Minnesota congresswomen turned away from ICE facility

Minnesota congresswomen were blocked from visiting an ICE facility in Minneapolis amid nationwide protests and heightened federal enforcement following the fatal shooting of activist Renee Good. Lawmakers called the denial a violation of federal law as tensions escalate over immigration operations.

Reuters

11 January 2026 at 08:55:14

A counter-protester, who described themselves as a white christian nationalist and is wearing a medieval helmet, stands near people who gathered during a vigil, after a U.S. immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis, outside the Portland ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, U.S., January 10, 2026.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Three Minnesota congressional Democrats showed up at a regional ICE headquarters near Minneapolis on Saturday (January 10) morning, where protesters have clashed with federal agents this week, but were denied access, as the city becomes a major flashpoint of U.S. President Donald Trump's militarization deportation roundups days after the fatal shooting of an activist.

Minnesota Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison were turned away from a federal building as they attempted to visit people detained at the ICE facility in Minneapolis.

Legislators called the denial illegal.

"We made it clear to ICE and DHS that they were violating federal law," U.S. Representative Angie Craig told reporters as she stood outside the Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul with Representatives Kelly Morrison and Ilhan Omar.

Federal law prohibits DHS from blocking members of Congress from entering ICE detention sites, but DHS has increasingly restricted such oversight visits, prompting confrontations with Democratic lawmakers.

"It is our job as members of Congress to make sure those detained are treated with humanity, because we are the damn United States of America," Craig said.

On Wednesday (January 7), an ICE officer shot and killed a 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Good, behind the wheel of her car on a residential Minneapolis street.

The violence came soon after some 2,000 federal officers were dispatched to Minneapolis in what ICE's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, called the "largest DHS operation ever."

In response, civil liberties and migrant-rights groups called for nationwide rallies on Saturday to protest the fatal shooting and call for an end to large-scale deployments of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ordered by Trump, mostly to cities led by Democratic politicians.

The deployment of agents to Minneapolis follows Trump's recent denunciations of Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, and his state's large population of Somali immigrants over allegations of fraud dating back to 2020 by some nonprofit groups administering childcare and other social-service programs.

Good was shot dead just a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer crushing his neck into the pavement with his knee during a videotaped arrest in May 2020. Floyd's death sparked months of nationwide racial-justice protests during Trump's first term in office.

-Maria Alejandra Cardona Production: Arlene Eiras/Reuters