U.S. citizen swept up in ICE enforcement as Twin Cities operation continues

A 20-year-old Crystal man was detained by immigration agents in Robbinsdale early Jan. 8 in an encounter his family described as violent and that a relative livestreamed on Facebook.

The man, Jose Roberto Ramirez, was born in Minneapolis, according to a copy of his birth certificate provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune by his family. Ramirez was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a Hy-Vee at about 11 a.m.

Raelyn Duffy, his mother and a member of the Red Lake Nation, said she brought his passport and birth certificate to the Whipple Federal Building near Fort Snelling earlier Thursday but was initially turned away and unable to reach her son for several hours.

Speaking through tears earlier in the day, Duffy said agents told her son he “wasn’t from here” and did not allow him to show his ID. Ramirez’s father was born in Mexico, and Duffy was born in Minnesota.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The arrest came about 24 hours after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in south Minneapolis and as the Department of Homeland Security announced a significant increase in federal agents on the ground a month after launching “Operation Metro Surge.”

Ramirez was released from custody around 5:45 p.m. Thursday.

“They’re saying, ‘You’re gonna see your family, some of your cousins in here,’” he said. Ramirez said he asked agents to loosen his handcuffs, but they instead tightened them.

Duffy said she first learned of the arrest while at work, when a co-worker pulled her aside and showed her the video her sister, Shawntia Sosa-Clara, had posted of the encounter.

“It just looked like he got rushed. They just punched him, pulled him out of the car, arrested him,” Duffy said.

Sosa-Clara said Ramirez called her when he realized he was being followed by federal agents, and she met him at Hy-Vee. She said she called Robbinsdale police, and officers were there when she arrived. There appeared to be only one ICE vehicle.

Robbinsdale Police Capt. John Elder said his officers were at the scene but “we had nothing to do with the arrest. Our officers had no interactions with the detainee.”

“We just got swarmed up on and blocked in, and there was about 20 ICE agents came after us, and that’s when I started recording,” she said.

As agents demanded Ramirez’s ID, Sosa-Clara said she handed him his driver’s license but it got lost in the shuffle.

“As they were scanning his face, another agent came and punches him, and they just started hitting him,” she said.

Sosa-Clara said an officer told her “there’s nothing we can do, just make sure you have your documents.” She told them that they did and that he’s a citizen who was born here.