Federal–State Law Enforcement Conflicts

FBI and St. Paul police have opened a probe into the Jan. 8, 2026 ICE arrest of Mexican citizen Alberto Castañeda Mondragón in a St. Paul shopping‑center parking lot after he suffered eight skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging—injuries hospital staff say are inconsistent with DHS’s claim that he fell while handcuffed—and investigators only began canvassing nearby businesses for surveillance more than a month later, by which time most footage had been overwritten. The case is being examined amid wider scrutiny of ICE in Minneapolis, including a DOJ–ICE perjury probe into two officers and a DOJ civil‑rights investigation into the fatal Alex Pretti shooting, a probe complicated by the FBI’s refusal to share evidence with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which BCA Superintendent Drew Evans called “concerning and unprecedented.”