MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge in Minnesota has ruled that U.S. immigration agents may not use tear gas or detain peaceful protesters during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez issued the order Friday in response to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota activists who alleged that agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol violated their constitutional rights while carrying out arrests under a federal immigration operation.
The injunction bars federal agents from using tear gas, pepper spray or other chemical agents against people who are peacefully protesting or observing enforcement activity. It also prohibits officers from stopping or detaining individuals unless they have reasonable suspicion the person is committing a crime or obstructing law enforcement.
Menendez wrote that merely filming officers, shouting at them, or following them at a lawful distance does not justify detention or arrest.
The lawsuit was filed in December by six activists and was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, which argued that federal agents used excessive force and unlawfully detained bystanders during enforcement actions.
The ruling applies specifically to federal immigration operations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and does not halt immigration arrests altogether.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended its tactics, saying agents are enforcing federal immigration law and taking steps to ensure officer safety. Federal officials have not said whether they will appeal the ruling.
The decision comes amid heightened tensions over immigration enforcement and protests targeting federal agents in Minnesota. Separate legal challenges involving state and local officials remain pending in federal court.
While many of the headlines have focused on the Twin Cities, greater Minnesota is feeling the impacts of the immigration crackdown, too.
In Willmar, community members say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have closed restaurants and left a community on edge.
The city has a diverse population of a little over 21,000.
“You have families that are scared for their life. People refusing to come out of their house,” said Abdullahi Mohamed of Willmar.
Streets on Friday appeared to operate as normal, but businesses were not.
A sign that says, in part, “We’re only receiving online/phone call orders,” is posted in front of a Willmar, Minnesota, restaurant on Jan. 16, 2026, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained employees of an area business.
WCCO
Area establishments have posted signs saying they’re either closed or taking orders differently.
“They detained someone just across the street where I was working,” said Brentt Fees of Willmar.
Mohamed added, “I’ve seen with my two eyes ICE detaining people.”
El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant closed after WCCO confirmed agents visited the spot for lunch and later returned, detaining its owners and a dishwasher nearby after they had closed early due to the federal law enforcement’s previous appearance.
A 20-year-old, who says his parents own the restaurant and are now detained, says the business will reopen on Saturday under his leadership.
A visitor who stopped by El Tapatio to show his support says the liquor store he works at has lost 75% of its business since agents have appeared in Operation Metro Surge.
“I just wanted to make sure everything is okay,” said Fees. “And apparently it’s not because they’re closed now.”
WCCO asked a man who retired from Jennie-O, one of the town’s biggest employers, what he wants for his community right now.
“To get together and vote these people out. We’re not scared, man,” said Willmar resident Abdulcadir Gaal.
Willmar Mayor Doug Reese says he’s urging residents to stay calm and to respect one another to keep the community safe.
WCCO reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the matter. The Assistant Secretary responded to our inquiry in part:
“On January 14, ICE officers conducted surveillance of a target, an illegal alien from Mexico. Officers observed that the target’s vehicle was outside of a local business and positively identified him as the target while inside the business. Following the positive identification of the target, officers then conducted a vehicle stop later in the day and apprehended the target and two additional illegal aliens who were in the car, including one who had a final order of removal from an immigration judge.”
Another legal expert weighs in on DOJ investigation into Walz, Frey, calls it a “stretch”
Legal expert Joe Tamburino joined WCCO on Saturday morning and weighed in on the federal investigation into Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
He called the Department of Justice’s investigation a “stretch,” called for calm and talked next steps.
Law expert weighs in on federal investigation into Walz, Frey
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are under federal investigation over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
One of the sources, a U.S. official, said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks.
Subpoenas are likely to be issued in the probe, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Professor David Schultz, a First Amendment law expert with Hamline University and University of St. Thomas School of Law, said he doesn’t expect the investigation to hold much water.
Schultz explained that public comments from both Walz and Frey fall under protected speech, noting that the bar would be incredibly high if the federal government is attempting to argue that either of them have verbally encouraged a “real overt act of obstruction.”
“There’s no case on record, let us say in the modern history of the First Amendment, that has taken mere criticism to be equivalent to obstruction of justice,” Schultz said, adding that it’s no surprise to him that President Trump is using the DOJ to further complicate life for Walz and other Minnesota officials.
Minnesota safety commissioner on weekend protests: “We want to be there to be helpful”
Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobsen says his agency and other state officials are aware and prepared for the planned protests this weekend.
“We want to be there to be helpful. We want to be there to keep the peace and, again, let’s be Minnesotans. Let’s be those who want to do this the right way, to demonstrate, to share your opinions, to share your values, to share your thoughts, but to do it in a way that doesn’t incite violence, that doesn’t bring anymore harm,” Jacobsen said in a news conference on Friday afternoon.
That includes one that could come through downtown Minneapolis, as well as a counter protest planned in the same area.
Minnesota has brought back all-time leading rusher Mohamed Ibrahim as running backs coach, one of eight new hires to the staff announced Friday by coach P.J. Fleck.
Ibrahim, who spent six years at Minnesota and the 2023 season in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, worked with the Gophers in 2024. He was running backs coach at Kent State last year. Ibrahim finished his college career with 4,668 rushing yards and 53 touchdowns, which was also a Gophers record.
