ICE Terrorized A Mall In St. Cloud, Too

By Hamza Dudgeon and Kayseh Magan Catherine, Minnesota Reformer

January 20, 2026

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up to Star City Mall in St. Cloud last week to target the Somali community for so-called “immigration enforcement.” Federal agents used chemical irritants and brandished firearms against people gathered to protest what they characterized as racial profiling.

Witnesses described agents pointing firearms at unarmed citizen-observers and elected officials, turning a community center into a militarized zone of fear. The violence escalated further when, as reported by KSTP, an ICE agent was caught on video attacking a bystander named Chase Benjamin with a baton in the mall parking lot, underscoring the agency’s indiscriminate use of force.

The “operation” was chaotic. On their way out, they recklessly sped vehicles through the crowd of bystanders.

The raid resulted in at least three arrests and widespread fear among residents. Local officials present on the scene — state Sen. Aric Putnam, City Council Member Hudda Ibrahim, and DFL District 6 Chair Chantal Oechsle — all condemned the tactics as a politically-motivated occupation rather than legitimate enforcement, criticizing the deployment of dozens of agents to a peaceful neighborhood strip mall.

St. Cloud police received no advance notice, underscoring ICE’s disregard for local law enforcement. To see such brazen disregard for human safety by ICE in a community I once called home is enraging. At this very Somali mall, I used to purchase groceries, get my prescriptions from Afya Pharmacy, eat at the restaurants and pray in the mosque there.

The Pew Research Center reports that, as of 2023, Minnesota’s unauthorized immigrant population was estimated at 130,000, accounting for approximately 2.2% of all state residents, notably lower than the national average. We do not have a serious undocumented immigration problem in Minnesota. Moreover, as the Reformer has reported, roughly 90% of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens,

So, why is a militarized ICE terrorizing Minnesotans?

As a St. Cloud State alumnus and former St. Cloud resident of a combined eight years, I am horrified by the potentially unconstitutional manner in which ICE conducted itself in St. Cloud. As a father of children who are descendants of both Norwegian and Somali immigrants, I fear for their safety and the safety of all Minnesotans. ICE is retraumatizing St. Cloud’s Muslim residents, compounding the fear in a city already scarred by a history of Islamophobia.

Following the fatal shooting of Renée Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minnesota and subsequent raids in this month, public approval for the agency has dropped sharply, with 51% of Americans deeming ICE’s current tactics “too forceful,” according to a recent YouGov poll. A Quinnipiac University poll revealed that 57% of voters disapproved of ICE enforcement of immigration laws, while only 39% approved. According to an NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist College poll, 54% of Americans believe that ICE has “gone too far” in its enforcement of immigration laws. Recently, a CNN poll indicated that 53% of Americans oppose President Trump’s proposed expansion of ICE funding, while only 31% expressed support. In a YouGov poll from Jan 14, 2026, 53% of Americans think Agent Ross should face criminal charges for the shooting of Good, whereas only 30% responded that he shouldn’t be charged.

In short, Americans are done with ICE, especially Minnesotans. As far back as a June Star Tribune poll and a more recent KSTP poll, a majority oppose Trump’s immigration policies.

Somali Minnesotans are just like their neighbors — they work and pay taxes and contribute in other ways. According to Bruce Corrie of Concordia University St. Paul, Somali Minnesotans generate at least $500 million in income yearly. Somalis pay approximately $67 million in state and local taxes, and Somalis have an estimated $8 billion impact on the state’s economy.

These tax-paying Americans should not have to fear a police state. If this ICE surge is some kind of revenge for fraud, doesn’t targeting the entire Somali-American community for the criminal fraud perpetrated by a few individuals constitute immoral collective punishment that violates the core American and international legal principles of presumption of innocence and protection from arbitrary detention? The militarized terror inflicted upon our neighbors is not only a violation of American and international civil liberties but an affront to the sacred values held by Minnesota’s diverse faith communities.

In the Old Testament, the moral mandate is clear and repetitive: “You shall not oppress a foreigner, you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners” (Exodus 23:9), a call to empathy born from the memory of one’s own displacement.

This is echoed in the Gospel, where the Biblical Jesus explicitly aligns himself with the outcast, stating, “I was a stranger and you took me in” (Matthew 25:35). Islam similarly elevates the protection of the Ibn al-Sabīl (the migrant), commands believers to stand firmly for justice, and to be witnesses of injustice for God, even if it is against their own kin (Qurʾān 4:135, cf. 2:177, 2:215, 4:36, 8:41, 9:60, 17:26, 30:38, 59:7).

When militarized agents storm our cities, forcefully enter our homes without judicial warrants and deploy chemical irritants against peaceful families, they violate this shared Abrahamic duty to offer sanctuary. The United States cannot claim to be a moral authority while allowing the machinery of ICE to tear apart the very families we are commanded to aid and protect; our Abrahamic heritage demands we stand between the oppressor and the oppressed.

To truly uphold that heritage and address our nation’s moral dilemma, we must heed Martin Luther King III’s reflection on the recent state violence in Minneapolis: “It feels like humanity has left,” and our charge now “really is once again redeeming the soul of America.”

Independent Journalism for All

As a nonprofit newsroom, our articles are free for everyone to access. Readers like you make that possible. Can you help sustain our watchdog reporting today?

SUPPORT

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..