There are videos at the link below. I was unable to post them here. They wouldn’t link or embed. Also there are pictures that did not transfer. This is a hard read ICE was uncalled for violent and had no respect for the civil rights of the people involved. They laughed at the distress of the people. They are white supremacist gang thugs and bullies. I know Stephen Miller and several others in the administration like that civilians are being abused but does Rump even know what is happening. Do the republicans? Anyone watching Fox or other right wing media they don’t know of these abuses. Even Fox tried to smear Pretti but had to walk it back slight when the videos proved they were wrong. Hugs
The despondent faces and screaming, wailing and pleading from these men, women and children in cells will forever haunt me. But perhaps more haunting still was the sound of agents nearby laughing.
Patty O’Keefe
Opinion contributor
Jan. 26, 2026 Updated Jan. 27, 2026, 9:16 a.m. ET
I live smack dab in the middle of an ordinary block in Minneapolis. I borrow occasional eggs or vanilla from the neighbor on my right when I get caught short baking. My partner shovels our elderly neighbor’s sidewalk; she knit him a hat in gratitude. The folks down the street watch our cats when we’re away. In other words, a pretty typical American neighborhood, perhaps not unlike your own.
Imagine if you heard that heavily armed, masked agents were going door-to-door where you live, violently grabbing people from gardeners to grandparents – no questions asked, no warrants offered. What would you do? Especially if you knew that having more community members as observers decreases the likelihood those masked agents will use violence.
That’s what my friend Brandon and I were doing on Jan. 11. We heard reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pepper spraying the car of an observer blocks from my house and went to warn others. I am a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis for more than 14 years; this is a place where treating others as you wish to be treated is more than a saying.
When we drove to the scene, Brandon and I saw several ICE agents getting back into two unmarked vehicles. They turned down a side street and we followed for about 40 seconds, blowing our whistles and honking our horns – to warn our neighbors that ICE had come.
We did so knowing that monitoring and sounding the alarm about actions undertaken by government agents is our legally protected right. And any government that claims to be of, by and for the people must protect this right, not attack people of good conscience who exercise it.
But attack us is what ICE did. The agents got out of their vehicle, surrounded our car and yelled at us to stop following. On their way back to their vehicles, one of the agents suddenly turned around, as if deciding, “Hey, why not,” and walked back to my car and pepper sprayed into the vents near the front windshield.
‘You guys gotta stop obstructing us – that’s why that lesbian b—- is dead’
Brandon and I were paralyzed with shock, as our eyes and throats started to burn. When we did not immediately turn the car around, the ICE agents returned and, without warning or asking us to exit the vehicle, smashed the front windows of my car, dragged us out and arrested us.
They separated us. I was put in a car alone with three agents. When they got in and shut the doors, the taunting began.
One agent took a photo of me and showed it to the others, laughing. Another called me ugly. His colleague, apparently referring to Renee Good, said, “You guys gotta stop obstructing us – that’s why that lesbian b—- is dead.” In the presence of these masked men with weapons strapped to their bodies – men who claim to be safeguarding our cities – I felt only terrorized and vulnerable.
When we got to the Whipple Federal Building, they shackled my ankles. I asked four times to make a phone call but was denied that legal right. I had to beg for water and to be allowed to relieve myself in another crowded cell with a toilet behind a short wall.
On my way to that cell, I passed holding cells filled with people who appeared to be of Latino and East African descent. The despondent faces and the screaming, wailing and pleading from these men, women and children – reportedly as young as 5 years old – will forever haunt me. But perhaps more haunting still was the sound of agents nearby laughing. Are our lives all just a joke to them?
Eight hours later, I was released without charges because even these agents had no credible claim I had done anything wrong.
ICE is arresting people without cause. We can stand up to tyranny.
President Donald Trump and his administration spread lies about our neighbors based on what they look like or how they speak, all while making us less safe.
In the Twin Cities alone, we’ve seen people arrested without cause while doing their jobs and a grandfather pulled out of the shower and taken into the freezing cold in nothing but his underwear and a blanket. Local schools were forced to cancel classes after ICE tackled staff and tear gassed students, according to the teachers union, while raiding Roosevelt High School.
These actions endanger us. They are designed to terrorize our community with unchecked, unaccountable brutality.
When ICE detained me, the two other people in my cell said they were Marine Corps veterans. These women said they enlisted for the same reason they felt compelled to act as ICE observers – to protect their fellow Americans.
One of those veterans – scraped up and bruised at both wrist and ankle from the ICE agents’ aggression – talked about how ironic and shocking it was that the first time she had a gun pointed at her it was by the very government she swore an oath to serve.
