Chanhassen ICE Raid
Citizen abducted, MNutemen Respond & Carver Country Board of Commissioners Meeting
Citizen Abducted
Minnesotans started the week with news of ICE agents tackling and detaining an American citizen in Minneapolis, refusing to check when he repeatedly said he was an American citizen. The Sahan Journal posted video of the kidnapping on its Instagram account:
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman held a press conference to denounce the lawless abduction and to let Mubashir, the American citizen who was brutally assaulted and detained to tell what happened in his own words.
Fox 9 posted the entire press conference:
MNutemen Respond
On Saturday around 10:30 am, ICE invaded the Southwest Metro, descending on a home construction site in Chanhassen where they trapped two workers, compelling the men to scramble to the roof of the house for safety.
That’s when a rapid response network of community citizens sprang into action. These modern day Minutemen (or MNutemen, as one person called them) streamed to the site to observe the raid, bringing blankets, gloves, hand warmers and their phones to document the raid. Fox 9 was on the scene:
Worst of the worst, huh? Do the “worst of the wost” criminals possess the dedication to their work to show up to a construction site in sub-zero weather? Nah, people dedicated to provide for themselves and their family do.
No Warrant Presented
Carver County Sheriff deputies were on hand behind the MNutemen but not positioned between the observers and ICE.
Observers implored ICE to show them a signed judicial warrant, which they refused to do. While they may not have an obligation to show such documentation to observers one would think they have an obligation to show a valid judicial warrant to the sheriff on site.
More pointedly, doesn’t Sheriff Kamerud have an obligation to the citizens of Carver County to ask to see one to ensure ICE is authorized to enter private property?
There’s A Reason People Hate You
One funny incident was captured by Mercado Media when an observer asked an ICE agent for her name and badge number, to which she responded “you’re not being very nice.”
Complete and utter lack of self-awareness!
Local Economic Impact
A GoFundMe account has been established for the two men (and its legitimacy verified by state Representative Alex Falconer (D49A). The account is in Spanish. Here’s the English version via Google Translate:
Hello, my name is Maria Chicaiza. We are asking the community for help. My two brothers were in danger of being apprehended today while working in sub-zero temperatures. They hid for more than four hours on the roof of a house where they were working. They both need support from the community for hospital expenses, food, and legal fees so they won’t be deported. They have no criminal record and their children depend on them.
While these two families are now at risk of becoming destitute, there is a construction contractor who just lost two workers as well.
Additionally, I have heard reports that ICE was scouting Willy McCoys restaurant in Chaska for victims and that the Chaska Culver’s was extremely short-handed because kitchen staff were too afraid to come to work.
ICE’s invasion of our communities is negatively affecting our local economy.
Indpendent Media & Citizen Journalism
I gotta give a shout out to Fox 9 for that outlet’s straight-up reporting. It’s easy to be pretty jaded about that brand because of the lies the Fox national outlet spews routinely but that was some solid reporting on this story from Fox 9’s local reporters.
Contrast Fox 9’s reporting with this breathtakingly sympathetic portrayal of ICE by NBC News’ White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez. The story features an EXCLUSIVE banner and is accompanied with this subhead “NBC News was granted exclusive access to accompany Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they tried to arrest targets in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.”
The article frames the immigration operation not merely as administrative enforcement, but as a tactical combat scenario. This is achieved through specific lexical choices that heighten the sentiment of danger and volatility.
Militaristic Terminology: The text consistently uses words like “deployment,” “surge,” “targets,” “staging area,” “tactical team,” “battering ram,” and “intelligence.”
Effect: This creates a sentiment of aggressiveness and high stakes. It distances the human element, turning the subjects into “targets” rather than people, which is a common feature of operational discourse.
This is the very definition of access journalism. I imagine the administration is pleased.
This is why independent media and citizen journalism like Sahan Journal and Mercado Media are so important.
Carver County Board Of Commissioners Meeting
All of which is why it is extremely important the citizens of Carver County attend the Board of Commissioners meeting this Tuesday at 10 am (at the Government Center - Human Services 602 East 4th Street Chaska, Minnesota 55318) to voice opposition to Sheriff Kamerud’s desire to rent Chaska jail cells to ICE.
Doing so is an signaling an open invitation to cooperate with ICE.
Here’s how you can make your opposition known:
Testify
Take advantage of the public comments section that begin each meeting by speaking directly to the board of commissioners to express your opposition.
Attend
Attend in support of those who will be testifying their opposition. A large crowd is a message in and of itself.
Contact Your Commissioner
The following is a list of the Carver County Commissioners with links to their biographies.
Lisa Anderson (District 1)
Tom Workman, Chair (District 2)
Matt Udermann, (District 3)
Tim Lynch, Vice-Chair (District 4)
John P. Fahey, (District 5)
The Carver County government website offers a Find Your Commissioner tool to identify which Commissioner represents you.
Ask for an in-person meeting to express your views. Failing that, ask for a phone call. If you can’t get a meeting or arrange a call, email your commissioner (you can find their phone number and email address on the bio page links above).
Thank you, an excellent summary of the ICE operation in Chanhassen.
Hopefully all restaurants have advised their employees on where are their private areas, where ICE can not enter without a judicial warrant.
Our Attorney General, Keith Ellison, just advised Minnesota Sheriffs that they can not enter into a contract without the County Commissioner's approval.
A good reminder.
Sheriff Jason Kamerud can also be contacted by phone and email.
Excellent article!!