Which cities have seen the most violent anti-ICE protests in the past year?
Executive summary
Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland and Chicago emerge in reporting as the cities most associated with the fiercest anti-ICE confrontations over the past year, with Minneapolis standing out for the scale, intensity and federal response after a fatal ICE shooting there; that said, definitions of “violent” vary across sources and the available reporting mixes large peaceful mobilizations with episodes of clashes and arrests [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. The picture is uneven: many nationwide actions were overwhelmingly peaceful according to civil‑liberties groups even where isolated violent incidents or heavy-handed crowd control made headlines [6] [2].
1. Minneapolis — the epicenter after a deadly ICE shooting
Minneapolis is the clearest focal point for the most intense confrontations: the killing of Renée Nicole Good by an ICE agent in early January catalyzed tens of thousands into the streets, repeated mass demonstrations, and a federal surge that prompted a federal judge to limit crowd‑control tactics after finding many protesters were peaceful and not impeding agents [1] [7] [2]. Reporting describes not only huge turnouts and strikes but also episodes where federal agents used pepper balls and tear gas, and where arrests and vehicle stops drew litigation and congressional scrutiny—factors that tilt Minneapolis to the top of lists of violent or highly charged anti‑ICE protest sites [2] [8].
2. Los Angeles — large mobilizations with episodic clashes
Los Angeles saw widespread organizing and large protests tied to earlier raids and to national “ICE Out” actions, and while many demonstrations were reported as peaceful, accounts and local incidents catalogued confrontational moments and arrests that local officials and advocates framed very differently—advocates decrying federal aggression and some authorities warning of escalating threats [3] [6]. State and federal rhetoric around threats to deploy troops to Los Angeles also amplified tensions and made the city a prominent locus for both militant imagery and mass nonviolent resistance [3] [6].
3. New York City — concentrated days of disorder and mass arrests
New York experienced concentrated episodes of disorder tied to national action days: a sit‑in at Trump Tower followed by clashes outside the federal immigration court produced dozens of arrests across a two‑day span in June, with bottles and other projectiles reported and a high arrest count cited in reporting as evidence of a violent turn on those days [4]. The NYC episodes were not continuous year‑long riots but represent flashpoints where protest tactics crossed into criminal charges and large numbers of detainees, placing NYC among the cities with notable violent confrontations [4].
4. Portland — violent episodes amid an otherwise regional protest network
Portland has been identified in multiple accounts for violent episodes tied to immigration‑enforcement actions, including arrests and clashes when border agents used sound trucks and when a small number of arrests followed shooting incidents involving Border Patrol outside medical facilities; reporting highlights isolated violence and injuries to officers that contributed to the city’s reputation as a flashpoint [5] [9]. Local and national reporting indicate most protests remained largely peaceful, but the presence of arrests and confrontations keeps Portland on lists of cities where anti‑ICE protests turned violent at times [5] [9].
5. Chicago and other cities — notable confrontational tactics but uneven violence
Chicago is repeatedly cited as a locus of confrontational organizing and is named alongside Los Angeles and Minneapolis by advocacy groups describing the human cost of enforcement, but reporting suggests confrontational tactics in Chicago and many other cities often coexist with largely peaceful mass actions rather than sustained urban violence; regional accounts note that tactics vary by local organizers and law‑enforcement responses, producing an uneven map of where protests became violent [10] [6]. National organizers also tracked more than a thousand planned events across the country, underscoring that most localities’ protests were peaceful even as a handful produced high‑profile clashes [5] [6].
Caveats and competing narratives
Quantifying “most violent” is constrained by inconsistent reporting, differing definitions of violence (arrests, property damage, exchanges of projectiles, use of crowd‑control munitions) and competing narratives: civil‑liberties groups emphasize mass peaceful resistance and seek to limit federal crowd control, while DHS highlights increased assaults on officers and vehicular attacks—both frames are present in the record and influence which cities receive the spotlight [6] [9]. The sources used here document major incidents and legal outcomes but do not provide a standardized city‑by‑city violence index, so this assessment weighs reported scale, arrests, legal rulings and federal involvement to identify Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland and Chicago as the most prominent sites of violent or highly charged anti‑ICE protests over the past year [1] [2] [4] [5] [3].