Brittney Griner desires Americans to know one thing essential about what’s occurring in Minneapolis proper now.

The WNBA celebrity spent 10 months locked up in Russian prisons and sees disturbing similarities between her expertise and the federal immigration raids tearing by Minnesota.

Griner’s new ESPN documentary The Brittney Griner Story premieres at Sundance this week. The movie chronicles her nightmare detention in Russia from February 2022 till her December prisoner swap for arms supplier Viktor Bout.

But Griner believes her story carries pressing classes concerning the ICE surge at the moment terrorizing Twin Cities communities.

“I hope this film can shed some light into what it could be like if we keep letting this happen,” Griner advised The Hollywood Reporter. “Right now, we’re in a very bad place, especially with everything that’s going on in Minnesota and just across our country.”

The Phoenix Mercury middle attracts direct connections between Russian authoritarianism and Operation Metro Surge. Federal brokers have flooded Minneapolis since December 2025, conducting militarized raids that mirror techniques Griner skilled firsthand in Putin’s system.

“I definitely think people will understand a little bit more now and be able to see some comparisons,” she defined.

Griner’s Russian ordeal started with a minor hashish possession cost at Moscow’s airport. What adopted was psychological warfare designed to interrupt her spirit.

Guards compelled her to strip bare whereas male prisoners watched and took pictures. She endured filthy situations, illness, and fixed surveillance in a brutal penal colony.

Those similar dehumanizing techniques are taking part in out in Minneapolis at the moment.

Operation Metro Surge has deployed 1000’s of armed, masked DHS brokers who conduct warrantless arrests and use extreme drive in opposition to peaceable protesters. The federal lawsuit filed by Minnesota’s Attorney General describes brokers pointing weapons at harmless bystanders and concentrating on folks primarily based on their look.

“Many United States citizens have been the victims of unlawful racial profiling by DHS agents due to the color of their skin,” the lawsuit states. One ICE agent reportedly detained somebody as a result of “I can hear you don’t have the same accent as me.”

Griner understands that concentrating on intimately.

Russian authorities weaponized her identification as a Black, homosexual American athlete. Putin’s regime used her as a political pawn whereas subjecting her to degrading therapy designed to strip away her humanity.

“They strip it really quick and really well,” Griner recalled in her memoir Coming Home. “You have nothing. It’s like, here’s a toothbrush and some toothpaste and toilet paper. Just those three necessities right there.”

Minneapolis residents are experiencing comparable terror techniques. Schools have gone into lockdown to guard college students from federal brokers.

Businesses report income drops of 50-80% as prospects concern ICE violence. Local police have labored over 3,000 additional time hours responding to the hell brought on by federal operations.

Director Alexandria Stapleton is coming off the unbelievable success of her documentary with 50 Cent, Sean Combs: The Reckoning. Stapleton believes the documentary’s timing makes its message much more highly effective.

“When we started, so much of BG’s story was still very foreign,” Stapleton stated. “And now to rewatch it and be in the midst of everything that’s exploding in Minnesota and all throughout the United States, it’s crazy.”

The Brittney Griner Story airs on ESPN later this 12 months following its Sundance premiere.

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