A Feb. 7 protest at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis became decidedly phallic when hundreds of protestors chucked purple and pink dildos at vehicles driving out of the gates of the facility that houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) office.

“Fuck you” chants resounded as the dildos bounced off a sheriff’s SUV. Police scrambled to gather the dildos and toss them over a fence, away from the protestors screaming “eat a dick.”

Since early January, near daily protests in Minneapolis have demanded an end to the federal occupation of the city, where 3,000 immigration agents were deployed until a drawdown in late February. The protestors have been largely non-violent. The ICE agents have not, leading to the killings of two local residents, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.

This particular anti-ICE protest employed an unlikely projectile: the humble rubber shaft.

Operation Dildo Blitz

The Minneapolis dildo protest was the brainchild of Rook T. Winchester, a pseudonym for a man who declined to use his legal name for safety reasons.

Much like Portland’s inflatable “protest frogs” and Chicago’s speedo-clad demonstrator, the point of “Operation Dildo Blitz” is what’s known as tactical frivolity—that is, a funny form of protest meant to expose as absurd the government’s claims that protesters are dangerous or violent.

Protesting absurdly, Winchester believes, also irks the immigration agents in a particular way. Mockery, he told Rewire News Group, is “kryptonite for these fascists.”

He got the idea after meeting a young woman during a prayer vigil outside the Florida ICE detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” After her father was arrested by ICE and transported to that facility, she moved in with a conservative aunt who supports President Donald Trump.

The aunt later kicked her out for being outspoken about her political beliefs, Winchester recalled. In response, the woman “put a suction cup dildo on her aunt’s door as a message for her to … go fuck herself,” Winchester said. He decided dildos could send a similar signal in Minneapolis.

One of the anti-ICE protestors, Russell “Jolly” Ellis, nicknamed the action “Operation Dildo Blitz” in a nod to Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s aggressive September 2025 immigration enforcement operation in Chicago.

This is not the first time sex toys have been used as a political message.

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