Another former Gophers player, Isaac Fruechte, was hired as wide receivers coach after serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at North Dakota for the last two seasons. Fruechte played for Minnesota from 2012-14 and spent three years in the NFL with the Vikings and Lions before beginning his coaching career.
Fruechte replaces Matt Simon, who was not retained after finishing his ninth season under Fleck with the Gophers. Simon also served as co-offensive coordinator, so that role will now be handled solely by Greg Harbaugh Jr. Simon was one of four primary position coaches and eight assistants overall who won’t return in 2026.
Another notable addition was Matt Limegrover as assistant offensive line coach. Limegrover was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the Gophers from 2011-15 under coach Jerry Kill, before departing for Penn State. He was most recently the offensive line coach at Kent State from 2023-24.
A Minnesota judge issued a ruling Friday barring federal officers from detaining or deploying tear gas against peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities while participating in Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
The order from U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez restricting the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal agents comes amid ongoing protests and heightened tension in Minneapolis after an ICE agent fatally shot Minnesota resident Renee Good earlier this month.
The ruling prohibits officers from retaliating against anyone peacefully protesting or observing the actions of immigration officers, adding that federal agents must show probable cause or reasonable suspicion that someone has committed a crime or is interfering with law enforcement operations.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said following the ruling that the First Amendment does not protect “rioting,” adding that DHS is “taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
Law enforcement officers stand amid tear gas at the scene of a reported shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Adam Gray/AP Photo)
“We remind the public that rioting is dangerous—obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony,” McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Rioters and terrorists have assaulted law enforcement, launched fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, and vandalized federal property. Others have chosen to ignore commands and have attempted to impede law enforcement operations and used their vehicles as weapons against our officers.”
“Despite these grave threats and dangerous situations, our law enforcement has followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property,” she stated.
Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 15, 2026. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Under the ruling, federal agents cannot use pepper-spray or other non-lethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against peaceful protesters, the ruling states.
Additionally, Menendez wrote that safely following officers “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop.”
The ruling stems from a case filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, who argued that government officers were violating the constitutional rights of Twin City residents.
Federal agents deal with agitators outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 14, 2026.(Jamie Vera/Fox News)
Government attorneys said officers were acting within their legal authority and appropriately to violence as they’ve enforced immigration laws across the country and in Minnesota.
The ongoing unrest in Minneapolis comes after two recent shootings involving ICE agents in the city.
Good died on Jan. 7 after an ICE agent shot into her vehicle through the driver’s side windshield and open window after she allegedly attempted to run him over. He could be heard on video after the fact saying “f—ing b—h” as her car crashed into a parked car.
While Democrats and local residents have condemned the shooting as a murder and called for the agent’s prosecution, the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have defended the incident, arguing it was a justified shooting.
Members of law enforcement work the scene following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent during federal operations on Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.(Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Then, in a separate incident Wednesday, an ICE officer was seriously injured after allegedly being ambushed during a traffic stop by three illegal immigrants, according to federal officials. One suspect was shot, and all three were taken into custody, authorities said, after a traffic stop targeting a Venezuelan national escalated into a foot chase and violent struggle.
Menendez is presiding over a separate lawsuit filed Monday by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul seeking to suspend the enforcement crackdown.
Law expert weighs in on federal investigation into Walz, Frey
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are under federal investigation over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
One of the sources, a U.S. official, said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks.
Subpoenas are likely to be issued in the probe, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Professor David Schultz, a First Amendment law expert with Hamline University and University of St. Thomas School of Law, said he doesn’t expect the investigation to hold much water.
Schultz explained that public comments from both Walz and Frey fall under protected speech, noting that the bar would be incredibly high if the federal government is attempting to argue that either of them have verbally encouraged a “real overt act of obstruction.”
“There’s no case on record, let us say in the modern history of the First Amendment, that has taken mere criticism to be equivalent to obstruction of justice,” Schultz said, adding that it’s no surprise to him that President Trump is using the DOJ to further complicate life for Walz and other Minnesota officials.
Minnesota safety commissioner on weekend protests: “We want to be there to be helpful”
Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobsen says his agency and other state officials are aware and prepared for the planned protests this weekend.
“We want to be there to be helpful. We want to be there to keep the peace and, again, let’s be Minnesotans. Let’s be those who want to do this the right way, to demonstrate, to share your opinions, to share your values, to share your thoughts, but to do it in a way that doesn’t incite violence, that doesn’t bring anymore harm,” Jacobsen said in a news conference on Friday afternoon.
That includes one that could come through downtown Minneapolis, as well as a counter protest planned in the same area.
A Minnesota federal judge put limits Friday on the tactics that federal law enforcement are permitted to use in their handling of the ongoing protests in Minneapolis over the Trump administration’s surge of immigration resources to the city.
In an 83-page order, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez blocked federal agents who are deployed to Minnesota as part of the Trump administration’s immigration operations from using pepper spray or nonlethal munitions on, or arresting, peaceful protesters.
