Witnesses, DHS offer starkly different accounts after woman dragged in Minneapolis ICE operation

Emmy Martin, Star Tribune on Dec 18, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — A viral video of an ICE agent dragging a woman across the pavement in south Minneapolis on Monday was met with outrage, while the Department of Homeland Security says agents moved to detain her after she vandalized a law enforcement vehicle but abandoned the arrest amid a clash with protesters.

People in the crowd said the woman was pregnant and was forced face-down onto her stomach before an agent dragged her across the ground during the operation near Karmel Mall. The Minnesota Star Tribune was unable to independently confirm whether she is pregnant.

Taneka Dortch, who lives in a house overlooking the intersection where the detentions occurred, said she recovered the woman’s cellphone after the scene cleared. She said a close friend of the woman told her the woman was released from ICE custody a few hours later on Monday. The woman is Mexican and a legal resident, Dortch said.

“She is terrified,” she added.

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, disputed those accounts. In a statement, she said the woman “rushed an ICE vehicle and attempted to vandalize it,” and that agents tried to apprehend her but did not ultimately detain her.

“When ICE officers apprehended her for vandalizing a government vehicle, they were swarmed and attacked by rioters, who punched, kicked, and threw rocks at officers,” McLaughlin said. “Officers abandoned their attempt to arrest the vandal for their own safety.” She added that the crowd “later claimed” the woman was pregnant.

Dortch, who said she was present throughout the encounter, said the woman had been protesting the ICE operation with activists when agents confronted her.

“They chased her down and then they threw her down at the end of the block,” she said. Dortch said she saw an agent place his knees on the woman’s back as people in the crowd shouted, “Let her go!”

The arrests began around 3 p.m. Monday at Pillsbury Avenue S. and W. 29th Street, where several unmarked vehicles surrounded a sedan. Witnesses said ICE agents smashed the driver’s side window and pulled the occupants — described by bystanders as Hispanic — from the car before handcuffing them. McLaughlin confirmed that two unauthorized immigrants were detained.

As bystanders and activists gathered, tensions escalated. Members of the crowd blew whistles, yelled at officers and blocked in federal vehicles with their cars, Dortch said. Some threw snowballs toward the agents.

McLaughlin said officers arrested two U.S. citizens for assaulting federal officers and they remain in custody. She added that ICE officers “sustained multiple injuries including cuts.”

Several witnesses said ICE responded with force, deploying pepper spray into the crowd. Dortch said she was sprayed and that an agent held a Taser inches from her face when she attempted to hand one detainee a card outlining their rights.

Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene Monday after ICE requested help, but both agencies said they left once they determined federal officers were not in immediate danger.

City policy bars Minneapolis police from assisting in civil immigration enforcement, and the City Council last week strengthened that ordinance by prohibiting the use of city resources to control public areas around immigration operations.

The Sheriff’s Office later posted audio of a DHS supervisor requesting urgent backup, saying officers were being attacked by “60 to 70 agitators.” In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded because of the nature of the call but stressed that it does not participate in civil immigration enforcement.