Minneapolis woman sues DHS over violent ICE arrest

A Minneapolis woman sued the US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents violently dragged her from her car, injured her, and detained her without charges during a summer immigration sweep in the Twin Cities.^[1]

The federal lawsuit, filed by 30-year-old Minneapolis resident Aliya Rahman, accuses ICE officers and their supervisors of assault, wrongful detention, retaliation, and negligent supervision during a tactical operation known as Operation Metro Surge, and seeks damages for what her attorneys describe as lasting physical and psychological injuries.^[1] Video from the incident shows agents breaking Rahman's car window, elbowing her neck and back, and carrying her by her arms and legs as she repeatedly tells them she is autistic and on her way to a doctor's appointment. ICE held her for several hours but never charged her with any crime, later deleting an online post that claimed it had "receipts" proving she interfered with officers. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it looks forward to vigorously defending itself and has publicly pointed to officer immunity, while Rahman's lawyers argue federal law does not give agents blanket protection when they violate their own training and rules.^[1]

Operation Metro Surge, the enforcement push at the center of the lawsuit, brought federal immigration teams into Minneapolis-St. Paul neighborhoods earlier this year for a concentrated series of arrests and vehicle stops, drawing protests from local residents and civil rights advocates who said the tactics resembled aggressive policing sweeps that had already fallen out of favor in many big cities.^[1] Rahman's case is at least the third lawsuit filed over the operation, with attorneys saying additional administrative claims are pending and could soon become suits, expanding the federal government's potential legal exposure over how the crackdown was planned, supervised, and carried out in communities where many residents are citizens or have legal status.^[1]

Earlier coverage of immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities, as in many cities, often centered on arrest numbers and political fights over "sanctuary" policies, with less scrutiny of how individual stops unfolded on the street or how disability and mental health issues were handled in the field. In Rahman's case, the existence of clear video showing officers breaking her window and manhandling her while she identifies herself as autistic has shifted the focus toward use-of-force standards and officer accountability, similar to how recordings changed the public narrative in past police and civil rights cases. Her suit and others tied to Operation Metro Surge now push that scrutiny into the immigration system, raising questions not only about individual conduct but about whether federal training and supervision are adequate when agents are deployed into complex urban neighborhoods for large-scale sweeps.

1. FOX 9