Minneapolis, MN — Dozens of federal agents in a newly minted federal task force raided a business on East Lake Street in South Minneapolis on Tuesday morning (June 3) and were quickly met with a raucous crowd amid toxic smoke conditions from Canadian wildfires. The crowd of up to 200 people grew through the day under the impression an immigration raid was underway, at times blocking federal vehicles from vacating alleys and streets. Federal agents responded violently by shooting pepper balls and unleashing pepper spray; personnel from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Response Teams (SRT) were filmed shoving people. Mobilized community members eventually pressured the federal agents out of the neighborhood, while Minneapolis police officers provided crowd control.
Inside the new “Homeland Security Task Force” (HSTF) network, the lead agency is Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), one of two divisions inside ICE. The other division of ICE, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) – which targets immigrants for deportation – was also involved, according to Jamie Holt, HSI’s acting special agent in charge in Minnesota. Holt said this was the debut action of the HSTF in the state. (More about the little-known new HSTF network below.) [Unicorn Riot leaked ICE HSI agent manuals in our #Icebreaker series.]
The raid started before noon and federal agents walked out of the neighborhood in groups sometime after 1 p.m. but street activity continued for hours into the afternoon. Authorities said they had a warrant to search Las Cuatro Milpas restaurant on Bloomington Avenue and Lake Street, claiming to be seeking evidence of drug trafficking and money laundering. The restaurant’s suburban location was also raided along with six other locations.
Some had labels on their gear that caught people’s attention such as name patches that only said “The Others” and a Special Response Team badge with a Viking compass design called a Vegsivir. Such Nordic designs are sometimes associated with racist and neo-nazi beliefs like those of Asatru Folk Assembly. A recent Valknot tattoo spotted on an ICE agent during an immigration raid in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts raised similar concerns.
Many of the federal agents were masked and did not have visible names or identification numbers, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to file lawsuits against individual agents in court.
By the end of a full afternoon of confusion, at least five community members had been detained with a few being arrested. Unicorn Riot saw one forceful arrest shortly after 4 p.m. as Minneapolis police tried to practice crowd control.
Overall the incident showed that, similar to an ICE-led immigration raid in San Diego on Friday, May 30, people in local communities are becoming galvanized against the presence of masked and menacing federal law enforcement personnel targeting their neighborhoods.
The Sahan Journal, MPR News and Crimethinc also provided reports from the Minneapolis raid.
Politicians have weighed in; several were on the site of the raid and during the community gathering after the feds pulled out in the afternoon. State Senator Omar Fateh (DFL-62) described it as “blatant fascism.” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL) said “it seemed like the point was to inflict terror and fear into the community.” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty posted “ICE is being used to terrorize people” and that local law enforcement should be “transparent about what assistance” they are giving to the Feds. Jazz Hampton posted that they saw someone they know personally knocked unconscious. (Hampton and Fateh are both running for mayor currently, as is incumbent Jacob Frey.)
Fateh added, “we cannot hope that a Federal Task Force led by this DHS or FBI will have any goal in mind other than to create maximum fear and anxiety while accelerating Trump’s agenda of family separation and deportations.”
Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt tried to push a message that community actions were triggered by “irresponsible rumors” while Frey attacked Fateh’s statement about “blatant fascism,” claiming this was “stoking panic.” (Frey attempted to distance this raid from immigration enforcement, but targeting immigrants is actually foundational to the Trump’s HSTF task force structure itself. More on that below.) Frey also made the rounds [1, 2] trying to reassure Lake Street business owners that he’s not assisting the Trump administration crackdown.
Minneapolis Police and the Hennepin County Sheriffs Department claim they were unaware of the raid until it occurred. In a press conference on June 4, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the raid was “tone-deaf.”
Groups in the Twin Cities including the Minnesota Immigrant Movement (MIM), Asamblea de los Derechos Civiles and Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MiRAC) held a press conference outside Mayor Frey’s office on June 5, demanding “accountability from the mayor and MPD after local law enforcement helped federal authorities terrorize the immigrant community on Lake Street. […] [T]he mayor is unable to uphold this promise of safety for the city’s residents. […] This is what the Trump administration’s war on immigrants looks like.” Other groups including SEIU Local 26, Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB), Indigenous Protector Movement (IPM), Twin Cities Coalitiion for Justice (TCC4J) and Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-Sentenced Families Council-MN (WIAOCF-MN) are also supporting this press conference event.
‘Homeland Security Task Force’ Led by ICE-HSI Makes its Minnesota Debut
Our report last week on how new federal task forces under “287(g)” could form an “ICE Army” also covered “Homeland Security Task Forces” (HSTF) which President Donald Trump ordered up in Executive Order 14159 (entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”) on January 20, 2025.
