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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has responded after a video showing a woman being dragged from her car by federal agents during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minneapolis went viral.
Why It Matters
The clash unfolded near the intersection of 34th Street and Park Avenue, close to where Renee Nicole Good, 37, was fatally shot by an ICE agent, an incident that had already prompted protests and increased tensions in the area. Local and federal officials have presented conflicting accounts, with federal authorities and the administration characterizing the use of force as self-defense, while critics challenge that version. Each side has cited separate video angles from the incident to bolster its claims.
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What To Know
Video from the scene shows several federal agents, some wearing masks, sunglasses, and protective vests, confronting a woman sat in a car on a residential street. Agents reach through the driver’s side window before opening the door and pulling her onto the ground.
As she is removed from the vehicle, the woman can be heard shouting that she is disabled and attempting to reach a medical appointment, also identifying herself as autistic and saying she was unable to move her car.
“I’ve been beat up by police before,” the woman shouts. “I’m disabled, I’m trying to go to the doctor up there, that’s why I couldn’t move. I am an autistic disabled person, I’m trying to go to the doctor.”
Bystanders at Tuesday’s confrontation shouted at agents to stop, with some questioning their actions.
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The incident occurred on January 13 in the Park Avenue area, where ICE officers were executing an arrest warrant for an individual with a final order of removal, according to the DHS. The agency said officers apprehended four migrants, including 20-year-old Jonathan Chachipanta Pualacin, an Ecuadorian national who allegedly entered the United States illegally near El Paso, Texas, in 2019. DHS said all four individuals will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
"As officers carried out their law enforcement duties, a significant crowd surrounded them and began impeding law enforcement operations—a federal crime," a spokesperson for the DHS told Newsweek.
"One agitator ignored multiple commands by an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene, she was arrested for obstruction. Another agitator assaulted an officer by jumping on his back. Six of these agitators were taken into custody for assaulting law enforcement," the agency spokesperson added.
Witnesses reported that agents deployed crowd-control measures, including tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and pepper balls, as demonstrators gathered. The DHS has not released additional details about the woman’s condition following her arrest or whether any charges were filed against her.
What People Are Saying
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: "In the immediacy following the shooting, you heard people from the Trump administration saying that the victim was a domestic terrorist. You heard that the ICE agent was acting entirely in self-defense. And here's the thing: You don't need to take my word for it. You don't need to take their word for it. Watch the video. The ICE agent was not run over, as Trump stated. You had a person that was definitively trying to just get out of there. They were trying to leave the scene. That is not a person that's trying to run an ICE agent over."
Vice President JD Vance defended the agent during a press conference at the White House on Thursday, saying: "You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job."
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