"You've probably heard that Minneapolis could use some help right now," MinnMax host Ben Hanson said in the most recent episode of gaming podcast The MinnMax Show.
Despite inspiring the pun in MinnMax's name, the city that many of the channel's contributors live in is not their usual topic of discussion. That would be videogames: MinnMax's near-11,000 Patreon members and 70,000 YouTube subscribers most often tune in for rapid-fire questions with a Ghost of Yōtei developer or a behind-the-scenes interview with a former games journalist or multi-hour discussions about a single game. But talking about games becomes increasingly difficult when your neighbors are being abducted from their homes and federal agents have executed two people in the street, with videos of the killings spreading across social media like a conflagration.
"Everybody's on edge, everybody's really freaked out. The city is scared. It's being terrorized by ICE agents, and you can feel it everywhere you go," Hanson said on an earlier podcast two weeks ago, titled Let's Talk About Minneapolis.
"I don't think people realize how bad it is," said cohost Sarah Podzorski. "Everyone seems to think it's happening away from us. What people don't understand is there are 2,000 ICE agents crawling [over] not only Minneapolis, not only St. Paul, but in every single suburb we have. I had ICE agents this morning a block from my house going into apartments. It's literally happening down the street from me, and you hear it, and you hear the whistles of people spotting ICE agents. I go to bed and hear helicopters circling overhead."
As ICE's presence in the state has become more and more unavoidable, so has the stress and surreal nature of that reality crept into MinnMax's normal everyday gaming coverage.
"When they committed murder and then they got the 'okay' that they had immunity, it ramped up 200% in Minnesota," Podzorski said, in reference to the January 7 killing of Renee Good. "I feel very powerless. Going to protests is one thing, but I've just been trying to talk about it as much as I can. When you ask me how we're doing, I will tell you 'not well.' I've talked about it on my stream, we're talking about it here. I feel like the best thing I can do is just tell people what's happening."
At that time federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had not yet killed a second Minnesota citizen, Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse working at the Minnesota Veterans Affairs medical center. A colleague called him "a super nice, super helpful guy" and "outstanding" nurse. The government has, by contrast, referred to Pretti as a "domestic terrorist." His shooting came a day after thousands turned out in Minneapolis in sub-zero temperatures to protest ICE's presence in the city.
Today MinnMax posted the video at the top of this article. It compiles clips from the protests, ICE agents pepper-spraying and assaulting United States citizens and questioning them based on their accents, alongside transparently false statements from Trump administration officials. In one, Vice President JD Vance claimed that ICE is "not a group that is going around and looking for people who violated the law based on skin color."
Hundreds have chimed in on the YouTube video above in the last few hours, overwhelmingly supporting the channel's commitment to speaking out against ICE's presence in Minneapolis.
"This may not have previously been part of MinnMax, but it belongs there now. We can’t stay silent and we all must build a community of practice around speaking out before things escalate to this point. Proud of MinnMax for leading that charge!"
"I imagine posting this wasn’t an easy decision, particularly given the realities of subscriptions. I’ll simply say this: you've more than earned my financial support, and you’ll continue to have it for as long as I’m able."
"Thank you for going outside of your normal coverage to raise this issue. I hope that the right people see it. This injustice needs to come to an end."
"Minnmax forever, Minnesota forever, Abolish ICE. Thank you for not being silent."
In October, MinnMax's community donated more than $100,000 to the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota, a nonprofit "whose mission is to provide free immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees." Over the weekend, MinnMax contributor Leo Vader streamed Hitman for 12 hours to raise $23,490 for the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee.
Donations to both remain open.