The order also bars federal law enforcement from stopping or detaining drivers and passengers when there is “no reasonable articulable suspicion” that people driving near protests are forcibly interfering with law enforcement operations.
Menendez, nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden in 2021, called some of the allegations against agents “disturbing.” She cited descriptions provided to the court by protesters that law enforcement had threatened to break drivers’ windows, waited for protesters outside their homes, followed protesters to their homes or told the protesters they knew where they lived.
“There may be ample suspicion to stop cars, and even arrest drivers engaged in dangerous conduct while following immigration enforcement officers, but that does not justify stops of cars not breaking the law,” Menendez wrote, adding she is “mindful” that the ongoing protest activity in the state is “somewhat unique.”
“There is little discussion in the caselaw about situations like the ones playing out all over the Twin Cities, in which small groups of protesters are mobile and gather wherever immigration officers are attempting to make arrests or otherwise enforce immigration law,” Menendez wrote.
Menendez’s order will remain in effect until the recent mass surge of federal law enforcement to Minneapolis concludes.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement responding to the ruling that the agency “is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.” She said agents have faced assaults, vandalism and other threats, but have “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary.”
“We remind the public that rioting is dangerous—obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony,” McLaughlin said.
The ruling follows a weekslong uptick in immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Thousands of federal agents have been deployed to the area to seek out those suspected of being in the U.S. illegally and to investigate allegations of fraud in Minnesota.
The operations have drawn tense protests that were amplified after Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week. In some cases, protesters and agents have clashed, with agents being reported using pepper spray.
A group of Minnesota protesters sued the Department of Homeland Security last month, alleging federal agents had “violently subdued” demonstrations against the agency’s immigration enforcement actions. The plaintiffs accused the government of engaging in a “campaign of constitutional violations” by infringing on protesters’ First Amendment right to free speech and Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures.
Menendez found Friday that several of the protesters were likely to succeed in showing that their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated after federal law enforcement personnel arrested them or sprayed chemical irritants at them.
Attorneys for the federal government earlier this month denied any constitutional violations, arguing that federal agents have needed to use pepper spray and arrests to quell “violent, obstructive, dangerous, and often criminal behavior” that has impeded immigration operations. They accused several of the plaintiffs of obstructing, assaulting or attempting to assault federal officers, or following ICE vehicles.
The Trump administration has also accused local officials who have strongly criticized the immigration operations of stoking chaos. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are both under federal investigation for an alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents, CBS News reported earlier Friday.
Both officials have denounced the probe, with Walz accusing the administration of “threatening political opponents” and Frey calling it an “obvious attempt to intimidate me.”
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, an extraordinary escalation in the Trump administration’s clash with Democratic leaders there, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
One of the sources, a U.S. official, said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks.
Subpoenas are likely to be issued in the probe, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
“This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our streets,” Frey said in a statement to CBS News. “I will not be intimidated. My focus will remain where it’s always been: keeping our city safe.”
Walz said in a statement: “Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
Nearly 3,000 federal immigration agents have been dispatched to Minneapolis, with a stated objective of arresting people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally and probing allegations of fraud in Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security has called the massive deployment the largest operation in its history.
The large-scale presence of federal agents has triggered widespread local backlash, sparking protests and clashes, especially after the killing of Minnesota resident Renee Good by an ICE officer last week.
Walz and Frey, both Democrats, have vocally denounced the federal deployment to the Twin Cities, accusing federal agents of creating chaos and undermining public safety through aggressive tactics.
Earlier this week, Frey said the federal deployment had created a situation that was “not sustainable.”
“We’re in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ICE agents on the street,” Frey said. “We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another.”
Walz and Frey have called for protests to remain peaceful. The governor urged Minnesotans not to “fan the flames of chaos” in a message on X Thursday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Friday, “A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who visited Minneapolis with FBI Director Kash Patel on Friday, appeared to make a vague reference to the investigation earlier this week.
“Walz and Frey- I’m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It’s a promise,” Blanche wrote on X earlier this week.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday said: “Mayor Frey and Governor Walz have to get their city under control. They are encouraging impeding and assault against our law enforcement which is a federal crime, a felony.”
Noem has said rhetoric from Walz and Frey “perpetuated” violence directed at federal officers, arguing their comments undermined public trust in law enforcement and emboldened protesters on the ground.
The federal inquiry is focused on a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 372, one U.S. official told CBS News, which makes it a crime for two or more people to conspire to prevent federal officers from carrying out their official duties through “force, intimidation or threats.”
The statute has historically been used in cases involving coordinated efforts to obstruct federal officials, including actions involving violence or threats. Public criticism of federal policy has historically been treated as protected speech unless involving direct coordination or incitement to obstruct law enforcement.
Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday, telling her he was outraged at “repeated targeting and racial profiling” of American citizens by her agents carrying out “citizen checks.”
In a letter exclusively shared with Newsweek, the Democrat told Noem that statements she and U.S. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino had made that U.S. citizens needed to prove their identity were false.
“To state the obvious, we are not a ‘papers, please’ country,” Durbin wrote. “American citizens generally do not have ‘immigration documents’, and to require them to carry such documents to avoid being violently stopped or interrogated by federal immigration agents is absurd and unconstitutional. There is no requirement in the law for U.S. citizens to carry identification to avoid arbitrary arrest and detention.”
