Human Impact Project

A shackled immigration detainee was thrown to the ground and placed in a WRAP full-body restraint device before being carried onto an ICE Air deportation flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Observers said it was the first time they had seen the restraint device used during an ICE Air operation in Minnesota. The detainee was one of three people reportedly unloaded in Minnesota via El Paso, Texas or Omaha, Nebraska that day.

Jeyli Salguero, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was asleep at her family's Minneapolis-area home in January 2026 when armed federal agents broke through the front door searching for her brother, who did not live there. Salguero said she told agents she was a citizen with the right to record, after which they seized her phone; she and her mother were released about half an hour later. Her father, who held temporary protected status, and her undocumented sister were detained in the raid, leaving the family's door broken and exposed to winter weather. Her sister was later deported to El Salvador, while her father was eventually released from detention. Salguero is now one of several plaintiffs, represented by Protect Democracy, the ACLU of Minnesota and Dorsey & Whitney, suing the federal government over a DHS memo allowing ICE agents to enter homes using administrative rather than judicial warrants. The lawsuit is part of broader legal challenges to immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis.

In January, hours after Renee Good's killing, immigration agents tackled and handcuffed a school staff member in Minneapolis. "I feel lucky to be alive," he recalled, describing the encounter as terrifying.

Luis Caiza, an asylum seeker from Ecuador with a work permit and no criminal record, was pulled from his car and thrown to the ground during a traffic stop in Maple Grove, Minnesota, part of ICE's Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities. His wife, Marjorie Flores, said officers kneed and kicked him while he was down, then pulled her from the car, threw her onto the icy street, and pointed a weapon at her as she pleaded that their three children, Camila, Sneyder, and Emilio, were at home. Caiza has since been held for nearly 10 months at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico, where he has described tooth infections, inadequate food, lack of clean clothing, and severe delays receiving legal mail. He said video calls with his children have become too painful to continue. His attorney, Danielle Molliver, disputes a judge's finding that he is a flight risk due to prior DWIs and has filed a second petition challenging his prolonged detention while his asylum appeal, which he recently lost, remains pending. Flores now works three jobs totaling 93 hours a week to support their children.

An Ecuadorian teenager in Minneapolis called his father to say he was being arrested by ICE, but the agency later told the father it did not know the boy's whereabouts, leaving him 'horribly distraught,' according to attorney Claire Glenn. The teen, who had come to the United States with his father and had never been unaccompanied, was eventually found to have been sent to an Office of Refugee Resettlement shelter in Michigan.

ICE agent Christian Castro shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan man, through the front door of his north Minneapolis home during a January 14, 2026 raid tied to Operation Metro Surge. His partner, Indriany Mendoza Camacho, said agents threw tear gas into the home, which had children present, and the bullet traveled into a child's room. Federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa-Celis and his cousin/roommate Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna with assaulting officers using a shovel and broomstick, claiming a three-minute attack, but surveillance video showed only a 12-second confrontation with no sustained attack. Prosecutors had access to the video within hours but did not review it until nearly three weeks later; both charges were dropped after officials acknowledged agents had lied under oath. Two ICE agents were placed on administrative leave, and Hennepin County later charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime. Castro was arrested in Texas, but Governor Greg Abbott refused extradition, prompting a lawsuit from Minnesota's attorney general; the Justice Department then charged Castro only with making false statements, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney who objected to that decision was fired.

Yader Cortez Andino, a Nicaraguan immigrant with a pending asylum claim and a green card application based on his marriage to U.S. citizen Jennifer Cortez, was ordered released from ICE detention at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Oct. 2 after a federal judge ruled his June 30 warrantless arrest illegal. ICE agents returned his belongings and signed his release papers but led him out a back door, where plainclothes agents immediately re-arrested him, telling him the judge's order was wrong. His wife Jennifer said she and the couple's three children had prepared balloons and banners to welcome him home. Cortez's green card was approved while he was held, and after the judge found ICE had violated its release order, he was ultimately released on Oct. 5.

