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Videos From Minnesota Show How Aggressive ICE Has Gotten During Arrests and Encounters With Protesters
Federal immigration agents have broken windows and dragged occupants out of their vehicles. They have forcefully tackled people to the ground. They have pushed and shoved protesters, and deployed pepper spray directly in their faces.
For weeks, residents have documented the scenes unfolding as federal agents pursue President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The videos have circulated widely and intensified outrage and fear among many Minnesotans.
Marty Kurcias, 76, who was protesting at the airport on Friday, said the aggressive treatment he has seen of Minnesotans was jarring. “It can’t go on like this,” he said, adding, “We don’t abide by cruelty or violence.”
Trump administration officials have defended the tactics as necessary in the face of widespread protests. But the heavy-handed use of force has drawn mounting scrutiny.
The New York Times reviewed dozens of videos taken in recent weeks and identified multiple aggressive tactics that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents used during immigration arrests and in encounters with protesters.
Officers forcibly entered homes without a judge’s warrant.
On Sunday, federal agents were seen dragging a man from his home in St. Paul. The man was later identified as ChongLy Scott Thao, a Hmong immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen with no criminal record, according to his family. Mr. Thao and his family said that the armed agents did not present a warrant or allow him to show identification at the time of arrest.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Mr. Thao refused to be fingerprinted or facially identified and that he had matched the description of two sex offenders they were seeking.
An internal memo, leaked by a whistle-blower group, showed that ICE officials had drafted guidance saying that their officers could enter homes without a judicial warrant and that they could rely instead on administrative warrants that are issued by a government agency and do not go through the federal court system.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the department, acknowledged that officers had relied on administrative warrants to enter homes to conduct arrests.
John Sandweg, who served as an acting director of ICE under President Barack Obama, said the practice of entering homes without a judicial warrant would be a significant departure from decades-old ICE policies and procedures.
They interrogated people because of their ethnicity or accents.
Administration officials have repeatedly said that the operations in Minnesota have targeted violent criminals and people who pose a serious threat to the community. But immigration agents have confronted and interrogated people because of what they assumed their race or ethnicity to be.
A video posted on social media and additional footage provided to The New York Times show one man, Ramon Menera, questioned by immigration agents who told him they were asking for documentation because of his accent.
Mr. Menera told The Times that he is a U.S. citizen and that the agents released him after he provided them with his passport card.
In July, a federal judge prohibited immigration agents in the Los Angeles area from targeting people based on assumptions about their race or ethnicity, but the Supreme Court lifted the order in September.
They broke windows and dragged occupants from their cars.
Immigration agents are taking sharp measures to detain and arrest people. That includes people who do not appear to be a danger to the community and in some cases people who are not the targets of immigration enforcement operations at all.
A widely shared video taken in Minneapolis shows immigration agents dragging a woman, later identified as Aliya Rahman, from her car, after one agent shattered the window on the passenger side.
The Homeland Security department later said that the woman was an “agitator” who ignored multiple commands to move her vehicle away from the scene. Ms. Rahman told CNN that she was not there to protest, and that she had received conflicting commands.
Another video shows one agent breaking the window of a car after a man inside refuses to open the door. Multiple agents then tackle the man, later identified as Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano, to the ground.
Shattering a window and pulling someone out of their car can escalate an encounter significantly, said Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina. It would be suitable only in a situation in which the federal agents had probable cause to suspect that the target had committed a violent crime like murder, rape or robbery, he said.
It was not immediately clear whether the man fit that description. The Homeland Security Department said only that he was an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who failed to obey officers’ orders.
They used force on people who were already restrained.
The Times found multiple instances of several agents tackling someone to the ground and proceeding to handle that person aggressively, in one instance placing a knee on the person’s neck.
In another case, video shows five immigration agents holding a man to the ground as one agent repeatedly strikes the man in the face with his knee.
A strike to the head is generally considered deadly force, justified only to defend against imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person, said Christy Lopez, a professor at Georgetown Law. “There was nothing in that video that indicated that was the situation,” she said.
The available video does not show what led up to the encounter. Ms. McLaughlin said in a statement to The Times that the man had violently resisted arrest. She added that officers are trained to use the minimum necessary amount of force.
They met protesters with force.
Immigration agents have increasingly clashed with protesters in recent weeks after a federal officer shot and killed a woman, Renee Good, on Jan. 7. Protesters have gathered in small groups and in large crowds, honking car horns, blowing whistles and yelling at and filming ICE agents. Immigration agents have been filmed exchanging insults and jeers with the protesters.