Why It Matters
The letter came after Noem spoke to reporters on Thursday, saying that ICE agents may ask U.S. citizens for proof of citizenship during enforcement operations that have seen protesters clash with federal officers and citizens temporarily detained. Some video has shown citizens reacting angrily to such requests, saying they do not need to prove who they are, with concerns around Fourth Amendment protections.
What To Know
“If we are on a target, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and having them validate their identity,” Noem said Thursday, after questions over why some Americans were being asked for proof of citizenship.
Durbin, who has been outspoken over the Trump administration’s actions over the past year already, said he was deeply concerned at Bovino’s comments.
“The founders included explicit protections from unreasonable searches and seizures in the U.S. Constitution to prevent the types of arbitrary and indiscriminate arrests of U.S. citizens that are currently occurring in American cities,” Durbin told Noem, adding that current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had affirmed these protections recently.
“Unfortunately, these caveats have not prevented an escalating number of arbitrary stops, arrests, and detentions of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents,” the senator added.
He went on to outline multiple incidents in Minnesota alone in the past few weeks, which have seen U.S. citizens detained by federal agents, who at times have been seen using aggressive tactics to do so. Tensions have been especially high in the Twin Cities following the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an ICE agent on January 7.
“The Department’s cavalier attitude towards the law continues to lead to frequent abuses against American citizens,” Durbin wrote.
The senator also said that agents had approached multiple non-white people in Minneapolis, and elsewhere, and asked where they were born and for their identification, with at least one person told “we are doing a citizen check.”
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), immigrants in the U.S. are required to carry proof of their status. The rule has not been strictly enforced through fines for several years, but under the Trump administration, there have been a few instances of people being fined for not carrying documentation.
When the rules were tightened, some experts did warn that if one group had to carry documentation, then all people in the U.S. would be affected, even if not legally required to carry proof of nationality.
The Trump administration, including Noem and Bovino, has insisted agents are working within the law to enforce immigration laws and deliver on the president’s promise of mass deportations of illegal immigrant criminals. DHS has also made it clear that it will seek to prosecute anyone who attacks or impedes federal agents in this work.
What People Are Saying
Durbin, in his letter to Noem: “Terrifying experiences like these undoubtedly will become more commonplace for American citizens unless the Department abides by the law and reins in its reckless immigration enforcement operations.
“Please immediately issue a correction to the Department’s false statement that U.S. citizens must carry proof of citizenship and immediately instruct your employees that unconstitutional “citizen checks” are not permitted and must immediately cease.”
Mubashir, a Minnesota community member, to members of Congress Friday: “At no time did any officer ask me whether I was a citizen or if I had any immigration status. They did not ask for any identifying information, nor did they ask about my ties to the community, how long I had lived in the Twin Cities, my family in Minnesota, or anything else about my circumstances.”
Bovino, on X December 11: “One must carry immigration documents as per the INA. A Real ID is not an immigration document.”
Michael McAuliffe, former federal prosecutor and ex-elected state attorney, to Newsweek Thursday: “Standing near someone who may be illegally in the country is not a crime, and is not––alone––grounds to require someone to identify themselves. If one adds to the scenario any facts that might support a suspicion that a person is helping the suspect, or obstructing the agent’s attempts to evaluate the suspect’s status, it could change what the officer can do in terms of seeking identification, requiring someone to move, or detaining the person.”
What Happens Next
As protests and enforcement efforts continue across the U.S., Durbin has called for Noem to respond with information on the questions DHS officials are legally allowed to ask people to determine citizenship, what documents were shared with agents giving the impression they were allowed to carry out “citizen checks,” and what criteria agents are using to determine if there is a reason to believe a person is not legally in the U.S.
A Liberian Minnesotan is back in custody Friday, his lawyer said, a day after a judge ordered him released because federal agents broke down his door in Minneapolis to arrest him without a judicial warrant.
The dramatic arrest of Garrison Gibson last weekend by armed immigration agents using a battering ram was captured on video. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled the arrest unlawful on Thursday, but Gibson was detained again when he appeared at an immigration office, attorney Marc Prokosch said.
“We were there for a check-in and the original officer said, ‘This looks good, I’ll be right back,’” Prokosch said. “And then there was a lot of chaos, and about five officers came out and then they said, ‘We’re going to be taking him back into custody.’ I was like, ‘Really, you want to do this again?’”
Marc Prokosch, Gibson’s attorney, said Thursday was “thrilled” by the judge’s order. He had filed a habeas corpus petition, used by courts to determine if an imprisonment is legal, and called the arrest a “blatant constitutional violation” since the agents did not have a proper warrant.
Gibson’s wife was inside their Minneapolis home with the couple’s 9-year-old child during the raid. Prokosch said she was deeply shaken by the arrest.
Gibson, 37, was being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea after being held at a large camp on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, according to ICE’s detainee locator.
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers arrest Garrison Gibson on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis.
John Locher / AP
DHS did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment on the order and has not responded to a prior email with follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.
