ICE Agents Alter Tactics, Work With Impunity While Violating US Citizen’s Rights in Minnesota

Twin Cities, MN – Under the Trump Administration’s quota-driven mass deportation plan, separation ordinances and legal protections no longer appear to matter. On January 7, an ICE agent shot and killed an observer near 33rd Street and Portland Ave., only the most recent in a series of abuses of power that have steadily mounted in recent weeks. The Minneapolis Police Department once again appeared on the scene for “crowd control” after federal agents sprayed chemicals on residents who responded to the shooting – part of a larger pattern in Minnesota of integrated police actions between federal, county and local law enforcement.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office have recently been working hand-in-hand with federal agents. Together they detained a U.S. citizen and responded to a 9-1-1 call from a DHS agent while protests broke out as agents dragged a pregnant woman through the snow on December 15.

Additionally, a former cop-turned-construction worker with a third-party removal protection status who previously turned down offers to work with gangs inside El Salvador’s corrupt police force, now faces deportation back to El Salvador despite a legal status meant to bar it.

Community Member Detained After Observing Agents Dec. 26

On Dec. 26, federal agents followed Joseph Boman into the Minnoco gas station at the corner of Penn Avenue and West 68th Street in Richfield, Minnesota.

“I’m getting gas and two officers in a black Nissan pickup just pulled up next to me taking photos,” Boman said.

A Nissan truck with federal agents leaves a gas station after taking pictures of an observer.

Boman, an observer acting as part of the Twin Cities sprawling activist community, filled up his tank and left Minnoco.

He trailed a couple of ICE vehicles who entered the restricted area at Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling, where migrants are detained for a maximum of 12 days before being transferred to a county jail while awaiting deportation.

Boman pulled into the private parking lot across the street where Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies were waiting to arrest him.

Activists stationed outside Whipple are tasked with observing any unconstitutional actions from federal agents and they were not aware that Boman was arrested.

Videos and photos obtained by Unicorn Riot show a black Nissan trailing Boman as he enters Minnoco and the same black pickup truck entering Whipple.

“They have to get other law enforcement agencies involved, and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s [Office] is one of the departments in the area that is willing to work with ICE because Minneapolis Police, they’re hands-off,” Boman told Status Coup days later. “They’re not touching anything that ICE is trying to get them to do. So [federal immigration agents] have to rely on the sheriff’s [office].”

Federal agents appear to be attempting to sidestep an updated ordinance that restricts Minneapolis police from cooperating with ICE.

A Nissan truck with federal agents pulls in to the Whipple federal building after following an observer who was then arrested by Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies.

Roles of MPD & Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, ICE & DHS Questioned

While in Minneapolis conducting detainments on Dec. 15, a DHS agent contacted the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office for crowd control after reporting that an agent had been pelted with snowballs.

Two ICE agents were attempting to arrest a pregnant woman at the corner of 29th Street and Pillsbury Avenue when crowds surrounded the duo. Elda Barreto and Mayra Guevara said they witnessed agents breaking a car window before wrestling a pregnant woman to the ground.

“They were starting to resist inside and they broke the window,” Guevara said. “Then they start taking them out, and that’s when they start fighting on the snow and push[ed] them.”

An ICE agent has his foot on the back of a pregnant woman on Dec. 15 in Minneapolis. ICE agents pepper spraying activists who were filming and documenting ICE actions. Hennepin Co. Sheriffs show up after an agent called saying they were being assaulted by protesters lobbing snowballs at them.

A DHS agent called Hennepin County Dispatch to request assistance, claiming calls to MPD were ignored. “I got forwarded to Minneapolis and they’re not answering their phone,” a DHS agent said during a call published by Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office uploaded to social media.

Immigration activists suspect a new trend has emerged following the city’s update to its two-decade-old separation ordinance: Hennepin County Sheriff’s assisting ICE and DHS.

Around the country, 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement bolster ICE activity.

Minneapolis Police were criticized for doing crowd control work during a raid by the Homeland Security Task Force in early June at a business on the corner of Lake and Bloomington where the community responded to what they thought was an immigration raid. A City Auditor report said that Minneapolis didn’t violate the city’s outdated separation ordinance.

MPD has taken a backseat since updating their separation ordinance against ICE. After the raid on 29th and Pillsbury, Minneapolis Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell sent a memo telling MPD cops they aren’t allowed to assist federal agents with immigration enforcement.

“Members of the MPD shall not self-deploy to any related immigration enforcement activity,” the memo reads. “We remain committed to supporting public safety and maintaining trust within our communities.”

While Minneapolis police appear to have tightened internal restrictions on cooperation with ICE, St. Paul police have taken a different direction. On Nov. 25, St. Paul cops appeared alongside federal agents on Rose Avenue in the Payne‑Phalen neighborhood using pepper spray and other chemical irritants against protesters, press and elected officials.

Family Says Immigrant Taken in St. Paul Despite Protection Status

About three weeks later, Carly Kryzer’s brother-in-law, Jose, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of retaliation, was detained by federal agents while getting lunch at Lomabonita in East St. Paul.

Jose, a former Salvadoran police officer who fled his home country, has lived in the Twin Cities for more than a decade under withholding of removal protection. This status is narrower than asylum but based on a higher legal standard of danger that bars him from being deported to El Salvador.

“He [doesn’t] even [have] a parking ticket, speeding ticket. He has [an] absolutely clean record. He has been a pastor at his church,” Kryzer said. She added that Jose “works full time, and he has helped raise and support my sister and her four kids the last 12 years, [a] really outstanding community member.”