I’m lucky to be back at home; I can return to my job, the people I love and my community. The hundred or so people I saw in that ICE facility may never again see the homes that they’ve built and the families they’ve nurtured. After being killed by Border Patrol and ICE in the past 12 months, Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Keith Porter and dozens of others who died in custody are only memories to their families. And our Twin Cities remain under siege by masked militia answering to a regime that spreads lies and sows fear in order to divide us and distract us while its leaders gut our health care, drive up prices and hand more money to their billionaire backers.
But in the United States of America, people who believe in liberty and justice for all stand up to tyranny. We sound the alarm. We support our neighbors. Now is the time for us to join together. And to tell Congress to protect our freedoms by refusing to fund these assaults against us.
People who followed and were following the rules being tortured so they will give up their rights and voluntarily leave the country. This is the country white supremacist want, they do not see nonwhites a human. Hugs
I am posting the meme below because it explains the intrusive thoughts issue I have struggled with for so long and for a while got really overwhelming. But I am NOT suicidal. Again please don’t worry about that, I am not self harming and I am not suicidal. I am just struggling. Links for any that need help below given with love. Hugs
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, TrevorLifeline 1-866-488-7386 the Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are just a text, chat, or phone call away. Completely confidential and free LGBTQ hotline.
This is an older report that I missed. But this is a school with children and according to witnesses ICE gang thugs acted like animals attacking people and assaulting children. Hugs
U.S. Border Patrol agents detain a person on the ground near Roosevelt High School during dismissal time on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Minneapolis Public Schools on Wednesday canceled classes district-wide for the remainder of the week “due to safety concerns,” following the killing of a woman Wednesday by an ICE agent. The district said it was acting “out of an abundance of caution.”
The move came after officials at Roosevelt High School said armed U.S. Border Patrol officers came on school property during dismissal Wednesday and began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders.
“The guy, I’m telling him like, ‘Please step off the school grounds,’ and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he’s trying to push me, and he knocked me down,” a school official, who spoke to MPR News on condition of anonymity said.
“They don’t care. They’re just animals,” the official added. “I’ve never seen people behave like this.”
Greg Bovino, a U.S. Border Patrol commander, argues with protesters near Roosevelt High School during dismissal time on Wednesday.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
The school leader said armed officers with apparent Border Patrol insignia on their uniforms arrived at a street near the school in several SUV vehicles during dismissal on Wednesday afternoon. They broke out the window of a vehicle.
“There’s a car that got hit. I don’t know how it got hit. They broke out the window,” the school official said. “Then different Neighborhood Watch, people, everybody, people, the staff in the school came out. And then they started coming on the property of the school and pushing people and tackling people and shooting pepper spray and pepper balls. And they handcuffed two of our employees.”
Video shared with MPR News show armed, masked officers with apparent Border Patrol insignia on their uniforms dragging a person on a sidewalk outside of the high school and tussling with another person as bystanders blow whistles and shout.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent runs after a person near Roosevelt High School during dismissal time on Wednesday.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
The school official said some high school students were involved in altercations with officers. Many sheltered at a nearby library.
Kate Winkel, who lives in the neighborhood near Roosevelt said she saw the Border Patrol agents on her drive home from work and witnessed agents pull a person into one of their vehicles.
In a video shared with MPR News, a Border Patrol official is shown pushing 47-year-old Winkel to the ground after telling her to get out of the street.
Winkel said she witnessed agents in other physical confrontations with school staff and parents on and near school property.
“I think school property should be off-limits. I think our kids need to feel safe at school,” Winkel said. “The federal government doesn’t need to attack schools.”
Federal agents face off with protesters near Roosevelt High School during dismissal time on Wednesday.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
In an email sent to school families on Wednesday, school principal Christian Ledesma said the school “instituted a lockout due to law enforcement presence outside of our school involving a vehicle that stopped near our building” after the school’s regular dismissal time. Staff and students “witnessed law enforcement engage with people at Roosevelt,” Ledesma added.
He said school counselors, social workers and district personnel would be available to any students who needed support.
Late Wednesday, district officials told staff and families in an email that all district-sponsored programs, activities, athletics and Community Education classes would be canceled and that it would collaborate with the City of Minneapolis on emergency preparedness and response.