Gibson, who fled the Liberian civil war as a child, had been ordered removed from the U.S., apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed by the courts. He had remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision, with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Only days before his arrest, Gibson had checked in with immigration authorities at regional immigration offices — the same building where agents have been staging enforcement raids in recent weeks.
Bryan said in his Thursday order that he agrees with Gibson’s assertions that since he had already been released on an order of supervision, officials “violated applicable regulations” by not giving him enough notice that it had been revoked and the reasoning, as well as not providing him an interview right after he was detained.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department, had said that Gibson has “a lengthy rap sheet (that) includes robbery, drug possession with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, malicious destruction and theft.” She did not indicate if those were arrests, charges or convictions.
Court records indicate Gibson’s legal history shows only the one felony in 2008, along with a few traffic violations, minor drug arrests and an arrest for riding public transportation without paying the fare.
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, under the theory that they conspired to impede federal immigration agents, a senior law enforcement official and person familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The law at issue is a rarely used federal statute with roots in the Civil War era. It was one of the statutes listed in a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi last month, obtained by NBC News, that spelled out the laws that she wanted federal prosecutors to use to target individuals she dubbed domestic terrorists.
In a statement Friday regarding reports of the investigation, Walz said, “Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.”
“The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her,” he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says the Trump administration has denied the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension a role in an investigation into the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, calling it a threat to accountability.
Frey said in a statement in response to reports of the DOJ investigation that he “will not be intimidated.”
“This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our streets,” he said.
He added, “Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear. We stand rock solid.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted federal immigration authorities, telling ICE to “get the f—” out of the city after an ICE officer fatally shot a woman during an immigration-related operation
Kristen Welker and Raquel Coronell Uribe contributed.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) — A Liberian man in Minnesota is back in custody Friday, his lawyer said, a day after a judge ordered him released because federal agents broke down his door to arrest him without a judicial warrant.
The dramatic arrest of Garrison Gibson last weekend by armed immigration agents using a battering ram was captured on video. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled the arrest unlawful, but Gibson was detained again when he appeared at an immigration office, attorney Marc Prokosch said.
“We were there for a check-in and the original officer said, ‘This looks good, I’ll be right back,’” Prokosch said. “And then there was a lot of chaos, and about five officers came out and then they said, ‘We’re going to be taking him back into custody.’ I was like, ‘Really, you want to do this again?’”
Gibson, 37, who fled the Liberian civil war as a child, had been ordered removed from the U.S., apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed. He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision, with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Meanwhile, tribal leaders and Native American rights organizations are advising anyone with a tribal ID to carry it with them when out in public in case they are approached by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Native Americans across the U.S. have reported being stopped or detained by ICE, and tribal leaders are asking members to report these contacts.
Ben Barnes, chief of the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma and chair of the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, called the reports “deeply concerning”.
Organizers in Minneapolis have set up application booths in the city to assist people needing a tribal ID.
FBI Director Kash Patel said at least one person has been arrested for stealing property from an FBI vehicle in Minneapolis. The SUV was among government vehicles whose windows were broken Wednesday evening. Attorney General Pam Bondi said body armor and weapons were stolen.
President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke an 1807 law, the Insurrection Act, to send troops to suppress protests during immigration sweeps. Minnesota’s attorney general said he would sue if the president acts.
Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit and Graham Lee Brewer in Oklahoma City contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Renee Good, who died last week after she was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, sustained at least three gunshot wounds and a possible fourth, according to a Minneapolis Fire Department report obtained by CBS News Minnesota.
The incident report shows that paramedics arrived five minutes after Good was shot in her SUV following the encounter with ICE agents. Medics found the 37-year-old unresponsive with an irregular pulse and attempted life-saving efforts on the scene and in the ambulance to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Responders found two apparent gunshot wounds to her chest, one to her left forearm, and “a possible gunshot wound with protruding tissue on the left side of the patient’s head,” the report says.
The new details come after a week of protests in Minnesota that prompted President Trump to threaten to use the Insurrection Act to send the U.S. military into the Twin Cities.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Mr. Trump said.
Invoking the rarely used 18th century law would mark a major escalation between the federal government and state officials amid increased tensions over immigration operations in Minnesota.
“That would probably lead to more violence,” said one protester, Greg Snyder. “We’re not gonna back down. I mean, that’s a bunch of bulls***.”
Skirmishes intensify
Skirmishes between protesters and federal law enforcement seemed to intensify Thursday in Minneapolis.
In one incident caught on video, federal agents pinned down a protester and appeared to shove the person’s head into the concrete before marching them into the Whipple Building, a federal building in Minneapolis.
In another case, in north Minneapolis on Wednesday, cameras captured vandals smashing a federal vehicle and then pulling boxes out of it, apparently including federal documents. Dozens of people smashed through two parked, unmarked FBI vehicles in the incident.
FBI Director Kash Patel said a suspect was arrested in that case and that “there will be more arrests.”
Unrest has escalated since the surge of about 3,000 federal law enforcement into the Twin Cities over the last several weeks.
New cellphone video
The latest spasm of violence comes after a Venezuelan migrant, who immigration officials say is in the country illegally, was shot in the leg by a federal agent during an arrest Wednesday night, prompting hours of protests and clashes.
