News has confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations targeting Somali immigrants are underway in the Twin Cities.
The expanded enforcement follows President Trump’s recent remarks, saying, “I don’t want [Somalis] in our country.”
In a Thanksgiving post — where he also used a slur for people with intellectual disabilities to refer to Gov. Tim Walz — Mr. Trump claimed Somali refugees are “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota.”
Mr. Trump also previously ordered all green card holders from Somalia and more than a dozen other countries to be reexamined, adding that he planned to end temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota.
Earlier this month, a U.S. official said ICE was preparing to surge resources into the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to target individuals with deportation orders. A person familiar with the planning said hundreds of people were expected to be targeted.
Federal agents use pepper spray on crowd in Cedar-Riverside neighborhood
Federal agents deployed pepper spray to push through an angry crowd that blocked their vehicles while they checked identifications in a heavily Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis on Tuesday.
City Council Member Jamal Osman, a Somali American representing the area, witnessed the confrontation, as did an Associated Press videographer.
ICE officials said via email that they made no arrests in the neighborhood Tuesday, offering no additional details.
Osman said armed ICE agents entered East African restaurants, closed the doors and demanded IDs. They found only U.S. citizens and made no arrests, Osman said.
“Luckily, everyone had their passport, because I’ve been telling them to have their passport with them,” he said.
Agents also checked IDs of people stopped randomly on the street and temporarily detained at least one U.S. citizen.
Osman said the agents then drove seven to 10 vehicles to a nearby city-owned senior housing complex. There, a group of mostly white young people he called “heroes” blew whistles to warn residents and confronted the agents. The agents responded with pepper spray.
“Thank God so many people showed up there,” Osman said. “(The agents) couldn’t get out of there because people showed up with their cars and whistles.”
Osman said he saw residents suffering from pepper spray exposure. He also spoke with a Somali American man who was dragged to a vehicle, detained, taken to an ICE center and released only after officials reviewed his U.S. passport and fingerprinted him. He was told to find his own ride home — about six miles away in snowy conditions.
“I just don’t know what they accomplished today other than the chaos,” Osman said.
ICE targets Augsburg student on campus, university says
Augsburg University in Minneapolis says ICE agents targeted one of its undergraduate students on Saturday.
In a statement, the university said agents confronted the student and others outside a residence hall.
“They aimed weapons at witnesses that included staff and students while many more students watched from their windows,” the university said, calling the incident “unacceptable, dangerous and profoundly disturbing.”
A DHS spokesperson said agents arrested the student, claiming a school administrator and campus security attempted to obstruct the arrest.
According to DHS, agents told the administrator they had a warrant for the student, but the administrator said the agents were violating university policies.
“Our officers informed them that federal law supersedes any University policy and that if campus security would not stop blocking the law enforcement vehicle from exiting, they would be obstructing justice,” the spokesperson said.
The administrator ordered campus security to stand in front of the vehicle, but the agents eventually left.
The university disputes DHS’s account, saying the agents refused to provide a judicial warrant and admitted they did not have one, despite entering private property.
WCCO also asked DHS to provide the warrant but received no response.
DHS claimed the targeted student is a registered sex offender. However, WCCO reviewed public records and found only recent traffic tickets and a DWI — with no evidence he is a convicted sex offender in Minnesota or on the national registry.
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