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minneapolis‘Police chiefs are criticizing federal immigration agents after a confrontation with protesters and the attempted arrest of a woman, in which an officer knelt on her back as she lay on a snow bank and then tried to drag her into a car.
Tension is rising in Minneapolis-St. Federal authorities in the Paul area are continuing an immigration crackdown focusing on the area’s Somali community, which is the largest in the country.
Video of Monday’s confrontation in a Minneapolis neighborhood shows people screaming Immigration and Customs Enforcement The agents released the woman, saying she was pregnant and could not breathe. After kneeling over her, an agent later pulled the woman by her back with one hand toward a vehicle.
“Let him go! Let him go!” Onlookers screamed as the agents dragged the woman to an intersection near the Somali business district. The woman was allowed to go.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a news conference Tuesday that city police were called to the confrontation by a federal agent who said officers needed help.
O’Hara said, when police arrived, they did not see violence against federal officers and left in an attempt to deescalate the situation. He added that “other law enforcement agencies” may be using “questionable methods”.
“We have been training our officers very intensively for the last five years in de-escalation,” O’Hara said. “But unfortunately that’s not the case, we don’t see that often from other agencies in the city.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of State Tricia McLaughlin said federal officers were targeting a vehicle after protesters “threw rocks, ice picks, assaulted officers and used pepper spray” against officers. The officers suffered multiple injuries, including cuts, McLaughlin said in a statement, adding that two men were charged with assaulting federal officers and are in custody.
McLaughlin said officers tried to arrest the woman shown in the video as she “ran into an ICE vehicle and attempted to vandalize it”, but officers abandoned the arrest after she was surrounded by protesters.
Hodan Hassan, East minnesota The state lawmaker said he believes ICE tactics are becoming more harsh as the Minneapolis-St. Paul’s operation continues.
“The first week, they weren’t very aggressive. They were blocking people. The second week, we saw them being really aggressive,” he said.
The clash took place just a few miles away in south Minneapolis george floyd He was killed by a city police officer with a knee on his neck. The scenes of that death shocked the nation and sparked a nationwide racial justice movement and calls for police reform.