Ivan, 27, a construction worker from Guatemala who has lived in Minnesota since 2019 with no criminal record beyond minor traffic violations, was arrested on September 11 after ICE agents ran his work vehicle's plates at a Columbia Heights gas station and followed him to a Menards parking lot. A federal judge later granted his habeas petition, but when he arrived at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis for release, five federal agents were already waiting and took him into custody at Freeborn County Jail. "I didn't even make it to see the sun," Ivan told MPR News by phone from the jail, speaking in Spanish. His attorney, Steven Appelget, had argued agents lacked probable cause or a warrant for the initial arrest.

Renée Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, queer mother of three, poet, and legal observer, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026, during Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in south Minneapolis. Good had positioned her Honda Pilot to warn neighbors of ICE's presence when Ross fired shots through her windshield as she drove away, striking her multiple times. Her wife, Becca, said they were simply trying to warn neighbors. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump called her actions 'domestic terrorism,' but bystander video, a New York Times analysis, Human Rights Watch, and an independent autopsy found she posed no imminent threat. Fellow protester Alex Pretti was killed during the same operation, and the following day protesters at the ICE Field Office in St. Paul were met with pepper balls, mace, and tear gas. The administration blocked a federal criminal investigation; Good's family filed federal lawsuits under Bivens and the Federal Tort Claims Act, and her case was presented at an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing. Noem was later fired and Border Patrol Commander-at-large Gregory Bovino was removed and demoted.

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez on January 24, 2026, during a protest against Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement operation. Witnesses and bystander video showed Pretti, holding only a phone, stepped in after agents shoved a woman to the ground; footage showed agents shoving him, spraying him with a chemical agent, and beating him with a metal canister before shooting him ten times, contradicting initial federal claims of self-defense. Pretti was a legal firearm owner with a carry permit but did not brandish a weapon or attack agents. Officers did not provide immediate first aid, and a pediatrician who tried to help was initially prevented from doing so. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and other officials rejected the federal government's characterization of the shooting, and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division opened an investigation. His death, along with that of fellow protester Renee Good weeks earlier, was among at least 14 shooting incidents during the enforcement surge, which led to the removal of ICE commander Gregory Bovino, the resignation of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and deployment of 'border czar' Tom Homan to Minnesota.

Adam Mohamed Abdullah, a 31-year-old Somali auto mechanic and asylum seeker living in St. Paul, was arrested by masked federal agents on December 12, 2025 during 'Operation Metro Surge,' despite holding a work permit, Social Security number, a pending asylum application, and no criminal record beyond two parking tickets, and despite regularly attending ICE check-ins. He was moved through detention facilities in Minnesota, Kentucky and Louisiana over roughly nine months before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay's Camp Six in late August alongside fellow Minnesotans Hassan Abdi Abtidoon and Abdullahi Jamal Abdi. His attorney, Marc Prokosch, said communication with him was limited and possibly not confidential, calling the use of the base a 'political scare tactic,' a characterization Sen. Tina Smith echoed after DHS described the group as having serious criminal histories without presenting evidence specific to Abdullah. Abdullah began a hunger strike over lack of information, after which he said guards beat him and placed him in a freezing solitary cell; while detained, his mother died after authorities denied his request for an international call and voluntary departure to see her. The ACLU sued the federal government over its use of Guantánamo for civil immigration detention, with a hearing set for October 14. Abdullah and the other two men were flown through Kenya and deported to Somalia around September 25, 2026.

Alejandro, 33, from Mexico, works in Minnesota to support his family back home and has a pending asylum appeal after his initial claim was denied. He had been held in custody since May — first by local law enforcement, then ICE — until a judge ruled on Sept. 22 that his arrest was unlawful and ordered his immediate release. On Sept. 25, after being given back his belongings at the Whipple Federal Building, Alejandro made it just outside the front doors before plainclothes immigration agents handcuffed him again, with one agent telling him through translation that "just like they could release me, they could arrest me again."

A man who had won a habeas petition was ordered released from ICE detention at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Sept. 9, but was immediately re-arrested by ICE agents just outside the building. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan reviewed video footage of the incident and found that ICE agents swarmed the man as he exited, dislocating his shoulder, and failed to properly serve him an arrest warrant, instead briefly waving a folded paper in front of him before handcuffing him. Bryan ruled that a reasonable person in the man's position would not have felt free to leave and that allowing the re-arrest to stand would render habeas relief meaningless.

