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Pilgrims along the Marian Route pass grain elevators between St. Paul in Zumbrota and St. Michael in Pine Island May 31. TOM HALDEN | COMMUNICATIONS, ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS
Mubashir had just stepped outside into the snowy Minneapolis winter weather to take his lunch break when he says he saw a masked federal officer running toward him “at full speed.”
Within seconds, the agent had tackled the 20-year-old Somali American, forced him into the back hallway of a building and restrained him, according to Mubashir’s account and video footage of the incident. He did not want his last name released publicly due to privacy concerns.
“I told him, ‘I’m a US citizen. What is going on?’ He didn’t seem to care,” Mubashir said at a news conference with city leaders Wednesday. “He dragged me outside through the snow while I was handcuffed, restrained, helpless.”
The young man was handcuffed by two agents, one of whom put him in a chokehold while he was on his knees on the snow-covered street before forcing him into a gray SUV that appeared to be unmarked as onlookers yelled out in protest, video shows.
Video shows masked federal agent put Somali US citizen in chokehold
Mubashir said the agents interrogated him about his immigration status and took him to a federal facility as he repeatedly asserted he’s a US citizen, tried to show them a digital copy of his passport and pleaded with them to let him go.
The violent detainment in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood on Tuesday has become another flashpoint in the Trump administration’s new immigration enforcement operation targeting undocumented Somali immigrants in Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of its sweeping deportation push that has led to a surge of federal agents in blue cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans.
Local and state leaders in Minnesota have decried the operation for singling out the nation’s largest population of people from Somalia who they say are vital to the fabric of the state. As reports of US citizens being detained in the sweeps accumulate, Somalis in the Twin Cities are grappling with rippling fears and heightened anxieties as the federal presence looms over their community, against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s rhetorical attacks describing them as “garbage” who should “go back to where they came from.”
“All I did was step outside as a Somali American, and I just got chased by a masked person,” said Mubashir.
When asked about the incident, the Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents were having a “consensual” conversation with a suspected undocumented immigrant near a location that has “a high level of criminal activity” when Mubashir “walked out of a nearby restaurant, turned around, and fled from law enforcement.”
The agents, having “reasonable suspicion,” chased the man who “violently resisted officers and refused to answer questions,” DHS said.
Mubashir, however, has said he was “simply standing still” after initially turning around when he saw a vehicle pull up.
Video shows Mubashir and the agent bursting into the building hallway after Mubashir appears to open the door.
The agent then pushes Mubashir against some fencing and can be heard asking, “Why are you running?”
A second agent then joins them and appears to help restrain Mubashir, who can be heard repeating “I’m a citizen” and screaming. Several people then come into the hallway from outside and begin filming the interaction and whistling before the agents pull Mubashir outside, video shows.
“A large crowd of agitators descended and began to threaten the officers,” DHS continued. “For their safety, they temporarily detained the individual to safely finish asking their questions. Once officers finished their questioning, he was promptly released.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has called for a review of all recent federal arrests in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, expressing concern over the detentions of Mubashir and other US citizens, including some who he said were reportedly documenting federal activity.
His letter came ahead of Noem’s testimony before a contentious House committee hearing Thursday in which she faced tough questioning on the administration’s immigration policies and reports of citizens being detained.
Mubashir said he has lived in the United States since he was four years old and never expected he would one day be “standing in front of all these cameras and microphones.”
But after what happened to him, he said, he couldn’t stay quiet.
Mubashir likened his treatment by the agents to getting “kidnapped” and described the incident as an assault. “It was inhumane. They dragged me across the road, they slammed me to the ground, choked me. That was uncalled for,” he continued.
The federal agents who detained Mubashir refused his repeated attempts to show them a copy of his passport on his phone or provide his name and date of birth to prove his citizenship, he said. Instead, they insisted he allow them to take a photo of him to make the verification, according to Mubashir.
“I declined, because how will a picture prove I’m a US citizen?” he said, before eventually letting them “scan” his face.
After several failed attempts to scan Mubashir’s face and fingertips, the agents transported him to the detention center at Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which houses an immigration court and Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, he said.
There, he asked for water and medical assistance for his numb hands and injured back, but his requests were declined, Mubashir added. DHS’s statement did not address these allegations.
It wasn’t until a woman “finally” listened to Mubashir that he was allowed to use his phone and show his digital passport copy as proof of his citizenship, he said. He was then released after two hours in custody, but when he asked agents to drive him back to where they took him into custody, they told him to walk back in the snow, Mubashir said. His parents eventually came to pick him up.
“If this is what’s happening to a US citizen on camera, imagine what could happen to your loved ones when there’s no one around to witness what they’re doing,” he said. “Thankfully, my incident was caught on camera.”
The city’s police chief apologized to Mubashir for what happened to him, “in my city with people wearing vests that say police.” But it’s just one chapter in a larger volume of stories he’s seen in recent days, raising concerns about questionable methods by federal agents that officials are sifting through, Chief Brian O’Hara said at the news conference.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city is “demanding accountability” and immediate changes to how the federal immigration operation is being carried out in Minneapolis, while he assured the Somali community that they have the “full support of this city government behind them.”
DHS said allegations from city leaders and other community members that federal agents are engaging in “racial profiling” as they carry out immigration enforcement duties are “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE.”
“What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” the DHS statement reads. The agency said agents are “trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability” when they encounter people subject to arrest.
When explaining the immigration push targeting undocumented Somalis, DHS has cited “widespread fraud, particularly marriage fraud, when it comes to immigration.” Trump has also referenced a $300-million fraud scandal in Minnesota in which dozens of people – the vast majority of them of Somali descent – were charged.
The scandal, which diverted money meant to feed children during the pandemic to fraudsters, is one of numerous Covid-19 fraud schemes identified nationwide.
Mubashir’s detainment “underscores the urgent need for greater oversight and reform in immigration enforcement practices,” said City Council member Jamal Osman, a Somali immigrant who represents many migrants in his district.
Osman called Mubashir a “bright, hardworking member of our community” and said in a statement his experience is a “stark reminder of the overreach and lack of accountability in ICE operations.”
Walz also highlighted Mubashir’s experience and other reports of US citizens being detained by federal immigration agents while “going about their daily lives” or documenting federal activity, in the letter to Noem.
He urged the DHS secretary to hold federal agents who may have acted unlawfully accountable.
“The forcefulness, lack of communication, and unlawful practices displayed by federal agents will not be tolerated in Minnesota,” the governor wrote.