Mayor Frey claimed on Wednesday “our police officers will not work to enforce federal immigration law, we will not be involved in federal immigration actions.” However, Unicorn Riot obtained a memo showing all HSTF teams are built directly on “Border Enforcement Security Task Forces” — that entire document is transcribed below.
Very little is known about the new HSTF system. A new report from NBC News discusses HSTF alongside “Operation at Large.” A new estimate of 21,000 National Guard personnel are sought for this currently active White House-directed operation, along with 5,000 federal law enforcement personnel.
The operation draws federal law enforcement in agencies like the FBI to civil immigration enforcement, away from their normal workloads. Federal law enforcement agencies are now under strain & have been ordered to assist ICE-ERO civil immigration detentions at the expense of their standard activities. (It’s possible this high-profile raid was designed to send a message that these agencies are still working hard on non-immigration tasks — that seems to be the message from local ICE-HSI official Holt.)
NBC reported on draft documents stating that “the mission of the HSTF is further to facilitate the removal of criminal aliens from the United States.” It would involve the “National Counterterrorism Center [NCTC], the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon to ‘assist with targeting and investigations.’” [The Trump Administration is trying to put Joe Kent in charge of NCTC, a right-wing hardliner from Washington state who is notorious for coordinating with white supremacists, pumping disinformation about the January 6 attacks, and smearing protesters as terrorists. Recently Kent, acting under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, appeared to distort an intelligence report to exaggerate gang threats.]
As we noted last week, we located a diagram inside of Florida’s draconian immigration crackdown plan that shows the structure for the HSTF system which is led by HSI. (Unicorn Riot leaked HSI’s special agent manuals in the #Icebreaker series, including the Special Response Team handbook). This document has not previously been reported.
The text of this Homeland Security Investigations diagram is dated 2/21/2025. Agency badges include the departments of Treasury, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Here’s the full text of the document transcribed from the diagram image above:
ESTABLISHMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY TASK FORCES (HSTF)
In accordance with the President’s Executive Order (EO) 14159 section 6: “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” the National Security Council is directing the creation of a Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) network. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General are directed to take all appropriate action to jointly establish HSTFs in all states nationwide — to include the establishment of a national command center to coordinate law enforcement activities of the HSTFs, provide support as required, and direct national-level priorities aligned with the EO. This whole-of government approach will include representatives from federal law enforcement agencies, federal prosecutors and other U.S. Government agencies with the ability to provide logistics, intelligence and operational support to the HSTFs. The approach will include representation from relevant state, territorial and local law enforcement agencies in the fight against transnational organized crime (TOC).
HSTF STRUCTURE
The HSTF will leverage the existing structure and capabilities of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)-led Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BESTs) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) National Targeting Center (NTC), which together provide a strong foundation to meet the requirements for an HSTF network. There will be a minimum of one HSTF per U.S. state with interagency support staff provided by the executive steering committees.
HSTFs will be immediately deployed nationwide leveraging 112 BESTs operating in every state and U.S. territory. At the discretion of the HSI Special Agent in Charge, additional HSTFs can be established augmenting other existing law enforcement task forces with interagency personnel.
GOVERNANCE
The HSTF has a three-tiered governance structure with Interagency Support Staff (ISS):
1: Principals. Cabinet-level officials, chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security and co-chaired by the Attorney General, with additional participation from the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of Treasury, and the Secretary of State.
2: Executive Steering Committee (ESC): Deputy Director-level official designated by the HSTF Principals to represent their respective Department and/or Agency Heads. The ESC will be chaired by HSI and co-chaired with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
3. Executive Steering Sub-Committees (ESSC): Established in all 30 HSI SAC (special agent in charge) offices, the ESSCs will report directly to the ESC. Each ESSC will be chaired by an HSI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) and co-chaired by an FBI SAC.
The HSTF National Command Center (NCC), located at ICE Headquarters (HQs) is staffed with ISS representatives from federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the ability to provide funding resources, logistics, criminal network analysis and operational support to nationwide HSTFs in the fight against TOC [transnational organized crime].
NCC chart includes three groupings. Intelligence Operations: Strategic, Data Integration, Targeting & Analysis. Global Operations: Immigration Enforcement, Human Trafficking, Transnational Gangs, Weapons Trafficking, Narcotics & Contraband Smuggling, Illicit Proceeds & Financial Crimes, Human Smuggling. Mission Support: Staffing & Personnel Security Unit, Legal, Policy & Planning, Budget & Performance, Training & Development.
Interview with reporter Dan Feidt on KFAI [Vimeo / YouTube]:
Niko Georgiades and Dingane Xaba contributed to this report. Cover image composition by Dan Feidt. Images courtesy Aaron Johnson and Brandon Schorsch.
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