Protesters clashed with local and federal law enforcement officers on Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue on Tuesday afternoon as armed, uniformed officers stationed themselves in front of a Mexican restaurant.
Witnesses told Sahan Journal the activity centered around the building that is home to Taqueria y Birrieria las Cuatro Milpas, which has apartments above it.
The enforcement action drew more than 30 officers wearing badges from the FBI; U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Minneapolis police squads were also present.
Minneapolis police posted on X that a federal law enforcement “operation” was underway, and that they responded to the scene to address the crowd that started to gather. The department said on X that it was not involved in immigration enforcement, and was not given advance notice of such activity.
“They [federal authorities] don’t have an obligation to show me the warrant. Warrants are sealed,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a crowd of protesters on E. Lake Street around 12:50 p.m. when most of the officers and their vehicles had left the area.
In a post on Facebook, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the raid was related to a “criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering” and that no arrests were made.
But Minneapolis Council Member Jason Chavez, who joined a crowd of at least 100 protesters and community organizers outside the restaurant, criticized MPD’s involvement at the scene.
“They were talking about an execution of a warrant and that it wasn’t ICE [Immigration Customs Enforcement],” Chavez said. “But then we saw people with literal ICE badges on.”
“When you have people coming in with massive guns into our neighborhoods, with Department of Homeland Security and ICE badges, and you have the Minneapolis Police Department literally closing out the perimeters assisting them, that’s just morally wrong,” Chavez said.
In a statement from ICE late Tuesday afternoon, St. Paul Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt said the investigation was the first in Minnesota as part of a Homeland Security task force investigating drug smuggling, labor trafficking and other complex criminal cases. The statement offered no details on the target of the investigation.
The statement listed the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, the IRS and local police as its partners in the operation.
Luis Argueta, director of communications of Unidos MN, a local advocacy group for Latinos in Minnesota, said one of their office buildings is across the street and around 10 a.m., staffers witnessed Minneapolis police officers setting up a perimeter surrounding the Taqueria y Birrieria las Cuatro Milpas. He said officers told them that they had a search warrant for the business and it was a “federal” operation.
“The warrant was just for the business,” he said standing in front of Taqueria y Birrieria las Cuatro Milpas. The tenants living upstairs were not arrested during the search of the business, he added.
A call to Cuatro Milpas earlier Tuesday went unanswered, and the phone line appeared to be disconnected later that afternoon.
“The emotions are valid,” Argueta said of the protesters showing up. “I think it’s very clear the community wants to look out for one another and there’s opportunity for community to show up for each other in a more disciplined manner and fashion.”
Crowds surrounded armored vehicles and chanted “shame on you” at law enforcement moving through the intersection of Bloomington Avenue and Lake Street. Residents threw trash cans and old furniture in the streets to block law enforcement, who deployed chemical irritants at least two times to disperse the crowd.
On Lake Street, a group in FBI tactical gear scuffled with several protesters and shoved one woman to the ground. In response, officers sprayed pepper-based munitions on protesters. At least three protesters were spotted with police restraints known as flex cuffs around their wrists.
Ryan Perez, an organizer with Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL), said his organization was notified of a law enforcement presence at Cuatro Milpas around 11:30 a.m. He confirmed seeing Homeland Security Investigations agents on site.
Jen Johnson heard about the enforcement action through neighbors and a mutual aid network, and headed over to the intersection at noon.
“Is this really necessary?” she asked. “We frequent businesses in this area. I care about people that work, live here. … I’m absolutely disgusted.”
She said officers formed a human chain and wouldn’t let anyone see any arrests they made.
“I’m happy to see people showing up today, people that live here,” she said.
Kya Concepcion of Black Visions was among the protestors who took to the street Tuesday to make it clear that federal law enforcement is not welcome in the neighborhood. The area of south Minneapolis is a place of racial integration, Concepcion said, and neighbors won’t tolerate Latino neighbors being targeted.
“That’s Minneapolis, baby, we pull up,” Concepcion said.
Seeing Minneapolis Police and Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies on the scene made Concepcion mad that Frey and Governor Tim Walz weren’t working to ensure local law enforcement weren’t assisting federal agencies.
Janice Naranjo heard about the raid on Facebook and came immediately to Lake Street to bear witness. She said seeing a large federal law enforcement presence in the neighborhood makes her feel unsafe. Her kids go to school nearby and she’s unsettled by what the action means for the local Latino community.
“How the people here are treated, it’s unfair,” Naranjo said.
The raid will have a chilling effect on the Latino community, said a worker at a Mexican restaurant in Mercado Central who asked to only be referred to by his last name, Cruz. Normally he’s very busy during lunch, but Tuesday he joined the crowd of onlookers taking in the raid and protest. It was sad to see, he said.
“It scares everybody,” he said. “They see the raid and they don’t want to come here. It’s going to be bad for business.”
Erika Zurawski with the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee said the show of force in the heart of the city’s Latino community was intentional.
“We will continue to come out and we won’t let anyone be taken quietly,” Zurawski said.
