Human Impact Project

ICE enforcement operations in Minnesota during January 2026 resulted in the detention of at least seven students from Columbia Heights Public Schools, including a five-year-old boy. The operations included stops of individuals without confirmed identity verification and stops of off-duty police officers, with agents staging on school grounds and in neighborhoods. St. Paul and Brooklyn Park police chiefs acknowledged concerns about racial profiling and potential civil rights violations. School officials reported the year was "tumultuous," with students and families experiencing ongoing negative impacts and fears about student retention.

William Vermie, a 39-year-old Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was tackled and detained by ICE agents while standing on a public sidewalk in Minneapolis observing agents detain two young men during an operation the government called Operation Metro Surge. He was taken to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building and held for eight hours without being allowed to contact an attorney or his family, despite repeatedly requesting legal representation and his wife having already secured a lawyer on his behalf. DHS said Vermie was arrested for allegedly assaulting a law enforcement officer. Four attorneys told ABC News they were denied access to clients held at the same facility, with multiple attorneys reporting similar complaints from others arrested in recent Minneapolis ICE operations and alleging violations of Fifth and Sixth Amendment due process and right-to-counsel protections.

ICE agents detained five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father at their home in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, using the child as bait to gain entry despite the family having an active asylum case and no deportation order. Federal agents have detained children as young as four years old in ICE custody.

Former Customs and Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino is under criminal investigation for throwing a gas canister at protesters and observers in Minneapolis' Mueller Park on January 21, 2026. Video footage documents Bovino deploying the canister, which released green gas potentially containing carcinogenic substances. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced the investigation as part of 17 criminal cases involving potentially unlawful conduct by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge.

The Bishop Henry Whipple Building in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, which currently serves as a major immigration enforcement processing center, is located on Bdóte, a Dakota creation site that in 1862 became a concentration camp imprisoning thousands of Dakota and Ho-Chunk people during the Dakota Indian Wars. Local residents first raised concerns about the building's use for immigration detainment in 2019. In early 2026, at least three Indigenous people—Jose Ramirez (Red Lake descendant), a Dakota woman, and reportedly four Lakota men—were detained at the building, with Ramirez held for six hours following a confrontation with immigration officials.

Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen born in Minnesota, was detained by ICE agents on January 15, 2026, after being caught in a parking lot during agents' pursuit of two other men. She says agents handcuffed her and forced her to the ground, causing cuts, bruises, and a head injury that led to a concussion. While held at Sherburne County Jail, Ahmed had a seizure and was taken to a hospital in shackles for an MRI. She says an officer used a racial slur against her during the encounter. Ahmed was released after two days without being charged. Minnesota Rep. Samakab Hussein held a press conference where Ahmed shared her account of the detention.

A man who has lived in the United States since 1987 was detained by ICE in Minnesota on January 21, 2026, and is currently held in El Paso, Texas. He was pressured into signing a voluntary removal document while detained and without legal counsel, facing deportation to Vietnam despite not having lived there since the 1980s and lacking citizenship there. He had been complying with immigration supervision for years without missing check-ins.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers handcuffed and detained two teenagers in south Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon. One teenager was detained on Blaisdell Avenue while their passenger, who witnessed the incident, was left crying in their vehicle.

Federal immigration agents in Minnesota stopped an off-duty police officer, drew guns, and prevented her from recording the interaction, according to local police chiefs. The chiefs stated that immigration agents have been stopping American citizens without cause. The incidents occur as part of "Operation Metro Surge," which federal authorities describe as an immigration enforcement operation.

On January 18, 2026, ICE agents raided the Saint Paul, Minnesota home of ChongLy Scott Thao, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, pointing guns at family members and handcuffing him without a warrant in front of his 5-year-old grandson. After fingerprinting confirmed his citizenship, ICE released him without apology or explanation. The incident prompted a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where ICE St. Paul field office director David Easterwood serves as a pastor. Federal prosecutors subsequently charged dozens of protesters—reported as 30 or 39 depending on the source—under statutes criminalizing interference with religious freedom, including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, and photographer Junn Bollman. The arrests of the journalists drew condemnation from press freedom advocates.

