A federal judge is considering whether to temporarily limit the tactics of immigration agents in Minnesota after hearing arguments in a lawsuit alleging mistreatment of Twin Cities residents by ICE agents.
During a Jan. 13 hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, attorneys representing six Minnesota residents asked the court for a preliminary injunction that would temporarily rein in federal agents in Minnesota while the case proceeds, to include limits on pointing firearms and deploying chemical irritants against citizens.
The ACLU of Minnesota filed a lawsuit Dec. 17 on behalf of the residents, who claim federal authorities violated their constitutional rights while they were observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. It argues the heavy-handed enforcement at the hands of federal officers flooding the state has chilled their free speech and rights against unlawful search and seizure. The suit calls for the court to restrict a number of actions by federal agents, including use of crowd control weapons and limiting their ability to arrest any citizen who is not resisting a crowd dispersal order.
Since President Donald Trump returned to office and escalated immigration enforcement, some Minnesota protesters have been arrested and charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing officers.
Among the tactics alleged in the lawsuit:
- Susan Tincher says she was standing on a north Minneapolis sidewalk and asked one question before masked immigration agents tackled her into a snowbank and arrested her. Tincher was taken to the federal Whipple Building at Fort Snelling, where parts of her clothes and her wedding ring were cut off. She was held in a cell in shackles for several hours before she was released without being charged.
- Janet Lee and John Biestman of the Linden Hills neighborhood in Minneapolis had guns pointed at them and were threatened with arrest for following an ICE vehicle near their church.
- Lucia Webb of Minneapolis’ Powderhorn neighborhood had federal agents box in her car near the Whipple Building and threaten her with arrest because she followed immigration agents in her car.
- Alan Crenshaw, a University of Minnesota student, filmed the arrest of a U.S. citizen in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. ICE agents who were leaving the scene stopped their vehicle to pepper spray people standing on the side of the road.
- Abdikadir Noor of Fridley, a Somali American who’s been a citizen for 20 years, had his vehicle stopped by ICE agents who detained him and disparaged his national origin.
Federal officials have repeatedly defended their immigration enforcement efforts, saying their agents are responding to unruly crowds and agitated protesters. The Justice Department attorneys also described concerns over an increase in drivers pursuing ICE vehicles to monitor agents’ behavior — a phenomenon they said was “virtually nonexistent” before 2025.
Yet Justice Department attorneys also appeared to struggle responding to U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez’s questions about whether protesters are acting within their First Amendment rights when following immigration agents in their cars.
Jeremy Newman, from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, repeatedly emphasized that drivers are “chasing” ICE vehicles across the state for the sole purpose of drawing large crowds to scenes of their operations. Menendez pressed him, saying she hasn’t seen any evidence the drivers were breaking traffic laws.
