots with Vanity Fair, or make televised speeches to world leaders about how “sometimes you need a dictator,” they just keep losing.

They cannot convince the American people that MAGA is making their lives better. They cannot convince the majority of Americans who are decent people that racism, sexism, bigotry, and autocracy are worth swallowing for the possibility of slightly cheaper eggs. They cannot convince the American people that rounding up abuelitas who sell tamales in parking lots, or fathers who work grueling hours in the summer heat to put food on their families’ tables, will make their neighborhood or their country safer. They cannot convince Americans that rounding up college students who attend peaceful protests has anything to do with fighting antisemitism when the MAGA regime has filled every part of its movement with neo-Nazis, from federal agency heads to Young Republican chapter leaders and state legislators. No matter what they do or say, no matter how many AI-generated videos Donald Trump posts of himself pooping on peaceful protestors, no matter how many gold crosses they wear around their necks, the American people just will not buy what they are selling.

And not only have we refused to buy it, we’ve refused to let it continue. We continue to protest, continue to call our members of Congress, and continue to demand an end to MAGA’s saber-rattling and blood-and-soil fascism. We refuse to go along with its plastic smiles, cross-waving bullies, masked agents dragging our neighbors out of their homes, and broken promises of a shiny White utopia of cheap eggs and church picnics under American flags. We refuse to accept MAGA’s premise that immigrants and anyone who isn’t White is an enemy out to destroy the country. We refuse to fall for the lie that if we would just let MAGA get rid of Black and Brown people and invade other countries to drill for oil, then our lives will be better.

And the American people aren’t just saying we won’t allow this–we’re actually doing something about it. We’re forming groups of neighbors to watch for ICE and alert each other when we see agents driving around looking for people to arrest. Organized gangs of suburban wine moms (if you believe the Fox News headlines) are tracking ICE’s movements through their cities using minivans, Signal calls, spreadsheets, and smartphone cameras. Parents are working in shifts at their school drop-off and pickup times to watch for ICE and keep families safe from agents trying to harass them on school property. Small businesses are putting up signs warning ICE that they will exercise their Fourth Amendment rights to refuse unauthorized entry or warrantless searches. On Friday, Minnesota went on strike, closing down stores and businesses statewide and refusing to work, attend school, or shop. Thousands of Minnesotans marched in below-zero temperatures to demand that ICE leave their state. And Americans in tiny red towns are protesting against the MAGA regime too, risking encounters with angry neighbors and reminding their fellow Americans that there are far more of us who oppose MAGA than support it.

I have stood beside several lifelong Republican voters when I attend protests in my community. They tell me they came because they need to be able to tell their grandchildren that they didn’t stay silent. Some have never been to any protest before. I admire their courage every time I meet them. They have a thousand times more nerve than the many spineless politicians in Washington, D.C. who can’t even think about telling the regime “no.” The willingness of ordinary people to buck their preferred party and stand up for what’s right, no matter the cost, puts every MAGA enabler to shame.

People from every corner of every state and every walk of life have refused to accept the regime’s lies. We are carrying on the good old-fashioned American tradition of refusing to blindly obey the government, and we’re finding creative ways to thwart its schemes. Whether we are suburban Minnesota wine moms wielding whistles and smartphones, or Portland progressives dancing outside ICE facilities in inflatable frog suits, or polka-dot-dressed New Yorkers giving ICE the middle finger, or Mexican-flag-waving Angelenos reminding everyone that Latinos are part of the permanent fabric of this nation, we have each found our own way to remind the MAGA regime that they are outnumbered. In America, power ultimately rests with the people. We haven’t forgotten that, and we’ve refused to believe MAGA’s lies that we are powerless to stop them. Over the last twelve months, every time we are tested, we have demonstrated how strong American communities are, and how weak the MAGA regime really is.

And perhaps the greatest humiliation of all: not only is MAGA’s glorious utopia dream nowhere in sight, and never will be, but everyone is laughing at them. People constantly make fun of MAGA figureheads, put Taylor Swift lyrics about small men on their protest signs, and share memes about Pete Hegseth drunk-texting classified war plans to a random journalist. Americans have turned MAGA’s penchant for middle-school nicknames against itself, coming up with gems like Dementia Don, Kegsbreath, Shady Vance, etc., to share on social media as we roll our eyes at them. We spent almost a full week over the summer wondering if Donald Trump was dead after he suddenly canceled public appearances and barely posted on Truth Social. The celebratory atmosphere on social media was the most hopeful many people had felt in months. Earlier this month, when an Arizona county attorney tried to hold an outdoor pro-ICE press conference, protestors showed up with whistles and a brass marching band and played so loudly that the conference had to be moved inside. So not only are the American people refusing to accept MAGA’s ideology, not only are Americans refusing to let them to carry out their mass deportations and trample the Constitution in peace, but we are openly and collectively laughing at their incompetence, stupidity, and their general aliens-in-flesh-suits weirdness.

And the MAGA regime can’t stand it. From the looks of things, MAGA leaders and loyalists are genuinely shocked that no one believes their lies or takes them seriously. I’ll admit that I underestimated MAGA leaders’ capacity for self-delusion. I honestly didn’t think that most of them believed their own lies about being able to deliver that shiny church picnic utopia and eternal glory for “the homeland.” It seems that they did believe them, and suddenly reality is crashing down around them. Their fever dreams of glory and comfort and unchallenged power have evaporated. And worst of all, everyone is making fun of them. Not only are they being forced to confront the reality that most Americans don’t want a dictator or mass deportations, but no one even takes them seriously enough to be scared of them.