Video shows an ICE agent entering Thai restaurant Eastside Thai in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his handgun drawn while searching for a person who had run past the restaurant. Co-owner Kou Lee said the agent accused them of hiding "the kid," while co-owner Elle Lee said the agent was shouting as he entered and that multiple customers and staff were traumatized. Elle Lee said the incident disrupted her business and left staff hesitant to return to work, with some employees showing up worried and scared despite needing to pay bills. St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her told PBS Newshour that "people are afraid, they are frustrated, they are angry" regarding immigration enforcement in the area.

A 62-year-old Somali elder was detained by ICE agents at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis on December 31 without a warrant. ICE officers remained at the patient's bedside for approximately 28 hours while she received medical care. During her detention, the patient was allegedly shackled to her hospital bed and denied family visits. She was subsequently transported to the ICU where she remains unresponsive.

A family of eight, including six children ranging from 6 months to 11 years old, was returning from a basketball game in Minneapolis when their vehicle became trapped between ICE agents and protesters. Federal agents deployed tear gas canisters directly into the car, causing the 6-month-old infant to stop breathing; the mother performed CPR on the baby inside the vehicle. All six children were hospitalized with breathing problems. Bystanders helped evacuate the children from the tear gas-filled car. The incident occurred during protests that followed an ICE shooting in the city.

ICE agents conducted an enforcement action in Minneapolis that resulted in the detention of a man and caused injuries to multiple children present at the scene. During the incident, ICE agents smashed a car window containing six children, including a 6-month-old who lost consciousness and was hospitalized after exposure to tear gas and a flash bang device. A 16-year-old U.S. citizen was allegedly placed in a chokehold during the encounter, and his phone was reportedly confiscated and sold to a used electronics vending machine. The family was returning home from a basketball game when they became trapped in the area where the enforcement action was occurring.

Sophie Watso, a 30-year-old Mdewakanton Dakota woman, was detained by ICE agents on January 14, 2026, after monitoring immigration enforcement activity in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. During her arrest, agents broke her truck windows and physically restrained her while she held her dog. She was charged under U.S. Code 18 Section 111 for allegedly obstructing a federal investigation, though no formal charges were filed. She was held for over 48 hours at Fort Snelling's Whipple Building and Sherbourne County Jail before being released on January 16, 2026, without charges being formally filed.

Garrison Gibson, a 37-year-old Liberian national living in north Minneapolis, was arrested on January 11, 2026, when immigration agents used a battering ram to break into his home. Gibson had been living legally under an order of supervision and had regularly checked in with immigration authorities, including days before his arrest. According to his account, agents took trophy photos during the raid and held him in an overcrowded cell afterward. The agents acted on an administrative warrant rather than a judicial search warrant. Four days later, a federal judge ordered Gibson's release, ruling that agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights by entering his home without consent or a judicial warrant.

Liborio Parral Ortiz and Bonfilia Sanchez Dominguez, a married couple from Mounds View, Minnesota, were stopped by ICE agents early Thursday morning while driving to Mercy Hospital's Unity Campus in Fridley because Sanchez Dominguez was experiencing back pain. ICE immediately detained Parral Ortiz and transported him to El Paso, Texas within 20 hours, separating him from his wife who remained hospitalized. According to their daughter Shelly Parral Ortiz, ICE agents were posted outside the mother's hospital room, and hospital staff told the family they would not be allowed to return to visit if they left. Security staff also threatened to arrest the family's lawyer when he attempted to speak with Sanchez Dominguez.

Recent violent incidents involving ICE agents in Minneapolis and other cities have prompted scrutiny of federal immigration officer training and use-of-force protocols. An ICE officer fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Macklin Good, and another Department of Homeland Security officer shot a man in the leg during an arrest. Experts and advocates are questioning how officers are trained to conduct arrests and engage with citizens and protesters.

Photographer John Abernathy was detained by federal ICE agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on January 15 while documenting protests. During the confrontation, Abernathy threw his camera to a fellow photojournalist. He sustained injuries including chemical burns, pepper bullet wounds, and abrasions, and received a citation but no court date.

ICE agents detained Sebastian, a 16-year-old Ecuadorian asylum-seeker, in Minneapolis in January 2026 during an interior arrest while he was driving alone, seizing his phone after he called his father. Despite his father living in the U.S., Sebastian was labeled an "unaccompanied minor" and transferred to the Bridgeway shelter in Michigan, making it difficult for his family and attorneys to locate him. The case illustrates how the "unaccompanied minor" designation can impede family unity protections and legal access even when a parent resides in the country. While in custody, Sebastian reported receiving vaccines without consent.