Videos showed multiple cases when agents were quick to use physical force with protesters, shoving or tackling them. In one instance, an agent gets out of a car, walks up to a protester who is standing in front of the agent’s car and shoves him into the middle of the street.
Ms. Lopez said that the First Amendment gives people the broad right to protest, record and yell things, even profanity, at officers.
In a statement to The Times, Ms. McLaughlin characterized the protesters as “rioters and terrorists,” and said that they had assaulted law enforcement and vandalized federal vehicles.
They deployed chemical irritants at close range.
Videos also documented multiple occasions when, in confrontations with protesters, immigration agents deployed chemical irritants with little to no warning — firing directly in people’s faces.
A federal judge in Minneapolis cited several episodes of “gratuitous deployment of pepper spray” in a ruling last week that ordered agents not to retaliate against peaceful protesters. A federal appeals court temporarily lifted those restrictions on Wednesday.
In a video of a protest taken on Jan. 7 near where Ms. Good was killed, federal agents can be seen on multiple occasions hitting protesters in the face with pepper spray and other irritants at close range. Earlier in the video, one of the protesters throws a snow ball at one of the agents, and some protesters are blocking an agent’s vehicle.
They continued to operate with anonymity.
In many of the videos The Times reviewed, immigration agents drove in unmarked cars, and wore ski masks, neck gaiters or other face coverings. Many also wore a cap and shades, further obscuring their identities, a practice that has been common in immigration operations across the country.
Federal officials have said that face coverings protect the agents and their families from retaliation, such as having their home address or contact information shared online.
But the practice runs counter to protocols for most other law enforcement personnel, like police officers whose uniforms include badge numbers. And critics have suggested that the agents have been emboldened to act with impunity, knowing that their identities are hidden and that it would be difficult to hold them accountable.
By Hamed Aleaziz, Sutton Raphael, Thomas Vollkommer, Gilad Thaler, Whitney Shefte and Alexandra Ostasiewicz
March 27, 2026
Seth Bodnar, the former president of the University of Montana, is now running for Senate as an independent
Kirk Siegler/NPR
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Kirk Siegler/NPR
BUTTE, Mont. – It’s long been an adage in Montana politics that if you’re running for office, you’d better have a float in the Butte St. Paddy’s Day Parade, which draws thousands to the mining city’s historic uptown, soaking up the nostalgia – and the Guiness.
Here, you’re just steps from the towering old mining headframes and the one mile long and half mile wide Berkeley Pit. Now shuttered, it was once one of the world’s largest copper deposits.
Larry Carden, in a Notre Dame sweatshirt, never misses the parade.
“You’ll see a lot more boos for the Republicans than you will the Democrats, I can guarantee you that,” he says.
That’s a nod to Butte’s long history of Democratic politics and a strong labor movement going back to around 1900, when the “Copper King” mine owners ruled Montana business and media, and bribed their way into political office. Today, Carden, who’s retired, is worried that the mega rich are again influencing politics here, and how expensive life is in his home state.
“Between health care and gas and food, and you go to the store the other day, there’s rib steaks $19.99 a pound, you know,” Carden says.
A political group marches in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, Montana, March 17 2026
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This year’s parade followed an unusually turbulent few days in Montana’s political scene – half of its congressional delegation abruptly retired. Despite the state’s recent tilt from purple to deep red, the races for their seats could be more in play now because of the way Senator Steve Daines and Congressman Ryan Zinke, both Republicans, gave up them up and chose their successors. In Daines’ case, he withdrew his candidacy just minutes before the filing deadline.
Like a lot of people in Butte, Carden is a longtime Democrat. But he says he’s grown disillusioned with party politics.
“I would rather everything be independent where there is no party designation and then you have to pay more attention to who the person actually is,” Carden says.
New Candidate opts to go independent
That’s exactly what Seth Bodnar, a former Green Beret running for U.S. Senate, is trying to capitalize on. He joined other candidates mixed in with Irish dancing troupes and fire department floats, as he walked the parade route along Park Street shaking the occasional hand and tossing candy.
In an interview with NPR earlier in Missoula, Bodnar, who recently resigned his post as University of Montana president, pitched what he says would be his bi-partisan appeal.
“I’m an independent,” Bondar says. “When I raised my right hand at the age of 18 and I swore an oath to this Constitution when I joined the military, not to a political party.”.
