{"id":46180,"date":"2026-01-17T12:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46180"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:49:18","slug":"my-us-citizenship-did-not-protect-me-community-hearing-details-ice-horrors-in-minneapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/01\/17\/my-us-citizenship-did-not-protect-me-community-hearing-details-ice-horrors-in-minneapolis\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My US Citizenship Did Not Protect Me\u2019: Community Hearing Details ICE Horrors in Minneapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"'My<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 15, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Mostafa Bassim\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCruelty and humiliation were probably the point,\u201d said one witness.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan 16, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Democratic lawmakers on Friday convened a hearing<\/a> in Minnesota to hear testimony from local officials and residents about the impact that the surge of federal immigration<\/a> agents in the state has had on their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing, which was organized by Reps. Ilhan Omar<\/a> (D-Minn.) and Pramila Jayapal<\/a> (D-Wash.), featured elected leaders such as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison<\/a> and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as well as testimony from US citizens who had been taken into custody by federal agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=bfVji76Mvkg%3Fsi%3DDGYlsV9bczKLloMN\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Federal<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Where Were You Born?\u2019 ICE Conducting Show-Me-Your-Papers Stops in Minnesota Neighborhoods<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Federal<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s DHS Sued to End Lawless Stops and Arrests in Minnesota<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Patty O\u2019Keefe, a 36-year-old US citizen, told lawmakers that her encounter with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> (ICE) agents began when she and a friend had received a report that legal observers in her neighborhood were being pepper sprayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said they found the agents and began following them in their car while honking their horn and blowing whistles to alert others in the area to their presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICE agents subsequently stopped their vehicle, surrounded the car, discharged pepper spray into it, then smashed the car\u2019s windows and dragged out both O\u2019Keefe and her friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Keefe said that after being detained by agents, they started taunting her, with one agent telling her, \u201cYou guys got to stop obstructing us, that\u2019s why this lesbian bitch is dead,\u201d an apparent reference to Minneapolis resident Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE agent last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Keefe said this comment left her feeling \u201crage and sadness,\u201d while also asking why anyone would say something like that about the victim of a horrific killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen I remembered that cruelty and humiliation were probably the point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Keefe was then taken to the BH Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul, where she was put into leg shackles and placed in a detention area that had been reserved for US citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in detention for eight hours at the building, she said she saw people being subjected to inhumane conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw holding cells with over a dozen people each, and a large holding cell of between 40 to 50 people,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of the people there were Hispanic and East African, both women and men. Some cells had no room for people to sit or lay down. Most people I saw were staring straight ahead, not talking, despondent and grief stricken. I know I\u2019ll never forget their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mubashir, a 20-year-old US citizen of Somali descent, recounted his detention by federal immigration agents in December, when officers tackled him and took him into custody even though he offered to show them his identification proving his citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI repeated, \u2018I\u2019m a citizen, I have an ID,\u2019 the agent kept saying, \u2018That don\u2019t matter,\u2019\u201d Mubashir explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like O\u2019Keefe, Mubashir was taken to the St. Paul ICE detention facility, where he was shackled. Unlike O\u2019Keefe, however, he was told that he was going to be deported despite having proof of his legal status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Mubashir was able to show a photo of his passport card to an official at the facility who instructed officers to release him from custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is difficult to believe this happened to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew the president had made statements about Somali people and there would be additional ICE officers in the Twin Cities… But I did not think this would happen to me or someone in my family. We are all United States<\/a> citizens, so we should not be at risk of being jailed or deported by ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mubashir also emphasized that \u201cmy citizenship did not protect me from being physically detained and hurt by ICE agents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 15, 2026.  (Photo by Mostafa Bassim\/Anadolu via Getty Images) \u201cCruelty and humiliation were probably the point,\u201d said one witness. Brad Reed Jan 16, 2026 (CommonDreams.org) Several Democratic lawmakers on Friday convened a hearing in Minnesota to… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46180"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46182,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46180\/revisions\/46182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}