Team USA Banned After Secret Anti-ICE Message Discovered

A peaceful winter festival turned into a political firestorm. Team USA’s snow sculpture was ripped out of competition. Judges discovered a hidden message calling out ICE.

The piece, titled A Call to Arms, was supposed to be a simple display of interlocking hands. But halfway through carving, the hands began forming American Sign Language symbols. Organizers claim the symbols spelled out phrases like “ICE out.” This message is quietly spreading through immigrant-rights groups after a series of controversial ICE operations in the Midwest.

“It did not comply with the rules. Period,” said Robin Anthony-Evenson, president of the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce. She said the moment complaints poured in, officials knew they had a problem on their hands — literally. “These competitions cannot contain political messages. We were stunned.”

Team USA captain Dusty Thune tells a very different story.

He says his crew didn’t set out to create political art. But the snow — brittle, dirty, and collapsing under pressure — forced them to rebuild. And while carving, they couldn’t ignore what had just rocked Minnesota: the fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Good, whose death triggered protests from Minneapolis to Duluth.

“Sometimes the medium decides for you,” Thune said. “And sometimes the world around you pushes its way into the artwork whether you planned for it or not.”

Thune says the ASL gestures weren’t meant to provoke, but to acknowledge what Minnesotans are living through. “People here are scared,” he said. “We thought maybe a quiet message of unity and resistance would bring comfort. Instead, they tore it down.”

Officials didn’t just remove the coded hands. They pulled the entire sculpture out of the ground — a rare and dramatic step in the competition’s history.

“In hindsight, we should have taken it down right away,” Anthony-Evenson admitted. “We were trying to be nice.”

The international panel of judges then moved on without Team USA.
Canada won.
The United States didn’t even place.

The controversy didn’t end there.

Just hours later, a separate snow sculpture was disqualified. This occurred miles away at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for displaying “Ice Out MN”. This suggested the message wasn’t a one-off. It was part of a growing wave of artistic protest against the aggressive expansion of ICE enforcement under Trump.

Immigrant-rights advocates say the heavy-handed reaction proves their point.

“Imagine being so afraid of a snow sculpture. You haul it away like a threat,” said Minneapolis organizer Carla Medina. “Art is reflecting the crisis this administration created. And they can’t handle it.”

Thune now plans to recast A Call to Arms in iron and install it in Minneapolis.

“If they won’t let it stand in the snow,” he said, “we’ll make it stand forever.”

In a year defined by protests, raids, and a fierce battle over immigration rights, even a snow festival in Minnesota can’t escape. The political freeze is sweeping America.