During Operation Metro Surge, ICE agent Christian Castro was involved in a shooting, and the Department of Justice initially charged two immigrants involved in the incident. The charges against the immigrants fell apart after evidence emerged that Castro and another agent had lied about the circumstances of the shooting. Castro has since become a fugitive from Minnesota authorities, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has resisted extraditing him, while the DOJ is now considering federal charges against Castro.

Cesar has spent most of his life in the United States, where he built his family, friendships, and future. In May, he was unexpectedly taken into ICE detention. His two young daughters have been without their father's love, comfort, and security since his detention. His family is raising funds to cover attorney fees, court costs, and living expenses while fighting for his return.

A man held in immigration detention in Minnesota filed a habeas corpus petition in the District of Minnesota on July 22, 2026, challenging his detention by ICE. The petition names as respondents Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, ICE and DHS officials, and detention officials. The case was assigned to Judge John R. Tunheim and referred to Magistrate Judge Shannon G. Elkins under the court's detainee habeas case list.

U.S. Border Patrol agents pulled over suspects at a Circle K gas station near Bemidji Regional Airport. The suspects fled on foot to the airport and ended up on the runway, where they were apprehended with assistance from a Bemidji Police Officer, Minnesota State Trooper, and two Border Patrol Agents. Separately, ICE officers detained at least one person, and possibly more, at the SouthShore Hotel the same morning, an action Mayor Jorge Prince said local police were not involved in or asked to assist with, though officers did respond to reports of people fleeing into the lake. Prince said both actions were targeted efforts to find specific individuals rather than broader sweeps, while acknowledging community anxiety following the earlier Metro Surge operation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested seven undocumented immigrants during a targeted operation in Bemidji on July 16, 2026. Benjamin Rodriguez Medina, from Mexico, was arrested while working on a construction site at the SouthShore Hotel on Lake Bemidji; he attempted to flee by swimming into the lake before being apprehended. The other six men arrested were Manuel Pomavilla Pichisaca (Ecuador), Luis Zaruma Delgado (Ecuador/Spain dual citizen), Diego Soto Velosco (Mexico), Xavier Llumiquinga Cajamarca (Ecuador), Wilson Pomavilla Guaman (Ecuador), and Luis Tipan-Calderon (Ecuador). All seven were in ICE custody pending further immigration proceedings.

ICE agents conducted a targeted enforcement operation at the SouthShore Hotel construction site in Bemidji, Minnesota, on July 16, 2026, around 11:20 a.m. When agents arrived, several construction workers fled the job site, and at least one man ran into Lake Bemidji, swimming about 100 yards offshore in an attempt to escape. ICE agents removed him from the water, handcuffed him, and took him into custody, transporting him in an unmarked van. The worker was employed by a subcontractor hired for the hotel's remodeling project; his identity and immigration status were not disclosed. Bemidji Police Department responded to calls about people entering the lake as a public safety concern but was not involved in the enforcement action itself. Lakeside Management, Inc., the hotel's property management company, said it was unaware of any workers lacking legal work authorization.

ChongLy 'Scott' Thao, a 56-year-old naturalized Hmong American U.S. citizen with no criminal record, was forcibly removed from his St. Paul, Minnesota home on January 18, 2026, after masked ICE agents broke down his door at gunpoint without a warrant. Agents refused to examine his identification and led him outside in sub-freezing temperatures wearing only underwear, Crocs, and a blanket, as his 4-year-old grandson watched and cried; Thao, who suffers from severe psoriasis worsened by cold and stress, was then driven to an undisclosed location, photographed, and questioned for over two hours before being released once agents realized he was a citizen. DHS said agents were executing a warrant for two convicted sex offenders tied to the address, but Thao disputes this, and the Minnesota Department of Corrections confirmed one of the men remains imprisoned. Thao's mother fled Laos in the 1970s after working as a nurse supporting U.S. covert operations there. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher opened a criminal investigation into the raid as potential kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment, and Thao is working with the ACLU of Minnesota and the state Attorney General's office, with plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS.