Conflict between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers continued on Jan. 11 outside a federal building that the agency is using as a detention facility.
The clashes also embroiled conservative influencer Nick Sortor, who sped off from the scene with fellow influencer Cam Higby after conflicts with protesters that culminated in his vehicle being surrounded.
The latest clashes come amid a weekend of protests and arrests in Minneapolis after an ICE officer shot driver Renee Nicole Good in her vehicle. Videos show the woman suddenly accelerate while turning her steering wheel away from the agents while another agent attempted to force open her door from the inside. One of the agents, who was standing near the edge of the driver’s side of the vehicle, fired at Good, killing her.
The Jan. 7 incident has provoked clashing interpretations, with the Trump administration defending the officer and accusing Good of “domestic terrorism” as others accuse him of using excessive force against the backdrop of a massive ICE deployment in the Twin Cities.
Anti-ICE protests have since spread across the country.
In downtown Minneapolis, law enforcement detained 30 demonstrators during marches in the street on the evening of Jan. 9 and into the early morning of Jan. 10. Demonstrators also targeted hotels they believed to be hosting ICE.
Later on Jan. 10, tens of thousands of anti-ICE protesters took to the streets in and around Powderhorn Park. That same day, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and two other House Democrats from Minnesota said they were rapidly ejected from an ICE facility at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building.
The confrontations between protesters, Higby, and Sortor took place the evening of Jan. 11. Video from Higby documents a chaotic scene as Sortor tussled with at least one demonstrator. Seconds later, a flashbang detonated.
The two later entered their vehicle. Protesters surrounded the spray-painted automobile, blocking the front of it before the pair sped off.
Demonstrators sought to report alleged crimes by the two to Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies who arrived after Sortor and Higby left.
One man, who would not provide his name, was left with a small gash on his nose. He told The Epoch Times that his tooth was chipped where he was struck.
At one point on the afternoon of Jan. 11, a protester parked his car on the threshold of the Whipple Federal Building and held up a sign. A crowd of demonstrators who had been on the other side of the street then approached the Whipple driveway, whooping as a line of immigration law enforcement officers moved toward them from the facility’s campus.
The officers fired non-lethal projectiles at the demonstrators, pushing at least one demonstrator back as they advanced.
Immigration law enforcement detained the man who had parked his vehicle in the driveway. The car was driven inside and, later, towed, drawing jeers and taunts from the protesters.
Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies also approached the fractious scene, speaking to protesters as they and ICE gradually backed up to their respective sides of the street.
Megan Larson of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office told The Epoch Times that the department had not made any arrests on Jan. 11, saying the deputies were there as part of their regular patrol of the area.
“All of the protesters that we have encountered have been peaceful,” she said.
The Epoch Times has reached out to ICE seeking information on how many protesters were detained on Jan. 11 at Whipple.
The uneasiness continued after the afternoon clash. One protester chased down a vehicle as it exited Whipple, which hosts many federal agencies in addition to the ICE detention facility.
The protests come as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) condemned moves by anti-ICE protestors to share the hotels where agents are staying.
“Revealing their locations puts them at enormous risk of retaliation from these monsters,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times.
Sunrise Twin Cities, a youth-led group against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, is publishing a weekly list of hotels where they suspect that immigration agents are staying.
The Minneapolis-based group has spent weeks urging locals to hold “noise demonstrations” outside hotels, hoping that management will become fed up, kick out the agents, and cancel future reservations.
—Nathan Worcester, Jacki Thrapp, and Joseph Lord
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