Human Impact Project

Department of Homeland Security agents were involved in a shooting during an immigration enforcement operation in Los Angeles County's Willowbrook area on Wednesday morning around 7:20 a.m. Agents were pursuing a vehicle that crashed, and shots were fired when agents approached to detain suspects. No one was struck by gunfire and all suspects were taken into custody.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers handcuffed and detained two teenagers in south Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon. One teenager was detained on Blaisdell Avenue while their passenger, who witnessed the incident, was left crying in their vehicle.

ICE agents arrested Hassane Barry, a 38-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea, on Preble Street in Portland on January 21st. Agents shattered the driver's side window of his car, spraying glass over his 1-month-old baby's car seat, and left his wife Nene and the infant alone in the vehicle in freezing conditions. The arrest was part of an intensified ICE enforcement operation in Maine, though Barry has no known criminal history and had filed for asylum upon arriving in the U.S. in 2023.

Federal immigration agents in Minnesota stopped an off-duty police officer, drew guns, and prevented her from recording the interaction, according to local police chiefs. The chiefs stated that immigration agents have been stopping American citizens without cause. The incidents occur as part of "Operation Metro Surge," which federal authorities describe as an immigration enforcement operation.

On January 18, 2026, ICE agents raided the Saint Paul, Minnesota home of ChongLy Scott Thao, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, pointing guns at family members and handcuffing him without a warrant in front of his 5-year-old grandson. After fingerprinting confirmed his citizenship, ICE released him without apology or explanation. The incident prompted a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where ICE St. Paul field office director David Easterwood serves as a pastor. Federal prosecutors subsequently charged dozens of protesters—reported as 30 or 39 depending on the source—under statutes criminalizing interference with religious freedom, including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, and photographer Junn Bollman. The arrests of the journalists drew condemnation from press freedom advocates.

Video shows an ICE agent entering Thai restaurant Eastside Thai in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his handgun drawn while searching for a person who had run past the restaurant. Co-owner Kou Lee said the agent accused them of hiding "the kid," while co-owner Elle Lee said the agent was shouting as he entered and that multiple customers and staff were traumatized. Elle Lee said the incident disrupted her business and left staff hesitant to return to work, with some employees showing up worried and scared despite needing to pay bills. St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her told PBS Newshour that "people are afraid, they are frustrated, they are angry" regarding immigration enforcement in the area.

A 62-year-old Somali elder was detained by ICE agents at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis on December 31 without a warrant. ICE officers remained at the patient's bedside for approximately 28 hours while she received medical care. During her detention, the patient was allegedly shackled to her hospital bed and denied family visits. She was subsequently transported to the ICU where she remains unresponsive.

On Sunday, January 18, ICE agents broke a driver's side truck window while detaining a man on Tucson's south side, first using a device to break the window and then using an elbow and fist to break the rest. According to a video witness, the man had work tools in the back of his truck and groceries in the front seat. ICE did not respond to inquiries about why the man was detained or why agents needed to break the window.

ChongLy "Scott" Thao, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Hmong descent, was detained at gunpoint by masked ICE agents who broke down his door without a warrant at his St. Paul, Minnesota home. Agents refused to look at his identification and led him outside in subfreezing temperatures wearing only underwear, Crocs, and a blanket while his 4-year-old grandson watched and cried; he was then driven around and questioned for over an hour before being returned home. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher have since opened a criminal investigation into the raid, saying agents lacked probable cause to enter the home, while DHS has claimed the operation targeted two sex offenders it said lived at the address, a claim Thao's family disputes. Thao's mother had fled Laos in the 1970s after supporting U.S. covert operations there as a nurse, and Thao says he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS.

On January 18, 2026, ICE officers entered the home of Chongly "Scott" Thao, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen and Hmong American man, without a warrant and detained him for several hours. Agents removed Thao from his residence in minimal clothing during sub-freezing weather. ICE stated they were searching for two convicted sex offenders with ties to the property, but Thao denied knowing the men and one remained incarcerated. Ramsey County authorities launched an investigation into potential crimes including kidnapping, burglary, false imprisonment, and constitutional rights violations. Thao was released after ICE confirmed his U.S. citizenship and lack of criminal record.

