A major class-action lawsuit has been filed against US federal immigration agencies, alleging they are conducting a sweeping campaign of racial profiling and unlawful detentions in Minnesota, with tactics compared to those of a police state.
Lawsuit Details 'Police-State Tactics'
The legal action, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and filed in federal court on Thursday 15 January 2026, names the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Border Patrol. It accuses them of "violently stopping and arresting countless Minnesotans based on nothing more than their race and perceived ethnicity", irrespective of their actual citizenship status. The suit claims Somali and Latino communities are being specifically targeted.
Central to the complaint is the experience of 20-year-old US citizen Mubashir Khalif Hussen. On 10 December, he alleges he was seized by federal agents in an unmarked car while out getting lunch. According to the filing, he was pushed into a restaurant and then hauled back outside, where an agent put him in a headlock.
Despite repeatedly informing the officers he was an American citizen and begging to retrieve his phone to show a picture of his passport card, the agents refused. They placed him in the unmarked vehicle. Even when his supervisor arrived with a physical copy of the passport card, the agents allegedly ignored it.
A Harrowing Ordeal for a US Citizen
The lawsuit details how agents then demanded to scan Hussen's face and transported him to a second location before taking him to an ICE field office at Fort Snelling. He was eventually released without charge and not placed into immigration proceedings. However, the agents reportedly concluded the encounter by releasing him into the December cold and telling him to walk the seven miles back to where he was initially detained. He was later picked up by his family.
"Due to his Somali identity, Mr. Hussen is terrified of being arrested and detained again," the suit states. In a separate, later incident, Hussen claims he was pepper-sprayed in the face by agents after recording them with his phone from a public sidewalk.
Broader Crackdown and Escalating Tensions
This lawsuit emerges amidst the ongoing and controversial Trump administration crackdown in Minnesota, which began in December shortly after the president made derogatory remarks about the state's Somali population. The operation, slated to involve over 2,000 agents, has been billed as the largest immigration enforcement action in US history.
Tensions have escalated dramatically. Earlier in January, an ICE agent fatally shot a man named Renee Good. This week, a federal agent shot a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg during a traffic stop. The situation has sparked widespread peaceful protests alongside scattered violence.
The administration insists its operations are targeted, not random sweeps. However, the lawsuit and reported incidents have fuelled allegations of authoritarian tactics and indiscriminate racial profiling. President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which could deploy active-duty military to quell unrest.
The White House argues that such military-style deployments are necessary in so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security has been contacted for comment regarding the specific allegations in the lawsuit.