If you go to the link 3 /4 of the way through the article it will open a page that details some of the abuse. Sorry I can’t post it as I couldn’t finish reading it. I started to get triggered. Been there made to do that. Hugs
Victoria López, Advocacy and Legal Director, ACLU of Arizona
Sandra Park, Former Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government impose criminal liability on correctional facility staff who have sexual contact with people in their custody. These laws recognize that any sexual activity between detainees and detention facility staff, with or without the use of force, is unlawful because of the inherent power imbalance when people are in custody. Yet, one immigration detention center is trying to avoid responsibility for sexual violence within its walls by arguing that the detainee “consented” to sexual abuse.
E.D., an asylum-seeker and domestic violence survivor from Honduras, was sexually assaulted by an employee while she was detained with her 3-year-old child at the Berks Family Residential Center in Pennsylvania. At the time of the assault, E.D. was 19 years old.
She filed suit against the detention center and its staff for their failure to protect her from sexual violence, even though they were aware of the risk. The record in the case, E.D. v. Sharkey, shows that her assailant coerced and threatened her, including with possible deportation, while the defendants stood by and made jokes.
Although the employee pled guilty to criminal institutional sexual assault under Pennsylvania law, the defendants contend that they should not be liable for any constitutional violations. Their argument rests in part on their assessment that the sexual abuse was “consensual” and that they should be held to a different standard because the Berks Family Residential Center is an immigration detention facility rather than a jail or prison.
The ACLU, ACLU of Pennsylvania, and partner organizations filed an amicus brief this week supporting E.D., explaining that officials wield such tremendous control over the lives of those in their custody, including through coercion and exploitation, that consent to sexual contact cannot be freely given in these circumstances. We also discuss how sexual violence in custodial settings is a serious and pervasive issue, including in immigration detention. For many years, the ACLU, various advocacy groups, and immigrants themselves have reported on the unsafe conditions in immigration detention, including sexual violence and the retaliation that detained immigrants face when they decide to come forward with these violations.
A recent investigation into sexual abuse in immigration detention found that there were 1,448 allegations of sexual abuse filed with ICE between 2012 and March 2018. In 2017 alone, there were 237 allegations of sexual abuse in immigration detention facilities.
Other reports include a 2014 complaint documenting widespread allegations of sexual harassment at the Karnes County Residential Center, where more than 500 women were detained with their children. In 2017, advocates filed a complaint on behalf of eight immigrants who recounted their experiences of sexual violence while detained in various ICE detention facilities across the country.
The Government Accountability Office reported in 2013 that officials at immigration prisons and jails failed to report 40 percent of sexual abuse allegations to the ICE headquarters. After looking at 10 different detention centers and analyzing over 70 cases of sexual abuse, researchers found that only 7 percent of 215 allegations of sexual assault in immigration detention facilities from 2009 to 2013 were substantiated, calling into question the thoroughness of investigations as well as reporting and oversight mechanisms.
Sexual violence impacts immigrants across federal agencies that are charged with immigrant detention. Most recently in Arizona, the state’s Department of Health Services, which licenses facilities that are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement to detain migrant children, moved to revoke the license of Southwest Key, a nonprofit contractor that rakes in about a half a billion dollars to detain migrant children in facilities across the country. The state moved to revoke the group’s license because Southwest Key failed to comply with required employee background checks. At least three former employeeshave been arrested for sexually abusing migrant children. One was convicted, and one of the facilities was closed down following allegations of staff abusing children.
These are not isolated cases. They clearly show that officials are not doing enough to detect and respond to incidents of sexual abuse in immigration detention. The result is that immigrants are put at serious risk for sexual violence while they are detained.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed by Congress in 2003 to protect against sexual assault in prisons and jails across the country. It took the Department of Homeland Security until 2014 to finalize regulations implementing PREA. Even with those regulations in place, DHS PREA standards do not protect immigrants in all detention facilities because the agency has taken the position that those requirements can only apply when the agency enters into new contracts or renews or modifies old ones.
Rather than meaningfully addressing these endemic problems in immigration detention, the Trump administration continues to aggressively target immigrants and asylum seekers by stripping away legal protections, ramping up enforcement, and expanding immigration detention. E.D.’s case highlights the real need for greater protections against sexual abuse and more robust oversight and accountability measures in immigration detention, not less.
ICE and Vance both lied about what happened. The head of the school was there, the teachers were there, and the mother was there. Yet they took the child. Why? Is the bonus on a child worth putting a five yr old in jail, because that is what being detained by ICE is, jail. The father they took was here legally following the proper steps for citizenship. But the racist don’t want brown kids here they don’t want brown fathers or mothers here. ICE sent the boy and his father to Texas so the mother and others couldn’t help either of them. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 