New cellphone video shared by a Minnesota state senator appears to show a new account in the aftermath of the shooting: A woman calling 911 and pleading for help.
The Department of Homeland Security has said the man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, initially fled, and that he and two others then allegedly used a shovel and broom handle to attack the agent, who fired in self-defense.
By Maria Alejandra Cardona, Savyata Mishra and Ross Kerber
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Up and down Lake Street in the heavily Latino area of south Minneapolis, numerous mom-and-pop restaurants have hung up signs that say “No ICE,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who have been conducting frequent raids in the area. The federal actions have also prompted thousands in the streets to protest after ICE agents killed 37-year-old Renee Good in her vehicle last week.
By contrast, large corporations in Minneapolis have been much less vocal about the effects of immigration enforcement on the city, known as both a bastion of progressive politics in the U.S. Midwest and a robust corporate employer. Seventeen Fortune 500 companies are based in Minnesota, including Target, UnitedHealth, and General Mills.
Reuters reached out to those companies, as well as Minnesota-based corporations Best Buy, Hormel, Land O’Lakes, agricultural giant Cargill, and industrial conglomerate 3M. None would speak on the record on the guidance they have given to employees. Their websites also have not addressed the current federal actions or unrest in the city.
It stands in contrast with how companies responded in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd that spurred nationwide anger; many companies, including UnitedHealth and General Mills, spoke out in support of Floyd or his family after his death.
FEAR RESHAPING OPERATIONS
Their silence, according to Bill George, a Minneapolis-based former executive and current Harvard Business School fellow, is a mistake.
“A lot of them are very silent and I think it’s not a good time to be silent,” he told Reuters. He added he has spoken with numerous executives in the Minneapolis area who have expressed concerns about the toll on business, with many still in the process of formulating guidance to workers.
“It is disappointing to me that we don’t hear their voices. They’re charged with the safety, security and well-being of their employees,” he said.
Businesses have been much less outspoken about President Donald Trump’s policies in his second term, due to fear of retaliation or threats of boycotts. After a Hilton-owned Hampton Inn cancelled bookings for ICE members in early January, the company removed it from its network.
Many restaurants on Lake Street have reduced hours or closed. At Pineda Tacos, where a “No ICE” sign hangs in the front window and trash cans barricade the rear entrance, employees guard the door in an effort to prevent surprise raids, letting customers in one-by-one. Owner Luis Reyes Rojas said fear has reshaped daily operations.
“We have plan A, plan B and plan C,” Reyes Rojas said, describing plans to retreat to offices or basements in case agents appear. “We don’t know how much longer we can endure this.”
Business associations say the $350 billion regional economy is feeling the effects, from sales declines at small businesses to falling attendance at large companies and agricultural operations. “There are impacts that roll up to Fortune 500 companies and all the way down to sole proprietors,” said Mike Logan, CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The Trump administration has defended the operations, and has added more agents even as 69% of Americans in a recent Reuters poll say federal agents should minimize the harm to people during operations, even if arrests decline.
One high-profile ICE incident took place at a Target store in the suburb of Richfield, where a pair of workers – both U.S. citizens – were taken by ICE agents. One of those arrested was a 17-year-old Target employee, according to a source familiar with the situation. Target has not issued any public statement about the ICE raids; it declined to comment for this story.
Michael Howard, a Democratic state representative, whose district includes parts of Minneapolis and Richfield, said he has been trying to learn more about Target’s protocols related to ICE. He is urging them to “exert more clearly their private property rights and Fourth Amendment rights to request that if ICE is going into their public-private spaces that they present a judicial warrant.”
Jeff, 61, who owns a residential cleaning company in the Minneapolis suburbs, said he has told his all-Latino workforce not to work if they feel threatened. He declined to share his last name or business name out of fear of attracting ICE attention. He has been filling the tanks of company cars following reports that ICE has questioned people at gas stations.
“I’m not telling anyone they have to work,” he said. “If they want to, I will give them as safe a route as I can give them. If they don’t want to come in, I understand, and no one will get fired.”
(Reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Minneapolis, Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru and Ross Kerber in Boston; additional reporting by PJ Huffstutter in Chicago, Siddharth Cavale, Jessica DiNapoli and David Gaffen in New York; Writing by David Gaffen; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
The President and his advisers have called those opposing them in Minnesota radical lunatics, domestic terrorists, and outright insurrectionists. Do they expect us to have already forgotten that, on Trump’s first day back in the White House, he pardoned more than a thousand actual insurrectionists who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on his behalf, in a vain effort to block his 2020 electoral defeat? On Tuesday, barely an hour after urging demonstrators in Tehran to “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!,” Trump issued a call for retribution against the “anarchists and professional agitators” protesting him in Minnesota. By Wednesday, he’d walked back his pledge of assistance to the protesters in Iran. “Help is on its way,” he’d said. But it wasn’t. The violent confrontation that Trump craves most is the war at home, against the enemy within.
