Minneapolis Activists Use DIY Traffic Circles to Identify, Slow ICE

Minneapolis activists are building their own traffic circles as traffic calming measures designed to slow and identify Border Patrol and immigration enforcement agents. 

Explaining the phenomenon in MinnPost, Bill Lindeke writes, “The strategy has caught the attention of the higher ups, usually a sign that something is working. Homan, executive associate director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, mocked the approach during a recent news conference, and local police seem determined to remove these barricades soon after they are erected. In response, neighbors often simply put them back after police have departed the scene.”

For Lindeke, the action is a useful tool for reducing the “everyday danger faced by these communities.” Comparing it to revolutionary Paris, Lindeke notes that “there is … a spatial logic to reducing speeds and giving neighbors a more visible presence on Minneapolis streets.” 

Does each one of these homemade roundabouts conform to traffic engineering and design standards? In most cases, no. “Were signage typefaces the most of our worries, this practice would be outlawed, filed alongside various attempts at non-conforming crosswalks. In the real world chaos of Minneapolis in 2026, this is a productive, on-the-ground change.”