Waving signs and screaming chants that called for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents to leave Minneapolis, the anti-ICE protesters gathered downtown near City Hall and scores of them moved forward around 1pm local time, forcing the group of about 10 far-right demonstrators against the outside of the municipal government centre within minutes.
Some in the crowd tossed water balloons that soaked the right-wingers as the wind chill temperatures hit -4 F.
Police maintained their distance as the dueling protests played out.
About an hour after the rallies began, the tiny contingent of right-wing activists quickly walked a few blocks away to a hotel, hounded by hundreds of anti-ICE protesters who were screaming obscenities and telling them to get out of the city.
A few scuffles broke out, but there was no serious violence.
Jake Lang, an online right-wing activist and one of more than 1,500 people pardoned by President Donald Trump after their criminal convictions related to the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol, organised what he called an “anti-fraud” rally. At no point could Lang’s voice be heard by the crowd.
The counter-protest was organised by the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump.
Trump has repeatedly invoked a scandal around the theft of federal funds intended for social-welfare programs in Minnesota as a rationale for sending thousands of immigration enforcement agents into Minnesota.
The president and administration officials have repeatedly singled out the state’s community of Somali immigrants.
“We’re here to support our Somali neighbors, they asked for their white allies to show up for them,” said Laura, 56, who, like all protesters interviewed, asked that their last name not be used for fear of retribution by the federal government.
“I’m here to exercise my First Amendment right because my neighbors can’t, they’re too afraid to leave their house,” Laura said.
Lang, who has made anti-Muslim and antisemitic comments, has said he wants to secure the US for white Christians.
He has been present at small pro-ICE rallies in Minneapolis this week and has targeted Somali immigrants, the vast majority of whom are Muslim.
Some 3,000 agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol have descended on Minneapolis and St Paul in recent weeks.
An ICE agent fatally shot Good, a US citizen and mother of three, after she drove away after being ordered by ICE agents to exit her vehicle.
The officer who shot Good was positioned in front of her car on the left.
DHS has said he was hit by the car and feared for his life, though videos show the agent remaining on his feet and raise questions about how much contact the car made with him.
The situation has set Minnesota’s Democratic leadership at odds with Trump, whose justice department has opened an investigation into Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.