January 28, 2026                                                         Home   Subscribe  Open in Browser

Minnesotans are using a diverse array of tactics in their resistance to the hostile ICE invasion of their state.

Neighbors have built mutual aid networks to support those afraid to leave their homes. Others are tracking agents and sounding alarms about potential raids. And — most visibly — labor unions, faith groups, and community organizations have mobilized mass demonstrations against federal agents’ lawlessness and violence.

One tactic of particular interest to our team at Inequality.org is the targeting of ICE's corporate accomplices. Organizers are directing public ire toward wealthy CEOs of Target, Hilton, Home Depot and other large corporations who seem too concerned about protecting profits to take a strong stand against the ICE reign of terror.

In response to this pressure, leaders of major Minnesota-based firms have issued a weak call for “de-escalation.” The letter fails to directly denounce the violence and lacks any commitment to protecting even their own workers from ICE attacks. But even this tepid response shows that corporate leaders are starting to feel the pressure. Check out our interview below with an on-the-ground union organizer who says it's time to increase the heat.  

Chris Mills Rodrigo
for the Institute for Policy Studies Inequality.org team

Labor is Playing a Key Role in Fighting the ICE Invasion of Minnesota

This week’s frontline face: Kieran Knutson, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250 in Minneapolis.

What he's doing to help create a more equal world: Knutson and other labor leaders are playing a critical role in the resistance. They’ve used their organizing experience to help build up rapid response networks and were instrumental to mobilizing the tens of thousands who turned out in the frigid cold for last Friday’s mass protest.

What makes this fight so important to Knutson: “Unions that want to be fighters for the working class have to be a part of this fight,” Knutson told Inequality.org this week. "It’s easy to see that this army that’s being constructed could just as easily be unleashed against workers who are organizing or striking — or against social movements."

“This is a dangerous, dangerous force that has to be defeated. To leave this force intact would mean a constant danger for all of us.”

Protecting Children From Labor Exploitation

President Trump's onslaught on worker protections has gone so far that once-sacrosanct child labor laws are now under threat. Since the beginning of his second term, an analysis from Good Jobs First found, enforcement cases for a range of workplace violations have declined by 97 percent. Only two of the Labor Department’s press releases about enforcement actions have mentioned child labor law, compared to upwards of two per month under former President Biden.

In the face of lax federal enforcement, Todd Larsen and Reed Maki are urging states to take the lead in preventing child labor exploitation. Several states, both red and blue, have already passed laws strengthening these protections in recent years — including Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, and Utah. Read more below.

The wealthiest 0.001 percent, a group representing just around 56,000 multi-millionaires, now hold three times more wealth than half of the entire world population combined. This elite group's wealth share has grown steadily from less than 4 percent in 1995 to over 6 percent today.

For an interactive version of this chart and more on global inequality, click the link to our Inequality.org Facts section below.

What a Billionaire Says After Defrauding His Plentiful Investors: Pardon Me

This week’s dour deep pocket: Bill Hwang, the founder of Archegos Capital Management, a hedge fund-like private investment firm that elevated Hwang’s personal net worth to $30 billion.

What has Hwang sour: the thought that an American like him would ever have to spend a day in jail.

Back in 2024, a federal jury found Hwang guilty of a fraud that cost shareholders $100 billion and, CNN notes, “nearly brought down Wall Street.” At his sentencing, the case’s judge dismissed a defense request for no prison time as “ridiculous” and ordered Hwang to serve 18 years behind bars.

But Hwang may never see the inside of a prison cell. He’s been free on bail while appealing his sentence and has just made a move that may extend that freedom forever. He’s now seeking a presidential pardon, and this pardon plea — from “Wall Street’s most famous evangelical” — appears likely to end up on the desk of Donald Trump, the most pardon-friendly president in American history.

The last word: Before Hwang’s sentencing, prosecutors asked the judge to order the convicted wheeler-dealer to compensate his victims for their losses. Such an order, Hwang’s legal team argued, would be unfair since their client currently had only $55 million to his name. That $55 million, his lawyers did not note, left Hwang just under the threshold for entering America’s richest 0.1 percent.

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