A routine stay for federal immigration agents in a quiet Minnesota suburb turned into a flashpoint of disorder on Monday when protesters gathered outside the SpringHill Suites in Maple Grove. What started as a show of opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol personnel quickly escalated into property damage and assaults on officers, resulting in 26 arrests by local police.
The demonstration unfolded amid heightened tensions in the Twin Cities area, sparked by suspiciously organized attempts to protest ICE while distracting from fraud investigations in the state. Agents were in town as part of Operation Metro Surge, a targeted effort to address illegal immigration and related crimes in urban areas. Protesters zeroed in on the hotel, believing it housed key figures like Gregory Bovino, who had just been relieved of his role as commander-at-large for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
As the crowd swelled outside the hotel, the situation deteriorated. Maple Grove police arrived after reports of the gathering and monitored the scene. But soon, some participants began damaging property and hurling objects at officers, prompting authorities to declare the assembly unlawful.
“The Maple Grove Police Department respects and upholds the First Amendment rights of individuals to peacefully assemble and express their views,” the department stated in a release. “Our priority remains the safety and security of all residents, visitors, and property within our community. At that point, the activity was no longer considered peaceful. Individuals participating in criminal acts are not protected under the First Amendment and were subject to arrest.”
Officers issued dispersal orders, but not everyone complied. In the end, 26 people faced charges: 13 for gross misdemeanor riot, 13 for misdemeanor unlawful assembly, with two also hit with obstruction charges. One additional suspect is under investigation for property damage after fleeing the scene. While authorities have not released a full list of names, investigations into some of the detainees have uncovered extensive criminal records, painting a picture of repeat offenders amid what was billed as a peaceful rally.
Among those taken into custody:
Justin Neal Shelton
Justin Neal Shelton, arrested for obstructing legal process. His history includes a 2007 guilty plea to first-degree aggravated robbery, where he participated in a violent carjacking that left a pregnant woman beaten. He served nearly five years in prison and later expressed remorse: “First of all, I want to say how sorry I am. Even though I was intoxicated at the time, that does not justify my wrongdoing.” In 2020, he was convicted of possessing a firearm after a violent crime conviction.
Abraham Nelson Coleman
Abraham Nelson Coleman, 45, charged with damage to property. His record dates back to 2003, with multiple convictions for theft and property damage.
Jaylynn Marie Rodriguez
Jaylynn Marie Rodriguez, 24, arrested for riot. A first-year law student at the University of Minnesota, she holds a bachelor’s in sociology from Macalester College and has been involved in social justice initiatives, including roles with the Latinx Student Union and the Lealtad-Suzuki Center.
Rayna Michelle Alston
Rayna Michelle Alston, 21, charged with riot. A Minneapolis resident, her social media promotes radical actions, such as a “Nationwide shutdown” call for January 30, with posts urging “No work. No School. No Shopping.”
Josephine Jay Guilbeau
Josephine Jay Guilbeau, 37, arrested for riot. She was previously removed from a U.S. Senate hearing in September for disruptions, accusing lawmakers of complicity in “genocide” related to Israel. On the night of the protest, she shared video footage depicting the scene as a “military operation” by police.
Freya Ebbesen
Freya Ebbesen, 23, charged with riot. Employed as a birth assistant and clinic nurse at The Minnesota Birth Center, she earned her nursing degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Cashmere Hamilton-Grunau
Cashmere Hamilton-Grunau, 19, arrested for riot. A former Morehouse College student and football player.
John Linden Gribble
John Linden Gribble, 40, charged with riot. Prior convictions include misdemeanor DWI and operating a vehicle under the influence.
Samantha Faye Muchowski
Baley Rae Schlosser
Sarah Nicole Workman
Samantha Faye Muchowski, 24; Baley Rae Schlosser, 26; Sarah Nicole Workman, 28; all arrested for riot.
Oliver Kilgore Jones
Megan Ashley Larson
Oliver Kilgore Jones, 27, and Megan Ashley Larson, 24, charged with damage to property and riot, respectively.
These revelations about prior convictions for violence, theft, and other offenses among several arrestees raise questions about the true nature of the gathering. Was this a grassroots outcry over policy, or did it attract elements more interested in confrontation than dialogue?
Social media chatter around the event included unfounded claims of police using long-range acoustic devices (LRAD) to harm protesters, but state patrol clarified that officers only issued verbal warnings at controlled volumes, with no sirens or tones deployed—debunking viral misinformation.
Fueling the unrest was the recent fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis. This marked the second such incident involving federal forces in Minnesota this month. Details remain murky, with a government report indicating two CBP agents discharged their weapons. Sources also revealed Pretti was involved in a confrontation with agents a week earlier. Federal officials have reportedly been gathering intelligence on protesters and potential agitators in the area, suggesting a proactive stance against organized disruptions.
In the aftermath, Border Czar Tom Homan visited Minnesota, meeting with Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and law enforcement leaders. Homan posted on X: “Today I met with Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and top law enforcement officials to discuss the issues on the ground in Minnesota. We all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets. While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead. President Trump has been clear: he wants American cities to be safe and secure for law-abiding residents — and they will be.”
The Department of Homeland Security echoed this sentiment on X: “Glad to see some state and local government cooperation. It’s a start!”
Local resident accounts praised the Maple Grove police for their handling, with one observer noting the swift restoration of order and affirming that violent acts have no place in public discourse.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the fine line between protected speech and criminal behavior. As federal efforts to secure communities intensify, encounters like this may test the resolve of both enforcers and those who oppose them. With ongoing investigations into the Pretti shooting and broader immigration operations, Minnesota remains a hotbed for debate over safety, sovereignty, and the role of government in everyday life. Yet, when protests cross into destruction, the consequences—as seen in Maple Grove—speak for themselves.
