President Trump appeared to back down on Friday from his threat to send military forces into Minneapolis. But Democratic officials and activists told members of Congress that it feels like they’re already living under a military occupation.
Convoys of agents from federal immigrations agencies have swarmed the city in the first two weeks of 2026, spreading fear and violating constitutional rights, officials said in testimony at an unofficial hearing in the Minnesota Senate Building. They accused the Trump administration of profiling residents of color, ripping apart immigrant families and wrongfully detaining U.S. citizens as part of a campaign of political retribution.
“There is no modern precedent for this level of federal overreach,” Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents part of Minneapolis, told a panel of more than two dozen fellow Democratic members of Congress, describing the actions as violent and lawless.
Congressional Democrats have faced mounting pressure from constituents to respond to the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in American cities, even as White House officials have accused local and state Democratic leaders of encouraging attacks on immigration enforcement agents, blaming them for the violence.
Democrats have “demeaned these individuals,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said this week. “They’ve even referred to them as ‘Nazis’ and as ‘the Gestapo.’ And that is absolutely leading to the violence we’re seeing in the streets.”
On Thursday, Mr. Trump suggested that he might invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows presidents to deploy troops on U.S. soil to quell an invasion or insurrection under certain legal conditions. The Pentagon quietly alerted 200 Texas National Guard troops this week to be ready to deploy to Minnesota in the event that Mr. Trump followed through, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The Texas Guard soldiers have remained on standby since returning home from Chicago late last year. But by Friday, Mr. Trump had already pulled back on that suggestion — following a pattern of talking about invoking the act but not going through with it.
“I don’t think I need it right now,” he told reporters while leaving the White House to spend the weekend in Florida. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota had urged Mr. Trump on Thursday to back down on the heated rhetoric. “Let’s turn the temperature down,” the governor wrote on social media. “Stop this campaign of retribution.”
Immigration has long been a vexing issue for Democrats, and the party has struggled to reach consensus on policy and messaging. Without control of either branch of Congress, Democratic lawmakers have limited power to affect policy decisions.
But as agents with the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have carried out increasingly high-profile and disruptive raids, Democrats have pushed for limits on agents’ actions, including barring them from wearing masks, requiring them to wear body cameras and mandating that they present warrants for arrests.
As Congress faces a Jan. 30 deadline to pass a spending bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security, some Democrats at the hearing on Friday said they would oppose any funding measure for the agency that does not include additional guardrails on ICE.
Polls indicate that a growing number of Americans have become increasingly concerned about federal immigration officers’ actions. Those worries spilled over last week in Minneapolis after an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, shot and killed Renee Good, 37, sparking protests and outrage. Another shooting by a federal agent in the city this week further ramped up tension.
During protests following the second shooting, in which a man was injured in the leg, federal agents retreated without retrieving at least two of their vehicles. Several protesters broke into them, pulling out documents and other items.
On Friday, federal prosecutors charged a 33-year-old man, Raul Gutierrez, with illegally possessing a government rifle and suppressor. They said he had stolen them from the back of an unmarked F.B.I. vehicle. The lawyer listed for Mr. Gutierrez in court records declined to comment.
The hearing at the State Senate building on Friday, in which Democrats blamed the Trump administration for the escalating tension and violence, was organized by Ms. Omar and Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Though the session was conducted like an oversight hearing, its proceedings will not be part of the official congressional record, and the panel does not have subpoena power.
In impassioned testimony, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Kaohly Her, the newly elected mayor of St. Paul, told the panel that federal agents had been knocking on doors and questioning residents on the streets about their citizenship status, in operations that did not appear to be methodical or well planned, resulting in fear and injuries.
“They have taken people out of their cars to detain them on major streets,” Mr. Frey said. “We’ve had small children that have been damaged by the inhalation of some form of gas. We’ve had loose dogs that were left unattended in the streets.”
He added, “This is not making Minneapolis safer.”
Other witnesses described agents tear gassing high school students and taking immigrant parents away in front of their crying children. Ms. Her said she had received reports that agents had been going door to door asking “where the Asian people live.”
One resident, Patty O’Keefe, told the panel that she and another friend had been detained while following ICE vehicles, blowing whistles and honking. Agents smashed their car windows and unleashed pepper spray, she said. One of the agents said, “That is why this lesbian bitch is dead,” Ms. O’Keefe recalled, an apparent reference to Ms. Good.
Ms. O’Keefe and her friend were held in a federal building for more than eight hours without being allowed a phone call before they were released without charges, she said.
In a statement in response to allegations at the hearing, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, called them “untrue smears,” adding, “Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”
Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Michael Gold, Shawn McCreesh and Eric Schmitt.
Jazmine Ulloa is a national reporter covering immigration for The Times.
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