It’s not his only goal, though. Trump himself has told us another: “RETRIBUTION.” I know it doesn’t make any sense; it’s hard to see why the President would bear a grudge against an entire state. But grievances drive Trump, and he has one against Minnesota. “I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times,” he said last week. “I won it all three times, in my opinion, and it’s a corrupt state—a corrupt voting state.” The fact that these claims are ridiculous—Trump never even won as much as a full forty-seven per cent of the vote there, in any of the three Presidential elections in which he ran—does not make this any less of a grave threat. Is the President capable of exacting revenge over a lie? Of course he is.
Late last year, Reuters documented at least four hundred and seventy targets of retribution whom Trump has singled out since returning to office. Nearly a hundred prosecutors and F.B.I. agents have been fired or forced out for working on cases against Trump or his allies, or because they were alleged to be too woke. Roughly fifty people, businesses, or other entities have been threatened with investigations or penalties for opposing Trump. The White House itself has directly issued at least thirty-six orders, decrees, and directives targeting at least a hundred specific individuals and entities with punitive actions. More than a hundred security clearances have been revoked from those on his enemies list. And all that was only by the end of November.
A year ago, there were still those who believed—or at least hoped—that Trump’s explicitly stated vow of a second-term Presidency focussed on revenge and retribution was just more bluster. How wrong they were.
In a speech on Wednesday night, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, argued that what is happening in his state right now is “a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.” The state has sued to stop it, but a federal judge has not yet granted an injunction, and legal experts are skeptical that the case will succeed. In the meantime, Walz described a situation that is both dystopian and almost without modern precedent:
Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door to door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live. They’re pulling over people indiscriminately, including U.S. citizens, and demanding to see their papers. And at grocery stores, at bus stops, even at schools, they’re breaking windows, dragging pregnant women down the street, just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process.
Listening to this tragic accounting, I found it hard not to think of all the dark fantasies about America that Trump has trafficked in over the years. Next Tuesday will mark one year since he returned to office. Trump may have started out by trash-talking America; now he is simply trashing it. Minnesota is his legacy. It is American carnage made real. ♦
MINNEAPOLIS — The federal agents arrived weeks ago. But since the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, their numbers have swelled — and people here say the weight of it all is inescapable.Agents are flooding the sidewalks of their neighborhoods, honks and whistles sound when they are near and, occasionally, the smell of chemical agents wafts by.
The scale, the sustained intensity and the aggression demonstrated by law enforcement deployed here appears to be greater than immigration enforcement operations that took place in other blue cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, all of which are larger than Minneapolis in land mass and population.
The officers are in unmarked cars idling on neighborhood streets. They are going door to door, residents said. They are seen inside of stores and in retail parking lots, including at the Target in Richfield, south of Minneapolis, the day after Good was killed.
Videos from residents are proliferating on social media of violent arrests, including a woman dragged from her car. Some videos provided to NBC News by activists show agents smashing car windows or spraying chemicals point blank into the faces of residents.
“It feels like an invasion,” said a woman who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation. She was protesting at the Whipple federal detention facility at 7 a.m. on a frigid, 12-degree morning. The woman, a restaurant owner, said she closed her business temporarily because she was trying to protect her employees who were immigrants. “It feels very much like a Nazi Germany situation to me. It needs to stop, and people need to know what’s going on.”
Neighbors who live near the street where Renee Good was killed say the community has had no time to recover. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
The focus of Operation Metro Surge, as the Trump administration has branded this latest immigration effort, appears to have broadened beyond mass deportations and has included confrontations with anti-ICE protesters. The shooting of Good and the scope of the deployment has heightened the tense mood in a nation already bitterly divided over immigration issues and the Trump administration’s tactics. Interviews with neighbors, community leaders and organized protesters reveal a sense of being under invasion.
On Wednesday night, a man was shot in the leg after DHS said he attacked an agent with a snow shovel aor broom handle. “Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired defensive shots to defend his life,” the department said.
Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference after Wednesday’s shooting that the city was being put in an “impossible situation.”
Federal officers have smashed car windows and arrested people they said were obstructing enforcement operations. (Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Immigration officers have been flooding neighborhoods, knocking on doors in pursuit of non-U.S. citizens. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“We are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to protect order,” Frey said, while also warning protesters against “taking the bait.” He added that the city has 600 police officers compared to the 3,000 federal immigration agents present. Of that number, more than 2,000 are ICE officers and agents, hundreds are Border Patrol agents and others are from Justice Department agencies, federal law enforcement officials told NBC News.
A group of area residents visiting Good’s memorial site on Tuesday described masked immigration officers wearing camouflage going door to door, saying they were looking for non-U.S. citizens. They, and others interviewed, described it taking place around Lake Street, Uptown and the Powderhorn neighborhoods.
Those actions reflect what Vice President J.D. Vance said agents would be doing.
“I think we’re going to see those deportation numbers ramp up as we get more and more people online, working for ICE, going door-to-door and making sure that if you’re an illegal alien, you’ve got to get out of this country and if you want to come back, apply through the proper channels,” Vance said on Fox News last week. He had also suggested earlier that the ICE officer who shot Good would have “absolute immunity.”
Good’s killing has shaken a Midwestern city already carrying deep wounds from the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. In the days since Good’s fateful encounter with an armed ICE officer, there was no letup by law enforcement. In interviews, neighbors who live near the street where the 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen was killed say the community has had no time to recover.
