ICE

A Minnesota Police Chief Said ICE Was Harassing Residents. Here Are Some of Their Stories.

Residents of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, say in interviews with Reason that encounters with ICE left them afraid and angry.

C.J. Ciaramella | 3.3.2026 4:00 PM

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A month ago, the police chief of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, held an extraordinary press conference where he accused federal immigration officers of racially profiling and harassing residents of the Twin Cities suburb, including one of his own officers.

At a January 20 press conference, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley, along with two other local law enforcement leaders, complained that federal immigration agents were stopping residents without cause and demanding they show paperwork proving they were in the country legally. They even stopped an off-duty Brooklyn Park police officer.

"When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork," Bruley said, "of which she's a U.S. citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork."

"When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated, she pulled out her phone in an attempt to record the incident," Bruley continued. "The phone was knocked out of her hands."

"The officers had their guns drawn during the situation," Bruley said. "After the officer became so concerned, they were forced to identify themselves as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of slowing the incident down."

Bruley said the immigration officers then left "without an apology." 

"If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day," Bruley said.

Bruley's comments made national news because they highlighted Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) legally dubious tactics, and although those tactics have been condemned by civil liberties advocates, it was much more rare to hear local law enforcement directly criticize federal partners.

To try to see how many community members this had happened to, Reason filed a public records request with the........

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