ICE Updates: News and resources related to immigration enforcement in Minneapolis

Updated January 19, 2026

City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County Web Pages in Response to ICE

The City of Minneapolis has put up a website with information about the ICE actions happening in the City. Some of the things that are included include links to press conferences, links to city policies, FAQ for business owners and landlords and renters, support for people being impacted by these federal actions, and other information.

City Federal Response – City of Minneapolis

Hennepin County also has a web page in response to the ICE actions in Hennepin County. This has an extensive number of links. There are a lot of social service programs that the County does that can help support people during this time. They also have an extensive number of links to community organizations.

County federal response | Hennepin County

Mayor Jacob Frey says Trump sending in the miliary would be “A Shocking Step”

Donald Trump has threatened to send in the United States military under the Insurrection Act because of the protests against ICE violence occurring in Minneapolis.

Reuters and other news sources have reported that 1,500 active duty Army members have been given prepare-to-deploy orders to “midwestern states.”

United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that he intends on stopping Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey “by whatever means necessary.” He added, “This is not a threat. This is a promise.”

In response, Frey appeared on “Meet the Press” this morning. He said it would be a “shocking step for Trump to send the military to Minneapolis.

Frey also was on “Face the Nation” with a similar message.

Video of Events in Minneapolis

The New York Times just ran an article called: “In Minneapolis, a Pattern of Misconduct towards Protesters” which talks about how ICE agents are widely violating people’s civil rights.

There is a website that has been cataloguing incidents of legal violations of ICE agents. You can see it at: https://mn-ice-witness.org.

This site has the following categories:

• S. Citizens / Legal Residents Wrongly Detained, Stopped and/or Beaten: American citizens and legal residents stopped, detained, or brutalized while going about their daily lives
• Observers and Protesters Arrested/Attacked/Killed: People detained, attacked, or killed for legally filming, observing, or protesting ICE operations
• Community Members Detained: Non-criminal immigrants — business owners, workers, asylum seekers
• Schools/Hospitals: ICE/CBP actions at schools, hospitals, and healthcare institutions
• Official Federal Response: DHS/ICE official statements justifying specific incidents and arrests

There is video for most of these incidents. The source of information is cited, and it tries to provide multiple citations where possible. Many of the citations are from local news. They are also adding to it as more incidents occur.

Court Case Enjoins ICE Agents from Violating People’s Civil Rights

A court case was brought by six Minneapolis residents where a judge found that ICE is widely violating people’s civil rights.

In that court case, the judge ordered:

“Covered Federal Agents are hereby enjoined from:

1. Retaliating against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity, including observing the activities of Operation Metro Surge.
2. Arresting or  detaining  persons  who  are  engaging  in  peaceful  and unobstructive protest activity, including observing the activities of Operation Metro Surge, in retaliation for their protected conduct and absent a showing of probable cause or reasonable suspicion that the person has committed a crime or is obstructing or interfering with the activities of Covered Federal Officers.
3. Using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who  are  engaging  in  peaceful  and  unobstructive  protest activity,  including  observing  the  activities  of  Operation  Metro  Surge, in retaliation for their protected conduct.
4. Stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles where there is no reasonable articulable  suspicion  that  they  are forcibly  obstructing  or interfering with Covered Federal Agents, or otherwise violating 18 U.S.C. §111. The act of safely following Covered Federal Agents at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop.”

It would appear that ICE agents are widely violating this court order.

Where to Find Live Video of What is Happening in Minneapolis

If you want to see what is happening in Minneapolis or if you are concerned that some mainstream media is somehow editing the news, there are a number of individuals who are broadcasting live what is happening on the street in Minneapolis. They are going to where things are happening, strapping on a camera and letting people see actually what is happening.  They also archive their video so you can see what has happened, firsthand.

These are some of the main broadcasters and links to their YouTube channels.

Mercado Media

Status Coup News

BG on the Scene

News2Share

State of Minnesota Immigrant and Refugee Hotline

If you are looking to either get help for someone who is an immigrant or refugee, the State of Minnesota has a hotline that can help refer people to resources at 1-800-814-4806.

MPR Finds None of Homeland Security “Worst of Worst List” Taken During Current ICE Surge

The Department of Homeland Security has been publishing lists of the “Worst of the Worst” offenders taken into custody during the current ICE operation to justify the current ICE operations in the Twin Cities. They have implied that these “worst of the worst” were removed during Operation Metro Surge. They have also implied that Minnesota government has been protecting these people from ICE, which is why they were out on the street and ICE was needed to remove them from our community. For example, January 12^th, the Department of Homeland Security published a press release labeled: “ICE Removed Heinous Criminals from Minnesota Streets Over the Weekend Including Child Abusers, Drug Traffickers, Domestic Violence Perpetrators, and Armed Assailants.”

It includes the tag line, “Secretary Noem has been clear: we will not let rioters or sanctuary politicians slow us down.”

MPR News examined one of the lists shared by DHS officials on January 12th. It found that most of the people on the list had been in prison but immediately transferred to ICE upon their release. They also found that none of the people on ICE’s list had been taken into ICE custody during Operation Metro Surge. In fact, some of the people on DHS’s list were handed from the Minnesota Department of Corrections to ICE years ago.

Of the 13 people on ICE’s list on January 12^th, five were transferred from prison custody to ICE custody between August and November. Four were handed over to ICE custody before 2025, one in 2021, two in 2012 and one in 2003. Four were never in the custody of the Minnesota Department of Corrections. Of those, one was convicted in Ohio, two were in county jails and one was given probation and never in jail.

You can read the full story here.

The Release of Beth

If you are detained by ICE, not just kept in a van but actually taken into custody, you are taken to the Whipple Building and put in a holding cell. ICE agents don’t have the power to arrest, just detain, so it has seemed the pretty much everyone who is not in the United States illegally has been let go.

This is what it looks like when someone is let go.

Her name is Beth and she said she was detained for peacefully protesting. She said she was yanked out of her car and brought to Whipple.  Here she is being escorted out of the Whipple Building by a heavily armored ICE agent. The temperature is somewhere around five degrees. The guardhouse is the main gate into the Whipple Building. The pictures are tinged red and blue from the lights of the police squad cars that have been set up as a barrier between protesters and the Whipple Building. The fencing was put up last Tuesday to push the perimeter of the Whipple Building out further from the parking lot. You can see the agent escorting Beth down the long driveway from the guard house.

Here the heavily-armored ICE agent escorts Beth across the street to the crowd of protesters.

Here Beth flips off ICE.

Here Beth is reunited with people from the crowd.