Federal officers regularly detain protesters outside the Whipple Federal Building. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
One resident who spoke with NBC News described their own arrest hours after Good was killed, providing video evidence of the encounter. They said they were monitoring an immigration operation when agents said their vehicle was in the way. They believed the agents had space to go around their car, which was seen in the video as being positioned horizontally on the street.
The video showed agents breaking the windows of the person’s car, before reaching in to pepper spray both the passenger and the driver. The person, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said they were punched in the face after pulling down an agent’s mask who was dragging them out of the vehicle.
“I was just so angry. I said: ‘Show yourself, coward!’” they said.
The person said that after being thrown to the ground and arrested, they were taken to an ICE facility at the Whipple Building, which they described as bursting at the seams with more than 20 people crammed into each cell that, in this person’s experience, could reasonably feel too crowded with five people.
The Whipple Building, which holds an ICE facility, has been the site of daily protests. (Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about their account.
In the days that have followed, intensive arrest operations have continued close to the Good memorial site, with one taking place just a block and a half and another three blocks away. Confrontations between law enforcement and protesters are playing out almost in real time, with both sides revved up.
In one video, an officer reaches out of his passenger’s side window to shoot a stream of red chemicals point-blank into a woman’s face as she stands in front of his car while he tries to drive away.
Where federal officers are present, there are usually also protesters, activists and residents blowing whistles, honking their horns — and invariably filming.
Those videos are then quickly disseminated from Minneapolis across the internet, showing agents asking drivers at an electric vehicle station whether they are citizens or dragging a screaming woman out of her car.
As the videos inflame divisions online, the pushback has intensified on the ground.
Drive along a neighborhood street and one can hear the honking break out in traffic, warning that immigration agents are nearby. At busy intersections, like near Karmel Mall, where a diverse mix of residents walk and shop, community members can at times be seen posted up, warning whistles slung around their necks.
The Trump administration said it would target for arrest anyone interfering with immigration enforcement. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Mark, another resident of the Bryant Central neighborhood, the diverse area of the city where some of the operations are playing out, said he felt as if the swarms of fatigue-laden officers he was seeing across his city was punishment for not voting for the president.
He visited the site of Good’s memorial for four consecutive days, he said, for a simple reason.
“This is wrong,” Mark said. He asked that his last name not be used because of fear of retaliation. “I truly feel Minnesota is being targeted because of who we voted for.”
Mark, who is African American, was inside his car when he saw an ICE operation taking place nearby. He heard loud noises, he said, and tried turning around to return to his home and check on his family.
He described immigration officers surrounding his car and accusing him of trying to obstruct their operation. They took his phone, he said. Mark then explained to them he was simply trying to walk to his home. After keeping his phone for about 15 minutes, they returned it, he said.
“The City of Minneapolis again demands that ICE leave the city and state immediately,” the city posted on X Wednesday night. “We stand by our immigrant and refugee communities — know that you have our full support.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that President Trump is weighing whether to invoke the Insurrection Act over protests in Minnesota. “If anything doesn’t change with Governor Walz, I don’t anticipate that the streets will get any safer or more peaceful.”
The frontrunner to oversee a new national counter-fraud push at the Justice Department in the wake of revelations of massive public benefits fraud in Minnesota is a top official in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office, sources familiar with the decision told CBS News.
Colin McDonald is being considered for the newly created position of assistant attorney general, the sources said. McDonald is a longtime federal prosecutor who is currently an associate deputy attorney general.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday he had someone in mind for the post, but he was not ready to announce a name. His nominee will require U.S. Senate confirmation.
“We have chosen a person who’s very tough, very smart, very fair,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump earlier this month announced that the Justice Department would be establishing a new division tasked with investigating and prosecuting fraud against the federal government, as well as private citizens.
The White House is leaning into new anti-fraud efforts and more oversight is likely to be announced in coming weeks.
The new assistant attorney general post will be structured the same way as existing roles, according one of the sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The Justice Department’s current criminal and civil divisions, as well as U.S. Attorney’s offices around the country, already handle a wide variety of fraud cases, from healthcare fraud to violations of the False Claims Act.
McDonald is considered a close ally to Blanche, one of the people familiar with the matter told CBS News. The fact that Mr. Trump is considering him for the role suggests that the White House is listening to Blanche’s advice, the person added.
Of all of the associate deputy attorneys general in Blanche’s office, McDonald is among those with the most experience in the field as a prosecutor.
He is also among a handful of close advisers in Blanche’s office who has been involved in efforts to root out what Trump allies have described as the weaponization of the U.S. justice system against him during President Biden’s tenure, according to government records reviewed by CBS News.
The creation of a new fraud-focused division at the Justice Department comes as Minnesota and its officials have come under nationwide scrutiny over a growing fraud scandal in the state, which prosecutors estimate could top $9 billion.
More than 90 people have faced federal charges as a result of fraud schemes in the state that have come to light since 2021.
Prosecutors have uncovered widespread fraud in various social services programs, including a housing program for seniors, one that provides services to children with autism and the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