Person over party used to be the playbook in Montana, which some call just one long Main Street. It’s how former Senator Jon Tester used to win despite being a Democrat as the state got redder.
The day after Bodnar formally announced he was gathering signatures to get on the ballot, his long shot bid got taken a lot more seriously.
Sen. Steve Daines, who was elected to the Senate in 2014, sent shockwaves through the state’s political scene when he announced in a video posted to X that he’d decided not to seek reelection.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., speaks at the Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be Secretary of the Treasury, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.
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“I’m also very thankful to have served alongside President Trump and my colleagues in the Senate,” Daines said in the video. “Together we built a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, we delivered the largest tax cut in U.S. history, we unleashed American energy dominance and secured our southern border.”
Daines’ late hour withdrawal presumably clears the way for his chosen successor, Kurt Alme, the U.S. Attorney for Montana until he declared his candidacy for Daines’ seat. Daines later said withdrawing earlier could have enticed a prominent Democrat like Tester to enter the race.
Independent Seth Bodnar says it reminds him of the Montana of old.
“We have direct election of senators in the United States in part because of political corruption in this state 125 years ago, Copper Kings trying to buy U.S. Senate seats,” Bodnar says. “That didn’t work back then and it’s not going to work right now.”
But Democrats say Bodnar’s entry as an independent will just split the liberal vote.
The GOP base is angry too
“Montanans are getting very indignant about what they see as out and out dishonesty,” says Roger Koopman, a former Republican legislator and Montana Public Service commissioner from Bozeman.
Koopman says the party establishment’s backroom dealing is a gift to Democrats and especially Seth Bodnar, who he says is a liberal running as an independent.
“They’re going to say, ‘hey, I’m over these Republicans playing games with me, you can’t do that and expect me to vote for you, I’m not going to vote Democrat, but here’s this guy out here who says he’s independent, let me give him a try,’” Koopman says.
Alme has been keeping a low profile. Political pundits say that might be by design. A campaign spokesperson sent NPR this statement: “Anyone could run for this seat. Kurt is running on his record as the Trump-endorsed candidate of common sense who knows how to be tough on violent crime, dismantle drug cartels, and deliver historic tax relief. Voters will decide, and Kurt is confident in his work serving Montana and helping President Trump put America First.”
At Montana State University, political science department chair Eric Austin says he expects party tensions will cool and Republicans will rally around their nominee by November.
“I think in part that speaks to the changes in the electorate in the state,” Austin says. “As the state has become more red, people have more strongly affiliated themselves with the Republican Party and less as independents.”
However, Austin says the midterms will be a referendum on President Trump and there’s growing economic anxiety in Montana. Farmers are getting hurt by Trump’s tariffs. His Iran War has sent fertilizer prices soaring, raised interest rates and the cost of gas.
Back in Butte, at the St. Paddy’s Day parade, longtime Democratic activist Evan Barrett says there’s a resurgence in populist resentment in Montana.
Longtime Montana Democratic party activist Evan Barrett at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, Montana, March 17 2026
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Kirk Siegler/NPR
“It’s almost like a repetition of the past,” says Barrett, a one time economic aide to former Governor Brian Schweitzer.
Ducking into an old storefront to take a break from the spectacle of the parade, Barrett told NPR there’s a feeling in the electorate that a lot of outside money is coming into influence politics, but not staying in Montana and being invested into things like schools.
“So this is a really wild and different year,” Barrett says. “Anybody that tells you they know what’s gonna happen, well, be a bit skeptical.”
President Trump has endorsed last minute Senate candidate Kurt Alme but it’s not clear what kind of effect that might have on voters in November.
new video loaded: Savannah Guthrie Says She Believes Her Mother Was Taken for Ransom
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Savannah Guthrie Says She Believes Her Mother Was Taken for Ransom
Savannah Guthrie spoke on the “Today” show in her first interview since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was abducted from her home near Tuscon, Ariz.
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“The ransom note, notes for ransom requests came. Did you believe those to be real?” “The two notes that we received that we responded to — I tend to believe those are real.” “Really?” “We still don’t know. Honestly, we don’t know anything. We don’t know anything. So I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom. But yeah, that’s probably — which is too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me. And I just say, I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry. We need answers. We cannot be at peace without knowing. And someone can do the right thing. And it is never too late to do the right thing.”
By Christina Kelso
March 26, 2026
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Video: Savannah Guthrie Says She Believes Her Mother Was Taken for Ransom
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