U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, has been on the move every day across Minnesota—making twice as many arrests under President Donald Trump than under the previous administration.
Alpha News senior reporter Liz Collin was given a rare opportunity to ride along with ICE officers from the St. Paul field office, which covers Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.
Aside from dealing with dangerous criminals, Alpha News heard how some policies and politics are making an already demanding job even more dangerous.
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The operation began before daylight with a briefing outside the ICE field office in St. Paul.
Sam Olson, who serves as the field office director for ICE in St. Paul, said, “It’s been kind of a whole of government approach to tackle the immigration issues we’re having here in the U.S. Unfortunately, we have no shortage of targets of illegal aliens with criminal convictions. We’ll go find where we find somebody that needs arresting.”
The mission
During the ride-along, Olson spoke with resolve, explaining how the ultimate mission for ICE “is to increase public safety. That’s the goal, and I know it seems like immigration can be very, very polarizing.”
“We’re law enforcement officers, here to get the worst of the worst off of the streets and back to their country,” Olson added.
He also pointed out that “it seems to be a source of contention for some folks that we’re essentially doing something that might be outside the realm of the law, but we’re not. These are the laws that were enacted by Congress, and with ICE—being an executive branch agency—we’re mandated to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and that’s what we’re doing now. It gets frustrating to me when people try to make the mission different than it is.”
Former state employee detained by ICE
The first stop was an address in Plymouth: the home of Wilson Tindi—a convicted sex offender and former director at the Minnesota Department of Education. Alpha News exposed Tindi in June, as part of an investigative report that sparked a firestorm online about the state’s hiring practices.
Tindi, a Kenyan national, was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in the Twin Cities after breaking into her home. Tindi pled guilty to the crime 10 years ago. A judge ordered his removal from the United States. But a federal judge ultimately ruled that Tindi’s removal was not warranted. After spending 18 months in ICE custody, Tindi was released and then landed taxpayer-funded positions at two separate Minnesota state agencies.
“With any type of lawful, permanent resident, we have to work with our legal team to make sure the conviction would qualify for removability from the U.S. So, it did take us a lot of time and a lot of research with help from our legal team, who are amazing. We did come up with an immigration charge because of his [Tindi’s] criminality,” Olson explained.
Agents moved in as soon as Tindi opened his garage door. He was quickly put in handcuffs—next to his BMW.
More resistance in the streets
This time, everything went smoothly, but many situations have escalated in the past. From assaults on officers, online doxing, and threats to family members, resistance against ICE now comes in many forms.
“We’ve been encountering a lot more resistance in the field. Assaults on officers and uses of force are up astronomically. I’ve seen it close to like an increase of 1,000 percent on assaults on officers,” Olson said.
He also pointed out that “one of the frustrating things we’ve seen is we’re not only getting the assaults from the people we’re arresting, but we’re starting to get them from bystanders, people not involved in the arrest.”
“That’s been very unfortunate when we’re out just trying to lawfully conduct an arrest that we’re getting bystanders who may not agree with what we’re doing but they’re interfering and obstructing,” Olson said. “So, I’ve been instructing our officers when they get that resistance, if it rises to a level that we can arrest, we will arrest and prosecute people who are trying to impede us from doing our job.”
Earlier this summer, a protest erupted on Lake Street after a search warrant linked to a drug and human trafficking ring was executed. Subsequently, Isabel Lopez was federally charged with assaulting officers.
“That’s the only way to stop some of this stuff—is to show, hey, if you impede us, there will be consequences,” Olson said.
Policies prohibit cooperation with ICE
Sanctuary policies that prohibit cooperation pose another set of challenges for ICE in deporting criminals from Minnesota.
Just weeks after President Trump took office, Attorney General Keith Ellison said that under Minnesota state law, law enforcement agencies can’t hold someone on just an immigration detainer. This poses substantial risks for everyone involved and the public because instead of making arrests at jails, ICE officers have to track and make arrests at homes, places of work, and in public where situations are typically less safe.
However, the “Big Beautiful Bill” legislation, recently signed into law, provides billions of dollars for ICE to hire at least 10,000 new officers, with the St. Paul field office anticipating an increase in its manpower.
Also in Minnesota, several counties are partnering with ICE through what’s called the 287-g program, which allows state and local law enforcement agencies to assist ICE in identifying people for arrest and potential deportation.
As for now, regarding ICE operations under the Trump administration, Olson called it a “night and day shift” from the previous administration.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