So now that they’ve been exposed for the incompetent fascist weirdos that they are, and they can’t convince the American people to take them seriously, the MAGA regime only has a couple of choices. They can give up, or they can double down. But giving up would mean they’d have to give up their utopia fever dream, and admit they were lying, and (horror of horrors) compromise with their political opponents. You know, functional democratic government things. But this is MAGA, and they don’t want a functional democratic government. They want utopia, and the only way they have any chance of getting it is to grab as much power and money as possible for themselves, and to shut down any chance that the opposition could retake the reins of government and push them out of power.

So they’ve chosen to double down. And the results have been horrific. Again, I’ll admit, I gave them too much credit. I thought MAGA leaders would try to avoid making themselves look like a fascist cult that uses ICE agents as a secret police force to scare American communities into compliance. Boy was I wrong. The crackdown in Minneapolis has turned into an all-out battle of wills between ICE and everyone else in the city. ICE is stopping US citizens on the street with show-me-your-papers demands to prove their citizenship. ICE is dragging US citizens out of their homes and into the snow in their underwear without any warrant, tear-gassing babies in cars as their families are on their way home from their children’s basketball games, and pinning them to the ground and spraying mace directly into their eyes to demonstrate that ICE are the ones “in control.” And the only response that the MAGA regime has when they’re asked why the hell any of this is allowed is essentially “comply or die.” Just cooperate with our jackbooted, masked secret agents who are demanding that you show them your ID for walking down the street, lobbing tear gas at your children, and arresting preschoolers in blue bunny hats for having brown skin, and we pinky promise you won’t get hurt.

It’s been stomach-churning to watch the MAGA regime reveal itself so starkly for what it really is. Because make no mistake, this is who they have always been. Donald Trump campaigned on this mass deportation policy. The Republican Party endorsed him. Republican politicians and leaders have fallen all over themselves to explain and excuse and cheer on every single policy and proposal that MAGA leaders have come up with. The Republican-controlled Congress is essentially a rubber stamp for the executive branch of the MAGA regime, when they bother to take time off from their vacations to be in D.C. at all. No person or institution within the MAGA movement has made any serious effort to slow or stop its desperate grasping for power. So of course when ICE descends on an American city and rounds up any Black or Brown person it can get its hands on, breaking down any door and abusing any person who gets in the way (on camera, no less), no one in the MAGA movement lifts a finger or says a word. Because they don’t care as long as it means they get to stay in power for five more minutes. This is who they are. This is who they have always been.

It’s tempting to sink into despair when we see all the photographs and video footage of ICE beating our fellow Americans in the streets, or taking little boys in their bunny rabbit hats and Spider-Man backpacks away from their families. It’s tempting to throw up our hands and ask why we bother when the vice president tells us to just cooperate with his out-of-control secret police force that tear gasses babies in their car seats. It’s tempting to give up when we see our elected officials justify the killing of Renee Good, and when they refuse to investigate the shooting and try to go after her widow instead, because it was totally justified and we definitely don’t need any investigation to prove it.

But the thing that kept me from falling into despair this week was watching my fellow Americans see all the same photos and videos I’m seeing, all the horrific brutality that my neighbors have been subjected to, and refuse to give in. My fellow Americans are not giving up. They’re refusing to let ICE take control of our cities without a fight. To paraphrase a speech given many years ago, in similarly dark times, Americans are fighting. We are fighting in the streets and the courts, we are fighting with growing confidence and growing strength at the ballot box. The American people are defending our democracy, whatever the cost may be. We are fighting in Los Angeles and Portland and Chicago and New York and Phoenix and Minneapolis, and anywhere else the regime thinks it can bully us into silence. If we must, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the desert, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the forests, we shall fight in the hills.

We shall never surrender.

And the best part of all of this is, the American people have proved we don’t need firearms or force to win this fight. Just the opposite. We are fighting with words, with cardboard signs, with t-shirts, with memes, with chants, with whistles, with Know Your Rights flyers, with cameras, with microphones, with group phone calls, with spreadsheets, with organized wine moms, with inflatable frog costumes, with press conference marching bands, with strikes and boycotts and marches and sit-ins and every nonviolent tactic in between. And ICE, with their bluster and their masks, their pepper spray and their guns, is losing the fight. They are losing so badly that the vice president had to fly to Minneapolis this week and hold a press conference to lie about their raids and beg people to cooperate. But there’s no going back now, and the American people have learned that we can win this fight, using our power in numbers and our good old-fashioned American refusal to let a government tell us what to do.

If you look at the photos and the videos and all the terrible headlines from this week, you might think that it doesn’t look like we’re winning. But the MAGA regime stooping to the bottom-feeding levels that it’s stooped to this week is proof that we are. They wouldn’t be doubling down this hard, trying so desperately to scare us, and begging us to please pretty please cooperate, if they were winning the fight. This level of crazed violence combined with their pathetic attempts to placate angry citizens shows what they really are—a floundering regime looking for any possible way to keep itself in power. They are clearly shocked that it hasn’t worked. And we will keep shocking them. We will keep fighting. And we won’t stop fighting for our freedom until all of us are free.

We shall never surrender.