A physician said that emergency room and clinic visits were down substantially as people were avoiding medical care because they feared being detained. A software developer recalled being arrested and threatened with deportation by ICE, even with a visa allowing legal residence in the country on a visa. Native American community organizers described how tribal members had been profiled and detained by ICE, who mistook them for immigrants based on appearance.
In all, more than 20 speakers testified before a Minnesota State Senate committee on Thursday about the Trump administration’s deportation blitz in the Twin Cities, the first such hearing since the start of the crackdown late last year.
Lawmakers heard from lawyers, organizers, local elected officials and Minnesota residents who had found themselves caught up in the federal immigration actions taking place in the Twin Cities. Those testifying recounted acts of violence and aggressive tactics used by federal agents against protesters and observers, as well as racial profiling and seemingly arbitrary detentions by immigration officers.
Democrats and Republicans on the committee sparred over the course of the testimony. During one tense exchange, a Republican state senator pressed a pair of suburban mayors on whether they felt Hennepin County should honor ICE detainer requests, which asks the local authorities to hold a person for up to 48 hours beyond a scheduled release date so immigration agents can take custody. Senator Alice Mann, a Democrat on the committee, dismissed the possibility that the immigration authorities would engage with local leaders in good faith while the crackdown remained ongoing.
“This has never been about a both-sides issue,” Ms. Mann said. “This is about racism. This is about a racist government who is hunting Black and brown people regardless of immigration status and regardless of criminal history.”
Chase Iron Eyes, a lawyer and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said that his tribe had not yet been able to determine the validity of a report it fielded saying that several unhoused tribal members had been detained by the immigration authorities in Minneapolis.
“These are houseless relatives,” Mr. Iron Eyes told the committee. “Their names are unknown, so at this time, we don’t know where our people are.”
Also among the speakers was Laura Jedeed, the independent journalist who wrote a viral piece for Slate describing how she had been hired by ICE after applying on a whim, despite having failed to complete basic paperwork and a drug test. Ms. Jedeed told the committee that her story was proof that ICE was ill-informed about the makeup of the force it had armed and deployed on the streets of Minneapolis.
“It is my hope that my experience can shed some light on the cavalier disregard this organization has for human life,” she said of the agency.
Chris Hippensteel is a reporter covering breaking news and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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