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Two Storms, One Harvest
Every food crisis in living memory has been a one-shock event. The 2008 price spike was a commodity bubble. The 2020 shortages were a logistics failure. The 2022 grain scare was a war on one exporter’s ports. Each time, the system bent, adjusted, and recovered, and each time the experts assured us afterward that global markets are simply too big and too diversified to fail.
What nobody in Washington seems eager to discuss is that 2026 is shaping up to be something the modern food system has never actually faced. Two independent shocks, one climatic and one geopolitical, are converging on the same harvest cycle at the same time. Not sequentially. Simultaneously.
Start with the weather. The Pacific Ocean is currently building toward what forecasters now openly call a record event. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center puts the odds of at least a strong El Niño near 88 percent, with roughly two in three odds it reaches “very strong” status, the tier reserved for perhaps three or four events in the entire satellite era. Every major global model now projects a median peak in Super El Niño territory, and most of them project it exceeding the 2015-16 event, which until now held the modern record. Sea surface anomalies were already brushing the super threshold in mid-July, months before these events normally peak. The atmosphere has already shifted into El Niño mode, and the event is forecast to crest in late fall and early winter.
This is not about “climate change.” It’s about the standard cycles of weather, and the cycle we’re currently in is one that has likely devastated societies in the past. We’re better prepared as a society today, but not all Americans are equally prepared.
Serious households have started doing the quiet math on their own. Grocery bills tell part of the story, and the forecast maps tell the rest, which is why long-term food storage has moved from fringe hobby to mainstream line item in the family budget, with established suppliers like Heaven’s Harvest seeing demand from people who five years ago would have rolled their eyes at the idea. That instinct is not paranoia. It is pattern recognition, and the pattern is worth walking through carefully.
Editor’s Note: Heaven’s Harvest IS a sponsor, but the warnings of this article are real and would be written even if we didn’t have a survival food sponsor. With that said, those who take advantage of what they offer can use promo code “Patriot” for 15% off.
The Fertilizer Clock Is Already Running
While the Pacific warms, the second shock has been unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict with Iran turned the world’s most important energy chokepoint into a contested waterway, and the consequences reach far beyond the gas pump. Roughly a third of global fertilizer trade moves through Hormuz, and the disruption sent urea prices up 86 percent year over year by March, with a 53 percent jump in a single month.
The World Bank projects energy prices rising about 24 percent in 2026 and fertilizer about 31 percent. By its own accounting, fertilizer prices ran 35 percent higher in the first five months of this year than the same period last year.
Here is the mechanism the nightly news will not explain. Fertilizer is not a grocery item. It is a time-delayed input. The nitrogen a farmer in Iowa or Punjab could not afford to apply this spring does not show up as a problem this spring. It shows up as a thinner harvest six to twelve months later.
The World Bank’s own food security brief concedes that the effects of reduced applications earlier this season “are likely to become visible only later in harvest outcomes.” Translate that from institutional language into plain English and it means this. The damage is already done, it is already in the ground, and we are simply waiting for it to arrive on the shelf.
Now check the calendar. Six to twelve months from the spring planting season lands us squarely in late 2026 and early 2027. Which is precisely when the strongest El Niño in the instrumental record is forecast to peak, bringing its signature droughts to Southeast Asia, Australia, southern Africa, northern Brazil, and South Asia, the very regions that grow the world’s rice, sugar, and oilseeds.
The World Bank warns openly that a strong El Niño “could disrupt multiple crop belts simultaneously” on top of the conflict-driven input costs. Their baseline projection assumes the Middle East disruptions ease by autumn. What in the last two years of Middle East history suggests that assumption is safe?
The System Has No Slack Left
The comfortable answer is that global markets always adjust. But adjustment requires slack, and the slack is gone. Global cereal production is expected to decline from last year’s records even before El Niño does its work. The UN World Food Programme, hardly a den of right-wing preppers, is calling this the most significant disruption to its supply chains since Covid and the invasion of Ukraine, and its supply chain director put the stakes bluntly.
Today’s supply chain challenges are tomorrow’s hunger crisis.
There is also a political dimension that markets cannot price. When food gets scarce, governments do not behave like economists. They behave like politicians. Export bans, hoarding mandates, and panic buying at the national level turned the modest rice shortfall of 2008 into a global crisis, and analysts are already warning that import-dependent nations are the first dominoes.
The 2015-16 Super El Niño, a far weaker event than what is now forecast, threw tens of millions into food stress across Africa and Asia. This one is projected to be stronger, and it arrives with fertilizer already rationed by price and shipping lanes already contested by missiles.
What Joseph Knew
Scripture does not treat preparation for lean years as faithlessness. It treats it as wisdom delivered in advance to those willing to act on it.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
Joseph did not respond to that warning with a hashtag or a committee. He stored grain during the years of abundance, and when the famine came, Egypt stood while its neighbors begged. The lesson is not that famine is certain. It is that the time to prepare is precisely when preparation still looks optional.
Nobody who filled a pantry in a year of plenty has ever regretted it, and nobody standing in an empty aisle has ever been glad he waited for certainty.
None of this calls for panic, and panic is the enemy of sound judgment anyway. It calls for the same unglamorous prudence our grandparents considered ordinary. Keep some cash margin, know your local growers, and put real food in deep storage while it is cheap and available, because the entire arc of this story is that cheap and available is a closing window.
Families looking for a straightforward place to start can visit Heaven’s Harvest and use promo code Patriot for 15 percent off long-term storable food. The forecasts may yet soften, the strait may yet reopen, and we should pray they do. But hope is a fine thing to hold and a foolish thing to eat.
