🚨White Cops in Minnesota Announce that ICE is Targeting Black and Brown Cops with Harassment While Leaving the White Cops Alone
Minnesota police say ICE boxed in officers, drew guns, demanded “papers”—and only targeted officers of color.
This week in Minnesota, local police leaders went public with something that should chill every single American—no matter how you feel about immigration.
They say ICE agents are stopping U.S. citizens, drawing guns, demanding “papers,” and harassing people based on the color of their skin.
And the detail that hit me hardest is this: local police say ICE targeted off-duty police officers—but only the ones who aren’t white.
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The part they didn’t expect to say out loud
Here’s what’s so revealing about this moment: police chiefs are not exactly known for rushing to microphones to warn the public about civil rights violations. Most days, they’re the ones defending the system and asking for patience.
So when local law enforcement leaders in the Twin Cities are holding a press conference to say federal agents are violating the civil rights of U.S. citizens—including their own officers—you should hear that as an alarm, not a footnote.
And when they add that the officers targeted were all people of color, you should hear the second alarm underneath the first.
Because that is the quiet truth of “papers please” policing: it always lands hardest on the people who don’t look like the folks in charge.
What the police chiefs say happened
A police chief in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota—Mark Bruley—described an incident involving an off-duty officer who was “boxed … in” by vehicles driven by ICE agents. He said the agents demanded, with guns drawn, to see paperwork proving she had a right to be in the United States.
He added one line that should be printed on billboards:
“She’s a U.S. citizen, and clearly would not have any paperwork.”
That’s the whole problem. Most Americans do not carry “citizenship papers” around. So if the standard becomes “show me paperwork proving you belong here,” the standard isn’t law—it’s intimidation.
Then he said she tried to film the encounter and her phone was knocked out of her hand. And when she identified herself as a police officer, the agents immediately left.
Read that again. They left when they realized she had institutional power.
That’s not law enforcement. That’s predation.
And Bruley said that in his city, every off-duty officer targeted by ICE was a person of color.
Let me say it the way it needs to be said: ICE is acting like a roaming, armed “show me your papers” squad—and it’s choosing targets based on who looks “American” to them.
Because I want this to be painfully clear, here’s what local law enforcement leaders are alleging happened in these encounters:
ICE boxed in an off-duty officer with vehicles
Agents demanded proof she had a right to be in the U.S.
They did it with guns drawn
When she tried to film, her phone was knocked away
When she identified herself as a cop, they immediately left
Local leadership says the officers targeted were all people of color
That is not “immigration enforcement.” That is a civil rights crisis.
Why it matters that “white institutions” only spoke up now
One thing frustrates me though: it took local law enforcement stepping forward—people who are rarely eager to call out federal agents—to publicly validate what communities of color have been saying for a long time.
And I’m going to be blunt, because moral clarity requires it: for too many institutions, the suffering of immigrants and communities of color is treated like background noise until it splashes onto someone with status.
The tragedy is that this shouldn’t have required cops being targeted for anyone to care. But the reality is: this is often what it takes to make “respectable” America listen.
And even now, notice the shape of the conversation. We are not just talking about undocumented people. We are talking about U.S. citizens. We are talking about police officers. We are talking about public servants who enforce laws for a living being told, essentially, “prove you belong here.”
That’s the point where the mask slips.
Because once an enforcement machine is built large enough, armed enough, and empowered enough, it does what all unchecked power does:
It expands.
It misfires.
It escalates.
And it devours the rights of anyone who can be cast as “other.”
DHS denial doesn’t calm this—it confirms the problem
The Department of Homeland Security reportedly said it had “no record” of ICE or Border Patrol stopping a police officer and couldn’t verify without a name.
Family, that’s not a rebuttal. That’s a bureaucratic dodge.
Because even if we set that specific incident aside for a second, the pattern being described by multiple law enforcement leaders is consistent: people being “stopped, questioned and harassed solely because of the color of their skin,” as one county sheriff put it.
And St. Paul’s police chief said city employees were subject to “traffic stops that were clearly outside the bounds of what federal agents are allowed to do.”
This is what institutional gaslighting looks like in real time: “We’re not doing it.” Meanwhile people on the ground describe the same thing happening again and again.
This is what authoritarian policing looks like
Here’s what I need you to understand: when armed agents stop people because of how they look and demand proof of belonging, you have entered a different kind of country.
A country where rights are conditional.
A country where citizenship is a performance.
A country where “papers” become a weapon.
A country where your skin tone can turn a routine drive into a guns-drawn encounter.
And there’s something even darker here: if the agents really did knock a phone away when someone tried to film, that suggests an instinct to avoid accountability. The camera is often the only protection ordinary people have. If even a police officer’s attempt to record gets shut down, what do you think happens to a teenager? A day laborer? A nurse? A janitor? A mom driving her kids?
This is why I’ve been saying for months: these “surges” aren’t just about immigration. They are about normalizing a new posture—militarized, intrusive, and racially selective.
And Minnesota is becoming the test lab.
The line that should haunt every American
One police chief said something that should sit heavy in your spirit:
“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day.”
Exactly.
Because when the state starts operating like this in public—with visibility, boldness, and impunity—it means it’s doing even worse in private, where nobody is watching.
What I want from you
Don’t let this become a partisan talking point. Don’t let it become “your team” versus “my team.” This is about whether we are going to accept a country where armed agents can demand “papers” from U.S. citizens based on appearance.
And if you’re reading this and thinking, “This doesn’t affect me,” I need you to hear me: that’s what everyone says right before it does.
Support immigrant communities. Support civil rights groups. Push local leaders to demand transparency, oversight, and consequences. The state doesn’t correct itself out of kindness. It corrects itself when people force it to.
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If ICE is “checking papers” on U.S. citizens and targeting cops of color, this isn’t immigration enforcement—it’s racialized authoritarian policing.
Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
I swear this country is being pushed to its breaking point.
Every moment of every single day there's another reason to have chronic knots in our stomachs. Whatever small moral fiber this nation claims to possess is being torn apart at the seams.