Minnesota State Representative Michael Howard (DFL) was there when two U.S. citizens were forcibly arrested at a Target store in Richfield.
That happened last weekend, and Rep. Howard says he still finds it hard to comprehend what happened.
"The sentence that Federal agents arrested workers, U.S. citizens at their place of work at Target, it's just not something I would think I'd be saying in 2026 in the United States of America," Howard explained to WCCO's Adam Carter. "But that's where we are."
Howard says that federal agents were the aggressors in this incident. He says that type of action has been increasing in the past few weeks.
He says all businesses have the right to tell federal agents to leave their property if there isn't a warrant.
"The other thing we would hope that all businesses have is clear protocols in place," he says. "So that managers, all workers are trained and have sort of skills, and are ready to act if ICE is unlawfully entering their premises."
Howard added that it is important for people to be peaceful when exercising their constitutional rights to protest, and not engaging with the federal agents.
Minneapolis duo details their ICE detention
Two Minneapolis residents who have been monitoring immigration officers' actions during the Trump administration's latest crackdown say they were detained without charge for several hours in distressing conditions, denied phone calls, and pressured to rat out protest organizers and people living in the country illegally.
The accusations leveled by Brandon Sigüenza and Patty O’Keefe suggest that the Department of Homeland Security is employing similar tactics in Minneapolis and St. Paul as it did during the crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans. Federal officers are again using roving patrols, warrantless arrests and aggressive tactics such as spraying chemical irritants, breaking car windows and recording protesters, including Renee Good and her vehicle in the moments before an ICE officer fatally shot her.
According to organizers and an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, immigration officers have also been surveilling activists who have been observing their activities in the Twin Cities, violating their First Amendment rights. And Sigüenza, who like his friend O'Keefe is a U.S. citizen, said an immigration officer who questioned him Sunday even offered him money or legal protection if he gave up the names of organizers or neighbors who are in the country illegally.
“At one point, the officer said in vague terms that it looks like I’m in trouble, and he could possibly help me out,” Sigüenza said, noting he refused the offer.
DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs and Enforcement and the Border Patrol, didn’t immediately respond to a Tuesday request for comment.
Aggressive tactics and an arrest
Sigüenza and O’Keefe, who are among an unknown number of Twin Cities residents observing the immigration officers in action, were detained Sunday while following ICE officers who were driving around and making arrests. The officers stopped in front of O’Keefe's car, fired pepper spray through her windshield vent and smashed her car's windows even though the doors were unlocked, the two told The Associated Press.
According to O’Keefe, the agents mocked her looks and laughed at her. She said they also brought up the killing of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot in the head last week by an ICE officer in front of her wife.
O'Keefe said the officer who sprayed their car Sunday threatened them, saying that “obstructing” their work was how Good got killed.
“It was very clear that they were trying to just humiliate me, break me down,” O’Keefe said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.