Kryzer said Jose fled El Salvador after being targeted by MS-13 because he refused to participate in corruption tied to the gang’s influence while he was a police officer.

“He was fleeing his country of El Salvador because he was a police officer, an outstanding police officer who was not corrupt, who was fighting against the MS-13 gang,” Kryzer said.

MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational gang that originated in Los Angeles and later expanded across Central America. For years, the group has wielded significant control over neighborhoods in El Salvador through violence, extortion and intimidation, contributing to some of the world’s highest homicide rates and forcing many people to flee the country.

While El Salvador’s current government has promoted a hard-line crackdown on the gang, investigative reporting by ProPublica in June detailed evidence from a long-running U.S. investigation that raised questions about whether senior Salvadoran officials secretly negotiated with MS-13 leaders in the early years of President Nayib Bukele’s administration. U.S. investigators suspected that gang leaders agreed to reduce violence and deliver political support in exchange for protection from extradition and other benefits — allegations Bukele has repeatedly denied, according to ProPublica.

“So he fled to the U.S. because he has connections here, family to get away from being murdered. He got caught here without documentation,” Kryzer said.

The Washington Post reported that during negotiations over the use of El Salvador’s sprawling Terrorism Confinement Center, commonly known as CECOT, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told President Bukele he would work to terminate Justice Department protections for several MS-13 gang leaders who had been serving as informants in U.S. investigations so they could be returned to El Salvador.

Kryzer said that immigration protections may exist on paper, but whether they’re respected depends largely on who’s in the White House.

Since receiving his immigration status in 2012, Jose has complied with all requirements. “He has to report and check in with his immigration officer. I think every year he literally has to send in some type of documentation,” Kryzer said. “He has to document, and he has done everything to the T so that’s him in a nutshell.”

In early December, Jose was getting lunch for his co-workers when federal agents pulled him over. “He thinks it’s the police. He pulls over, and in the video, they get out, open his door, tell him to get out, and then immediately, like, you can see, they’re like, telling him to get in the back of the car, and they’re like guiding him. There’s no like talking, there’s no checking ID. They just get in the car.”

Videos show Jose being detained and agents taking his vehicle. “Then you can see an ICE agent jump into his car and takes off with it, and they dumped it on a side street, Margaret Street and White Bear Avenue in East St. Paul,” Kryzer said.

A video uploaded to social media shows Jose being detained by federal agents as they drive off with his car.

The family discovered the abandoned vehicle through a civilian’s video posted on social media. “We noticed in the video, a really long house with a long fence, and as we were driving around the neighborhood looking, Rachel, my niece, was like, ‘there’s the house,’” Kryzer said. “So we took a right, and there was this car.” They found the vehicle “left unlocked with all of his roofing tools, construction tools.”

Vehicle abandonment appears to be a common tactic used by ICE agents. On Dec. 9, agents pulled over a woman at the intersection of 38th Street and Hiawatha Avenue. Photos obtained by Unicorn Riot show a red Mitsubishi sedan left running, with no responders called. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety did not return requests for comment.

*A red Mitsubishi sedan sits idle on the corner of 38^th and Hiawatha after a woman was detained. No responders were called.*

For Jose, the financial burden of fighting his case has been overwhelming for the family.

“It cost $500 just to initially work with [Jose’s lawyer Katherine Santamaria], right? I mean, it costs money. So this is why I’m so scared for other people that don’t have the resources our family does and how we pull together,” Kryzer said.

The family paid $3,000 for a habeas corpus petition to prevent Jose from being transferred out of state, as “people in his situation are moving within less than a week, they go into Whipple. They go into the county jail, and they’re gone. They ship them right away to a different state or country.”

A habeas corpus petition can be critical because it is often the only legal mechanism to stop ICE from quickly transferring a detainee, which can severely limit access to attorneys, family support and local courts.

Limited Access to Legal Assistance for Immigrant Detainees

People held in ICE detention and those facing immigration court proceedings do not have a right to a government-appointed attorney (commonly known as a public defender) if they cannot afford one, unlike in criminal cases. Congress provides limited funding for immigration legal services, but those programs reach only a small portion of people in detention.

Congress set aside $29 million a year to fund programs that provide legal services to immigration services. Minneapolis set aside $500,000 to expand immigrant legal services through the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs. St. Paul has set aside $175,000 to the Immigration Defense Fund and $125,000 to support the Naturalization Support Fund.

Advocacy groups and federal data show that immigrants transferred to remote detention centers in states such as Texas, Louisiana and Arizona are far less likely to obtain legal representation, in part because those facilities are located hours from major cities and nonprofit legal providers. Multiple studies, including reports from Human Rights First and the American Immigration Council, have found that detainees held in these states are more likely to be deported because cases move faster and access to attorneys, family support and evidence is severely limited.

Jose’s detention has left his wife, Kryzer’s sister Maggie, without financial support as she recovers from major surgery. The family had been set to close on a Habitat for Humanity home on Dec. 18, but now faces potential homelessness.

Jose’s case highlights another intensifying trend under Trump’s second term: the use of third-country removal to deport migrants, including those with legal protections like asylum or withholding of removal, to countries other than their own. By rapidly deporting migrants under these “third-country” arrangements, the administration has created a system in which speed and political agreements increasingly outweigh due process and human safety.

Clint Combs covers activist movements, local government and national security. Follow him on Bluesky or the site formerly known as Twitter. Contact him at ClintonCombs@proton.me or securely via Signal (username): Combs0294.79.

Correction: The cross street of the fatal shooting was incorrectly put as avenue due to an editing error.