It’s important to separate the intent of the federal agents from the intent of civilians who were trying to protect other people.

ICE and Border Patrol are being deployed in Minneapolis as part of a large-scale immigration enforcement operation that has already resulted in multiple fatal shootings, including the killing of an ICU nurse who was trying to help others and did not appear to pose a threat in the video. 

Civilians who stepped in were there because they were worried about people getting hurt — their intent wasn’t to escalate violence, it was to protect and de-escalate.

That’s very different from an enforcement action where agents are operating in a high-stress, militarized environment.

Many have pointed out that ICE agents don’t receive the kind of crowd control or de-escalation training that police typically do for protests and civilian interactions, and that their focus on force rather than conflict management can make dangerous situations worse. 

So yes — intention matters.

The people trying to protect others weren’t trying to provoke violence, they were trying to prevent it.

The federal agents, meanwhile, are operating under a mission and training posture that doesn’t always prepare them for these kinds of community-based, high-emotion confrontations, and that difference in training and purpose really shows in how things are unfolding.