The forceful arrest of an undocumented Northfield house painter this week has sparked outrage in Minnesota and beyond, with thousands of people resharing videos of the arrest.
The arrest occurred Tuesday morning as Adan Nunez Gonzalez, his nephew and another coworker arrived at a worksite on a residential street in Northfield.
The three men had just arrived at the jobsite when immigration officers surrounded their SUV. That led to a tense exchange, according to Nunez Gonzalez’s wife, Maricela, with the three men asking to see a warrant, and the agents refusing to present one. Nunez Gonzalez’s nephew told agents the men knew their rights and weren’t going to open the car or windows, and were going to consult a lawyer.
A series of videos posted online then capture officers breaking into the SUV, pointing a gun at Nunez Gonzalez and pulling him out to arrest him.
“They proceeded to break the window and pull him out violently,” Maricela told Sahan Journal. “When he didn’t resist, when they hadn’t asked him for his identification. They didn’t show a reason for the arrest. Nothing.”
Nunez Gonzalez was the only man taken, and said he was not shown a warrant. His nephew, a U.S. citizen, told the family what was happening and their 15-year-old son and a cousin immediately showed up and witnessed most of the interaction, she said.
Thousands of people on Facebook re-shared the videos, showing officers with vests that read “POLICE” and “ICE,” or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At least three vehicles blocked his car from leaving. In the background, there’s audio of his son and niece crying and telling officers that Nunez Gonzalez is bleeding.
“My biggest concern is the trauma they inflicted on my son — to see how they arrested his father, how they pointed guns at him and his cousins, at his father, like they were delinquents when they aren’t,” Maricela said. “They’re just honest and hardworking people. And my younger children are also having a very hard time because their father didn’t come home.”
Katie Prypz, a Northfield resident, said she watched the arrest happen near her house. Most of the time, she said officers were speaking to the passengers in the car — until chaos suddenly erupted. At least two officers pulled out a gun and pointed it at the passengers, she said.
“It was just really shocking that there’s guns out, like really close to us,” she said. “I think having witnessed it happen to a community member, I feel like we have the right to know why that force was needed.”
Nunez Gonzalez has lived in Minnesota without work authorization and legal status for about a decade. He has no criminal history in Minnesota, according to public records. He has been married to Maricela for more than 16 years, their four children are U.S. citizens.
During the arrest, Nunez Gonzalez refused to comply with ICE officers’ commands and attempted to flee, according to a statement from Erin Bultje, an ICE spokeswoman. She also said Nunez Gonzalez attempted to try placing the vehicle in drive while officers were in the way, endangering their lives and the passengers’ lives.
ICE officers were conducting an “intelligence-based operation” to arrest Nunez Gonzalez who has an active warrant, she said in the statement. Bultje did not answer further questions.
“ICE’s account is inaccurate and misleading,” Madeline Lohman, advocacy and outreach director at the Advocates for Human Rights, a local nonprofit legal group assisting Nunez Gonzalez’s family, said in a statement Friday. The use of force was “not justified” and ICE’s statement aims to “defend excessive and unlawful actions.”
“We are deeply concerned about federal agents’ abuse of power and the violation of rights happening in Minnesota and across the country,” read her statement. “Our priority is to ensure our client’s safety and due process, and we urge the public to look critically at ICE’s claims and stand against these abuses.”
She declined to answer further questions since the situation is “still evolving.”
Northfield Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer posted a statement on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, addressing Nunez Gonzalez’s arrest. ICE officers did not notify local officers of enforcement activity in the city before Nunez Gonzalez’s arrest. Northfield police officers received a call to the area of the arrest and showed up, but were not involved. The city has a policy to not participate or assist in immigration enforcement actions.
“This is not a Northfield Police Department case or investigation,” read his statement.
Maricela said the family heard there was a reported ICE sighting in Northfield, but Nunez Gonzalez believed that his lack of criminal history meant he wasn’t a target. However, 71.5% of immigrants held in detention have no criminal conviction as of Sept. 21, 2025, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a federal enforcement tracking organization.
Nunez Gonzalez works as a painter, and typically does small jobs on individual homes, Maricela said. The family was surprised that ICE came to the job site, because it’s not a major construction project or factory that they expected might draw attention from immigration officials. When the family heard ICE was operating in the city, Nunez Gonzalez opted to take precautions. He took the family SUV to work instead of the truck with ladders and equipment to minimize attention, Maricela said. His nephew drove.
“He said, ‘I am going to work and come back and everything will be alright,’” Maricela said. “He is devastated because he doesn’t understand why they took him.”
As of Thursday, Nunez Gonzalez was still at the Kandiyohi County Jail — one of three ICE detention facilities in Minnesota. Maricela said she has been able to speak with him in jail.
“We are going to fight,” she said.
Krissa Anderson, an immigrant advocate in Northfield, said officers refused to show badges or a warrant when onlookers requested it.
“If somebody pulled me over like that, I would not get out of my car because I would be afraid of an unidentified person trying to force me out of my vehicle,” she said in an interview with Sahan Journal.
Northfield Supporting Neighbors, a local immigrant advocacy group of volunteers, set up a website for people to donate to help cover the legal fees for families, like Nunez Gonzalez’s family, dealing with deportation. The group is in contact with Nunez Gonzalez’s family, said Rachel Matney, one of the group’s volunteers.
