Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis shot and killed a woman in her car today.
Video of the shooting, obtained by the Minnesota Reformer, shows a SUV stopped at an angle in the street as a pickup truck with emergency lights on approaches and stops in front of it. Masked ICE agents exited the truck and immediately ordered the woman to get out. As the officers started to pull on the door handles of the SUV, the woman backed the SUV up and then started to pull away, forcing an ICE officer who had stepped in front of the driver-side bumper out of the way. The officer drew his gun and fired three shots in quick succession into the car. The SUV continued down the street a short distance before crashing.
Minneapolis Public Radio (MPR) reported that an eyewitness, Emily Heller, saw a car blocking traffic "that appeared to be part of a protest against federal law enforcement operations."
Heller said she heard ICE agents telling the driver, a woman, to "get out of here."
"She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in—like, his midriff was on her bumper—and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times," Heller told MPR.
In a statement posted to the social media platform X, Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary for public affairs, confirmed that the woman was dead and described her as a "violent rioter" who "weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism."
Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.…
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) January 7, 2026
DHS' public affairs office has made similar accusations against U.S. citizens who were subjected to violent and deadly force by ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, but in several of those cases the defendants' names were cleared after evidence emerged contradicting DHS' initial claims.
For example, federal prosecutors in Chicago dropped charges in November against Marimar Martinez, a woman who was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent. The government accused Martinez of ramming an agent's vehicle, but according to Martinez's lawyer, video showed an agent turning his vehicle into her car, after which an agent said, "Do something, bitch." The agent then got out of his car and started shooting at Martinez. DHS' original press release described Martinez as a "domestic terrorist" with a "history of doxxing federal agents."
DHS considers following, recording, and alerting others to the presence of law enforcement to be illegal activity, despite the fact that every federal circuit court that has considered the issue has firmly upheld the First Amendment right to film and monitor the police in public.
There have been months of news reports and viral videos showing federal immigration officers threatening, brandishing weapons, and violently detaining people for following and recording them in public. David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, collected dozens of these instances in a report released last month. Bier concluded that the amount of video evidence, in conjunction with memos and public statements from DHS leadership, amounts to "an official, nationwide policy of intimidating and threatening people who attempt to observe and record [DHS] operations."
In a comment to Reason last month, the DHS Office of Public Affairs said that following and recording law enforcement officers "sure sounds like obstruction of justice."
Local and state officials, as well as federal lawmakers representing Minnesota, are demanding in response that ICE and CBP withdraw from Minneapolis, where the Trump administration recently launched a large immigration enforcement crackdown.
"A US citizen has apparently been shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis. I'm gathering information, but the situation on the ground is volatile,' Sen. Tina Smith (D–Minn.) posted on social media. "ICE should leave now for everyone's safety."
"I am aware of a shooting involving an ICE agent at 34th Street & Portland," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey posted. "The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city. We're demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities."
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