Federal Agent in Coon Rapids: ‘The more people that you lose in Minnesota, you then lose a voting right to stay blue.’
Coon Rapids, MN — A masked federal agent in a convenience store parking lot in the northern Twin Cities suburb of Coon Rapids told legal observers that Minnesota’s status as a blue state is linked with the removal of residents, on a video provided to Unicorn Riot. He also conceded that the Trump-era anti-immigrant program is more violent than the Obama-era equivalent.
This is the first time we are aware that any federal agent in the Twin Cities campaign has connected the federal immigration campaign with Minnesota’s political alignment as a “blue” Democratic Party-leaning state.
Amid a running car engine and three-way conversation cross-talk, the federal agent talks about “blue state media” and “voting rights.”
Federal agent in Coon Rapids via Vimeo.
One of the observers, who posts videos of federal agents in Anoka County at @ethicallyunbothered on TikTok, said this was recorded at 4 p.m. on February 4 at the 1 Stop Convenience, 10635 Quince St. NW in Coon Rapids.
She told Unicorn Riot, “I felt it was important because we’ve been seeing all over the media” from the Trump Administration “that this is strictly about removing people who came into our country illegally, and also saying they’re removing violent criminals, worst of the worst,” as the government’s reasoning.
“Hearing from a federal agent actively out here detaining people, I thought it was very surprising to hear that essentially their plan is to take away as much of our voters as possible so our state can’t remain blue.”
An approximate transcript:
Agent: What would make the difference in this happening in the Obama administration. And then this Administration?
Yosie Alvarez: Because the Obama Administration wasn’t out on patrolling, wasting our tax money…
Ethicallyunbothered: That’s the stark difference, is that there wasn’t this much violence when it was under Obama. That’s the that’s the stark difference.
Alvarez: Funding people that don’t have education…
Agent: OK [nods and points at observer 1]. That is true. This administration has been more transparent than the Biden administration, or the Obama administration.
Alvarez: How with no warrants? How??
Ethicallyunbothered: Well, I would love to talk about that more. Can you tell me more what you mean by that? Like, what specifically do you feel like Trump’s been more transparent with?
Agent: Every time we made a serious arrest against a criminal alien, we [inaudible] put it out, alright? But the media does not want to show you that, especially blue state media. Because it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Ethicallyunbothered: Yeah.
Alvarez: Y’all hear him, he said the media doesn’t want to show us everything, this man corrupted as fuck. He’s corrupted, he’s corrupted.
Agent: The reason why, and I’m going to be completely honest with you, the reason why they don’t want the population [inaudible]…
Ethicallyunbothered: Can I step up closer so I can hear you?
Alvarez: He’s so corrupted, he’s saying that the media doesn’t want us to see the stuff. The ‘k out of here, bro.
Agent: Yeah. The reason why they don’t want the population to go down in Minnesota is the more people that you lose in Minnesota, you then lose a voting right to stay blue. This is exactly why…
Ethicallyunbothered: Well, if you’re only taking illegals, we’re not losing any voters.
Agent: That’s wrong because technically they’re trying to pass a bill that [inaudible] require you to be a United States citizen to vote in an election.
Alvarez: No you’re not even on my conversation, he’s just saying everything I am saying is false. Fucker doesn’t even know what the fuck he is talking about.
Ethicallyunbothered: Oh, really? I didn’t hear about that.
Agent: Yeah.
Ethicallyunbothered: That’s interesting. I didn’t know about that.
Alvarez: I’ll give you guys the plate quick, and then I’m a dip, because you’re just a waste of my fuckin’ time.
Observers in the suburbs face different challenges than in the inner metro area. Ethicallyunbothered said, “I actively engage in, I guess, patrolling, constitutional observing, however you want to phrase it. I was out patrolling the area I live in, noticed that there was a vehicle that had a license plate” on a local lookup site “as confirmed ICE.”
The vehicle, a gray Dodge Durango with Texas plate GNC6164 has been spotted several times at the Whipple Federal Building, Hopkins and Saint Anthony Village. “So I stayed there and also notified a friend of mine that I buddy up with when I do these patrollings. She approached the vehicle first.”
“In the beginning,” she said, “the agent asks me” about differences between the Obama Administration and the current administration, “and when I said the violence, the agent agreed with me, you’re right, that is true. If you can agree that there is a significant amount of documented violence going on, why are they not doing anything to put a stop to it? In [another part of] the same video he said we never brutalize anyone.”
