MINNEAPOLIS — Chaos erupted outside City Hall on Saturday as hundreds of protesters confronted a right-wing provocateur who was among those pardoned for crimes tied to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Jake Lang, a conservative influencer who served four years in prison for those crimes, held an anti-immigration demonstration with a small group of pro-ICE supporters outside City Hall. The group blasted music including the song “Ice Ice Baby” as they waved signs and chanted slogans.
The group was met by hundreds of anti-ICE counterprotesters shouting profanities and waving banners reading, “Minnesota Nice, Not ICE,” and, “ICE out now!”
“Hey, Minnesota what do we say?” an anti-ICE protester shouted through a megaphone. “F— Nazis every day.”
The heated confrontation comes as pressure continues to build in the Twin Cities following the killing of Renee Nicole Good this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Lang, who is from New York and is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, struggled to be heard over counterprotesters.
Dozens of anti-ICE demonstrators and a group of reporters surrounded Lang and his associates, backing them in a recessed window along the City Hall building.
Counterprotesters hurled water balloons at Lang, leaving him soaked in water in the freezing cold. They also threw snowballs at other pro-ICE protesters, soaking them as temperatures dropped toward zero degrees Fahrenheit.
“Please stop,” Lang repeated to one protester who appeared to be grabbing his legs.
The scene was calmer across the street.
Sara Steck, 60, said she was braving the cold temperature to protest Lang’s demonstration because “this city is built on immigrants.”
“This is just everything I firmly believe in, that people need to stand together and not push people out that don’t look like us or sound like us,” she said. “It’s bigger than just Renee Good.”
Despite Minnesota’s challenges, Steck said she remains proud of her home state.
“They always call this a fly-over state. And it’s like, people used to think we lived in igloos and it’s always cold there and it’s not a great place,” she said. “Yes, it is really cold, and look at how hardy we are. But we will fight for this beautiful state that we have and all of the people that are in it.”