A family of eight, including six children ranging from 6 months to 11 years old, was returning from a basketball game in Minneapolis when their vehicle became trapped between ICE agents and protesters. Federal agents deployed tear gas canisters directly into the car, causing the 6-month-old infant to stop breathing; the mother performed CPR on the baby inside the vehicle. All six children were hospitalized with breathing problems. Bystanders helped evacuate the children from the tear gas-filled car. The incident occurred during protests that followed an ICE shooting in the city.

Two protesters were blinded by less-lethal munitions fired by federal officers during an anti-ICE protest in Santa Ana, California. Kaden Rummler, 21, was shot at close range in the face, causing blindness in his left eye with glass shards and metal fragments lodged in his skull. Britain Rodriguez, 31, suffered a similar close-range shot to the face at the same protest.

ICE agents conducted an enforcement action in Minneapolis that resulted in the detention of a man and caused injuries to multiple children present at the scene. During the incident, ICE agents smashed a car window containing six children, including a 6-month-old who lost consciousness and was hospitalized after exposure to tear gas and a flash bang device. A 16-year-old U.S. citizen was allegedly placed in a chokehold during the encounter, and his phone was reportedly confiscated and sold to a used electronics vending machine. The family was returning home from a basketball game when they became trapped in the area where the enforcement action was occurring.

Sophie Watso, a 30-year-old Mdewakanton Dakota woman, was detained by ICE agents on January 14, 2026, after monitoring immigration enforcement activity in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. During her arrest, agents broke her truck windows and physically restrained her while she held her dog. She was charged under U.S. Code 18 Section 111 for allegedly obstructing a federal investigation, though no formal charges were filed. She was held for over 48 hours at Fort Snelling's Whipple Building and Sherbourne County Jail before being released on January 16, 2026, without charges being formally filed.

ICE agents detained a person outside a Costco store in Kyle, Texas on Thursday morning. According to Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra, the individual sustained injuries including facial bleeding. The person was transported to the hospital by emergency medical services accompanied by Homeland Security personnel.

Garrison Gibson, a 37-year-old Liberian national living in north Minneapolis, was arrested on January 11, 2026, when immigration agents used a battering ram to break into his home. Gibson had been living legally under an order of supervision and had regularly checked in with immigration authorities, including days before his arrest. According to his account, agents took trophy photos during the raid and held him in an overcrowded cell afterward. The agents acted on an administrative warrant rather than a judicial search warrant. Four days later, a federal judge ordered Gibson's release, ruling that agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights by entering his home without consent or a judicial warrant.

Recent violent incidents involving ICE agents in Minneapolis and other cities have prompted scrutiny of federal immigration officer training and use-of-force protocols. An ICE officer fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Macklin Good, and another Department of Homeland Security officer shot a man in the leg during an arrest. Experts and advocates are questioning how officers are trained to conduct arrests and engage with citizens and protesters.

Photographer John Abernathy was detained by federal ICE agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on January 15 while documenting protests. During the confrontation, Abernathy threw his camera to a fellow photojournalist. He sustained injuries including chemical burns, pepper bullet wounds, and abrasions, and received a citation but no court date.

Kaden Rummler, 21, was permanently blinded in his left eye after a federal agent shot him in the face with a less-lethal crowd control weapon during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Santa Ana, California on January 9, 2026. Rummler was protesting ICE deportations and the death of Renee Good at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis. The impact caused severe injuries: doctors removed plastic, glass, and metal fragments from his face and skull, found pieces of plastic and glass embedded in his skull, metal in his stomach lining, and a piece of plastic the size of a nickel in his injured eye. A piece of ammunition narrowly missed his carotid artery. Rummler underwent six-hour surgery to remove shrapnel from his injuries. Officers did not call paramedics immediately and at one point pushed his face into a pool of his own blood. Rummler was one of two protesters shot in the face that night. A protester lost an eye after being struck by a scattershot munition fired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department during immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles. The case, Castellanos v. City of Los Angeles, resulted in litigation against local authorities under state negligence laws. PHR and UC Berkeley identified scattershot munitions as inherently indiscriminate weapons that make it impossible to prevent significant unintended harm, recommending they never be used for crowd control.

ICE agents conducted multiple enforcement activities in St. Paul, Minnesota involving immigrant communities. In one incident, agents knocked on a resident's door in the North End neighborhood and asked her to identify Hmong and Asian households, without clearly displaying badges. In a separate incident at a downtown bus stop on 6th Street and Jackson, ICE agents were photographed surrounding a man with his head covered by a black bag. These incidents occurred as part of broader ICE enforcement operations.