Somali American U.S. citizen arrested by immigration agents, detained for two days

A U.S.-born Somali American woman said she was forcibly arrested and detained by immigration officials for two days amid the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minnesota.

With bandages still covering scrapes on her forehead, Nasra Ahmed, 23, spoke about her arrest at a news conference at the Minnesota Capitol on Jan. 21. She said immigration agents stopped her in her neighborhood and asked for her identification.

Ahmed said they then used a racial slur and pushed and detained her, leaving her with body aches and a concussion.

“I was screaming; I was crying,” Ahmed said. “I was so scared. I’ve never been arrested in my life. I don’t have a criminal record.”

Following her arrest, Ahmed said she was taken to the federal Whipple Building, where she was searched and shackled at the ankles. She was later taken to Sherburne County Jail, Rep. Samakab Hussein, DFL-St. Paul, said at the news conference.

In a news conference on Jan. 20, Greg Bovino, U.S. Border Patrol’s commander at large, said federal authorities have arrested 3,000 “of some of the most dangerous offenders in Minneapolis” in the last six weeks.

Ahmed is among a growing number of U.S. citizens to report being racially profiled by immigration agents. Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol agents have been deployed to the Twin Cities in what President Donald Trump’s administration has called Operation Metro Surge.

“[Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been clear: anyone — including U.S. citizens — who assault law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," the spokesperson said.

Videos and testimony from observers have shown numerous instances of ICE using force against bystanders. Civil rights attorneys have sued on behalf of U.S. citizens they say have been profiled by ICE based on race. Local law enforcement personnel have said their own officers of color have been stopped by immigration authorities while off duty.

“Let me be clear — this is not normal,” Hussein said. “It is unlawful, and it’s not public safety. It is intimidation, harassment and it looks like racial profiling.”

“No one should be treated like a criminal because of their skin color, because their name, because their accent or the neighborhood that they live in,” Hussein said.

Ahmed said she was detained alongside a Native American woman who had blood on her clothes and gashes on her face.

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Ahmed was arrested on Jan. 14 from her apartment complex in St. Paul and released on Jan. 16.

Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Ahmed, said ICE’s actions have instilled fear among Minnesota residents.

“They cannot go to shop; they cannot go to work,” Ahmed said, “because people got fear because of how ICE brutalizes people.”

Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul, said Minnesota communities are experiencing “violence, kidnappings, abductions.”

“This trauma is not ever going to leave this young woman for the rest of her life,” Pérez-Vega said of Ahmed’s arrest.