Police walk a tightrope to maintain community relations amid Twin Cities ICE arrests

Hours after news of an impending federal immigration crackdown sent shock waves through the Somali community, Chief Brian O’Hara stood in solidarity with vulnerable residents.

At a news conference, he reiterated that his officers do not cooperate with immigration enforcement and that his agency is not notified in advance about ICE raids. He also encouraged people to call 911 if they questioned whether masked men grabbing people on the street were, in fact, law enforcement.

The backlash was swift.

People mocked O’Hara on social media for what they interpreted as permission to call the police on the police. Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, decried his comments as “shameful” on Fox News, saying: “He oughta put his badge in the desk drawer and walk away.”

Amid President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Somali diaspora and ramped-up deportation efforts in the Twin Cities, O’Hara has emerged as among the most outspoken law enforcement leaders in the nation condemning ICE tactics. Other chiefs have opted to side-step politics.

Across the Twin Cities, local police officials are grappling with how to navigate immigration enforcement. Many departments have policies preventing them from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, and they view that work as outside the bounds of their public safety mission. But that is opening them up to criticism from some corners where they typically enjoy support and creating difficult decisions about when to intervene to keep the peace when protesters clash with ICE agents.

Avowed law enforcement supporters, some of whom proudly post Blue Lives Matter flags in their bios, have berated police departments online for refusing to partner with ICE. Meanwhile, the presence of local cops on the perimeter of an immigration operation can inflame tensions and lead to accusations of collaboration.

“They’re getting drawn into this,” said Jeff Potts, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, “and their role at the scene is to keep everyone safe.”

While local authorities will not aid ICE actions, he said, federal law forbids them from impeding an immigration arrest. Instead, police officers seek to prevent violence and the destruction of property when large demonstrations erupt in response to raids.

But responding to those chaotic scenes means risking the use of force during clashes with their own citizens. That happened during an ICE raid at a St. Paul home last month where officers used chemical irritants and rubber-coated bullets on protesters, triggering a city probe into their actions.

In Minneapolis, a vocal contingent of residents — and some elected officials — don’t want their police force to show up all.

“Why are we putting money into any of this?” asked Miguel Hernandez, an organizer with Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC). Federal agents should be forced to conduct their own operations, he said, otherwise local authorities risk further deteriorating their own fragile relationship with the community.

Earlier this month, dozens of federal agents flooded the Twin Cities at the direction of the Trump administration, intending to target immigrants who are in the country illegally or who have committed violent crimes.

The Department of Homeland Security claims the operation has netted more than 400 arrests so far, but those numbers are hard to verify because the agency doesn’t release a list of those detained.

Whatever the figure, advocates say fears of deportation have sent swaths of the Latino community into the shadows, shuttered immigrant businesses and terrorized Somali residents, many of whom now carry their passports everywhere they go.

At various raids throughout the Twin Cities, video and bystander accounts depict masked ICE agents reaching into vehicles, breaking windows and stopping bystanders seemingly at random, regardless of their immigration status — aggressive tactics not typically deployed by Minnesota police officers.

“It’s a real contrast to the direction American police have been going,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

That forces city departments to walk a difficult tightrope.

In public appearances, O’Hara has chided outside agencies for employing “questionable methods” that threaten the safety of everyone involved and don’t appear to be a good use of resources.

On Dec. 10, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Mayor Jacob Frey to denounce the treatment of a Somali American citizen detained by federal agents during “Operation Metro Surge.”

He apologized to the 20-year-old, Mubashir, calling it “embarrassing” that people wearing vests emblazoned with “police” had disregarded his rights.

“Random efforts in which individuals who are American citizens are being stopped because they appear to be Latino or appear to be Somali is wrong,” said O’Hara, who declined an interview request for this story.

“How abhorrent and humiliating this Minneapolis Police Chief refuses to do his job and has allowed these pedophiles and rapists [to] terrorize Minneapolis and hurt the very people he swore an oath to protect,” she posted on X.

O’Hara isn’t the only one speaking out. Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt also voiced concerns about a lack of professionalism during some arrests, telling WCCO Radio that “doing this job doesn’t mean you have to be an asshole.”

Potts, from the Minnesota Chiefs Association, said he opened a dialogue with Department of Homeland Security officials to provide feedback and ensure “they understand the ramifications of their tactics, and how the perception of that can bleed over into perceptions of local law enforcement.” He said those conversations so far have been productive, but declined to elaborate.

Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown came in the aftermath of an FBI memo urging federal authorities to clearly identify themselves in the field following a string of incidents in different states where criminals donned masks, posing as immigration officers to rob, kidnap and sexually assault people.

The New Orleans mayor and police superintendent echoed the request to remove face coverings ahead of operations in their city, but the agency ignored them.

Minneapolis police officers have made appearances at area mosques and community centers to inform Somali residents of their rights and encourage them to call 911 if they are unsure whether someone is a licensed officer.

Abdirizak Bihi, a Somali community activist and longtime Cedar-Riverside resident, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he recently recorded a man, known to work security in the East African neighborhood, flashing a DHS badge — apparently pretending to be a federal agent.

Bihi praised MPD and O’Hara for investing so much time building inroads inside the community, which paid dividends when ICE descended upon their neighbors.

“That work prior to the [crackdown] has protected us, protected the relationship, and the community still trusts the police,” he said.

As immigration enforcement spilled into the suburbs, smaller agencies got roped into the fray.

In Bloomington, Chief Booker Hodges filmed a public service message for the city’s webpage explaining why his agency does not enforce immigration law. But he emphasized that, should a federal partner call for backup, “we’re going to help them.”

Hodges ended the message with a call to action, urging community members to give immigration officers the ”dignity and respect they deserve” because “it’s a tough job.”

In an interview, he acknowledged that many are disgruntled by the Trump administration’s efforts but said he doesn’t want protesters to get saddled with federal charges for attempting to physically interfere.