She added that federal agents have moved more into the suburbs in the last two weeks. “They initially started in Minneapolis,” after a couple weeks she has “seen it come into the more suburban areas. Since about the middle of January is when I start having videos” at places where ICE is, “just recording and observing. I would say it has picked up in suburban areas in the last two weeks.”
On Feb. 5, ICE was “active in Coon Rapids, several sightings in Riverdale, two days ago at Camelot Square Apartments. There was five vehicles [or] five vehicles; they split up two agents to each vehicle, one had one.” The “interesting” element was that, “the day prior at Fridley Terrace in Fridley, I recorded those same agents in the same vehicles. They were a lot more aggressive in that situation I would say.”
Trump Administration links ICE operation to voting rights and privacy in Minnesota
Attorney General Pam Bondi made it explicit that the executive branch is pressuring Minnesota to give up voter data in a controversial letter (pdf) that Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, has talked about in federal court when seeking to suspend the federal operation; he described it as “clearly coercion” (Democracy Now, 1/27).
After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment said the “whole number of persons in each state” should be counted. The agent’s statement that “the more people that you lose in Minnesota, you then lose a voting right to stay blue” could be a reference to deportations changing the “apportionment” of seats in Congress every decade. Last August, President Trump also demanded a new U.S. Census that would exclude millions of people living in the country without legal status, (NPR, 8/7/25; CBS News 8/1/25). The Trump Administration tried to include a citizenship question on the Census in 2020 but was defeated. Last year, Republicans proposed bills to exclude non-citizens from the apportionment of seats in the U.S. House, which uses Census data.
When the agent says “Technically, they’re trying to pass a bill that’s [inaudible] requires you to be a United States citizen to vote in an election,” it is difficult to hear for certain if he means a bill would make it possible for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Currently this is false: Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal in the United States. On the other hand, Conservatives have been pushing bills to make it tougher for citizens to vote, including the “SAVE Act.” These bills would impose substantial new barriers on U.S. citizens who don’t have access to birth certificates, passports, and documents verifying marital name changes. Wildly false claims about noncitizen voting have been a fixture of Trump administration rhetoric, often mixed with “great replacement” style white supremacist conspiracy theories. [A few local areas allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.]
The Brennan Center provided a timeline of the Trump Administration’s attempts to intervene in Minnesota’s election systems:
“On June 25, 2025, the Civil Rights Division requested Minnesota’s statewide voter registration list and information on the state’s compliance with federal laws related to the verification of voter registration information and list maintenance.
On July 25, 2025, Minnesota refused to share its statewide voter registration list, citing state and federal privacy laws, and responded to the Civil Rights Division’s questions about its list-maintenance procedures.
On August 13, 2025, the Civil Rights Division threatened to sue Minnesota if it did not provide full access to its complete statewide voter registration list, including sensitive personal information.
On August 21, 2025, Minnesota again refused to share its complete statewide voter registration list and directed the Civil Rights Division to the publicly available version.
On September 25, 2025, the Civil Rights Division sued Minnesota and its secretary of state for refusing to provide the complete statewide voter registration list.
On September 25, 2025, Minnesota’s secretary of state indicated that he intends to defend against the United States’ lawsuit.
On January 2, 2026, the Civil Rights Division requested “all records” related to same day registration in all federal elections from the last 22 months.
In a January 24 letter to Minnesota governor Tim Walz about ICE’s presence in Minneapolis, Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated a demand that Minnesota turn over its complete voter rolls.”
Brennan Center, Tracker of Justice Department Requests for Voter Information
The letter from Bondi (pdf) declared “The out of control fraud in your state also implicates election security.” This statement is linked to a press release about two men charged last year with submitting false voter registrations who were allegedly caught. Bondi also demanded that Governor Tim Walz “allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Fulfilling this common sense request will better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.” Walz doesn’t administer these systems.
Unicorn Riot has requested comment from the office of Steve Simon, the Minnesota Secretary of State. Simon responded to the Bondi letter earlier, saying it “is an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law. This comes after repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data.”
Around the country, state-level political impacts linked to the Trump Administration’s hardline immigration program are getting more attention. Emails showed that Montana recently agreed to give up its voter data to the Department of Justice, although the governor is denying the data was released. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade quipped on his podcast, “They’re winding down a little in Maine to help Senator Susan Collins, who’s gonna be in a tough fight to keep her seat.”
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