‘Madness’: two US citizens violently detained by ICE in Minnesota, officials say

Two US citizens who are employees of a Minnesota Target store were detained by federal immigration agents, before at least one was dumped in a different parking lot, community leaders and a Democratic politician have alleged.

The Richfield incident is one in a growing number of violent encounters between civilians and federal agents captured on video since the killing of Renee Nicole Good by the ICE officer Jonathan E Ross on 7 January.

According to the Minnesota state representative Michael Howard, who represents Richfield, and video footage taken by witnesses, a team of ICE agents that had assembled at the Target on 8 January forced two employees to the ground at the entrance to the store, then bundled them into a dark SUV.

Gregory Bovino, the senior US border patrol official who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement action in Minnesota and elsewhere, was present during the incident.

A later clip posted on X purports to show one of the two in a distressed state at a different parking lot. In the clip, he is crying, and a bystander is heard saying that he is bleeding, although blood is not visible in the video. “They threw me on the fucking ground,” he says between sobs.

The Guardian has not been able to verify the authenticity of the video clips, the first of which was shared by the Department of Homeland Security. In a post on X on Monday, the agency said: “This individual was arrested for assaulting federal law enforcement officers.” The post cited the federal law prohibiting “assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers”.

The post did not identify which of the two detained employees it was referring to and gave no details of an alleged assault on any officer. The post also had no explanation of how or why the person was set free soon after his arrest.

Howard, however, said he had spoken to both of the people who were detained and criticized what he called an ICE “rampage across Minnesota” in the wake of Good’s killing.

“In Richfield, federal agents, including Greg Bovino, senior commander of US Border Patrol, entered Target without a warrant, physically assaulted, and arrested two Target employees, both US citizens,” he said in an update to his webpage.

“They have now been released, but sustained injuries and untold trauma while their rights were trampled for no reason whatsoever.”

In a subsequent interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, he added: “I can’t believe in the year 2026, in our country, we have two workers, they’re US citizens, violently arrested and hauled away. It’s madness.”

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to questions.

Another video from the scene from TikTok user lokatorres17 appearing to capture the moments before the detentions shows one of the two people walking backwards into the store and away from a lone officer who is pursuing him. The officer then lunges at the person and brings him to the ground as other agents rush in.

“If this doesn’t make your blood boil, I don’t know what will,” Howard said in his statement.

“We are actively working to provide support to our community members. We are also communicating with Target about their responsibility to better protect their workers and customers. And we continue to call on ICE to GET OUT of Minnesota.”

The Target press office did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement and interviews with the Guardian, Good’s family on Monday called on people outraged by ICE’s actions to root their conversations in “humanity, empathy, and care for the family most affected”.

Family members – most of them relatives of Good’s late husband, Timmy Macklin Jr – said they hoped the “unimaginable loss” the family had suffered would lead to meaningful change.

“There’s been so much hateful rhetoric back and forth, and what’s been missed is painting a picture of who Renee was,” Good’s sister-in-law Jessica Fletcher said, in a statement that made no specific mention of ICE.

The attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, said Monday night that he was filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

“DHS’s use of excessive and lethal force, their warrantless, racist arrests, their targeting of our courts, our churches, houses of worship and schools are a violation of the Administrative [Procedure] Act on arbitrary and capricious federal actions,” Ellison said at a news conference. “And we ask that the courts will end the surge of thousands of DHS agents in Minnesota.”