Following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to the heart of affected neighbourhoods to speak with residents who are fighting to defend their community from violence and intimidation. They embed with ICE watch groups, hear from Somali-American residents, and witness a swarm of federal agents conduct a sweep in the suburbs

A day after Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino was seen in Minneapolis streets, he is calling out local police for not helping federal agents deal with protesters.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol held a news conference on Thursday, updating the public on their immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota.

Bovino spoke out with ICE Executive Assistant Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Marcos Charles.

“Where was Mayor Frey? Or Governor Walz? I didn’t see him around anywhere,” said Bovino.

The two spoke at a podium inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, alongside Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The building holds the region’s federal immigration court. 

They showed those on screens they’ve detained, who they say are the “worst of the worst,” and asked for Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and everyone in between to help them.

“We’re all on the same team and our cooperation will help save lives,” said Charles. “The people we’ve arrested here are not ones you’d want living next door to your families, children, parents or best friends.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says, as of Thursday, it has now arrested over 3,300 people since Operation Metro Surge began. Those are numbers WCCO hasn’t been able to verify.

When WCCO asked if they have updated numbers on the number of agents in the state, Bovino said he would not give an exact number, “but several thousand.”

Charles added that protesters across the state are trying to defend those who’ve committed crimes. 

Bovino also criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for not helping during Wednesday’s protest. When asked if they called for help, he only mentioned they did at some point.

“Minneapolis Police Department’s been called on several situations that they have not responded,” Bovino said.

In response to Bovino’s claims, the Minneapolis Police Department said it “receives and processes numerous 911 reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity throughout the city each day,” but it has “no record of a request from federal agents for assistance” on Wednesday.

“The presence of protestors alone is not sufficient reason for MPD to respond where ICE activity is occurring,” a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department said.

Minneapolis police on Wednesday did, however, recover a magazine loaded with ammunition that had been left on a sidewalk by a federal agent, according to the department.

When asked about the end in sight, Bovino said, “This mission’s ongoing until there’s no more of those criminal illegal aliens roaming the streets of Minneapolis.”

On Thursday, ICE said in a release its officers and agents rank among the world’s most skilled and experienced.

A public school superintendent in Minnesota said federal immigration agents have detained four students over the last two weeks, including a 5-year-old who was allegedly “used as bait.”

Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were detained in their driveway as they returned from school on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

Stenvik said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to allow the boy to stay with an adult who lived in the house and instead told the boy to knock on his front door “to see if anyone else was home – essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”

Liam and his father were taken by immigration agents and brought toa detention facility in Texas, Stenvik said, adding that they had active asylum cases and did not have deportation orders.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that ICE conducted a “targeted operation” to detain Liam’s father, writing “ICE did NOT target a child.”

The incident is among the latest interactions between civilians and immigration agents fueling outrage over the aggressive enforcement operations in Minnesota following the deadly shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.

Vice President JD Vance will travel to Minneapolis on Thursday where he will meet with federal agents amid intensifying legal battles and protests over the ongoing immigration raids.

A White House official said Vance will meet with ICE officers, deliver remarks praising their work and criticize Minneapolis’ “sanctuary” policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

As the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts continue to roil Minneapolis, Vice President JD Vance said he hopes his presence in the city Thursday will calm things down.

“Certainly one of my goals is to calm the tensions, to talk to people, to try to understand what we can do better,” Vance said during a speech in Toledo, Ohio, before flying to Minnesota.

At the same time, Vance blasted local officials for not cooperating with federal immigration authorities and blamed the lack of cooperation for “chaos” in the city. The vice president said he also wants to send a message to law enforcement “that we stand with them and we’re not going to abandon them.”

“We’re not going to do what the last administration did,” Vance continued. “Which is throw them under the bus to appease a bunch of left-wing radicals.”

–Zac Anderson

Vance says Renee Good was in leftist network. Where’s the evidence?

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal agents arrested two people involved in a protest that interrupted Sunday service at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Bondi identified those arrested as Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen but did not describe any alleged charges. “More to come,” Bondi said on X. “WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOUSES OF WORSHIP.”

A group of protestors entered Cities Church on Jan. 18, alleging that Pastor David Easterwood serves as the ICE St. Paul Field Office acting director. Videos show dozens of protesters changing “Renee Good,” and “don’t shoot,” as some verbally confronted churchgoers.

Anti-ICE protesters emerge during Minnesota church service

Anti-ICE protesters emerge during a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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The DOJ launched an investigation into the protest as a potential violation of the FACE Act, a federal law that prohibits the use of force, threats or physical obstruction to block people from reproductive health care or access to religious worship under the First Amendment right to religious freedom.

A federal appeals court on Jan. 21 paused a lower court’s order that had ordered federal immigration agents in Minnesota not to use “intimidation tactics” against peaceful protesters.

The move by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a win to the Trump administration, which had vowed to appeal the lower court’s order that set up guardrails around the behavior of federal agents.

In the lower-court order, U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez said agents appeared to have engaged in “chilling conduct” and “intimidation tactics.” She noted actions such as the “drawing and pointing of weapons,” the “use of pepper spray and other non-lethal munitions” and “actual and threatened arrest and detainment of protesters and observers.”

Organizers in Minneapolis asked people to call out of work, skip school and refrain from buying anything as part of a protest against the ongoing immigration operations.

“Faith leaders, business owners, workers, and concerned Minnesotans have called for a statewide day of public mourning and pause through ‘No Work, No School and No Shopping’ and a massive, peaceful march in downtown Minneapolis that afternoon,” said a news release about the demonstration scheduled for Friday, Jan. 23.

Over the last two weeks, students at schools across Minnesota have held walkouts in protest of the immigration operation and Renee Good’s killing.