Early Thursday morning, a Red Lake Nation descendant and U.S. citizen, Jose Roberto Ramirez, 20, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.
The encounter was posted on Facebook by a relative. The arrest came about just a day after an ICE agent fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis during a separate immigration enforcement operation.
Ramirez, who was born in Minneapolis, called his aunt, Shawntia Sosa-Clara, after he realized he was being followed by federal agents. He pulled into a Hy-Vee parking lot in Robbinsdale and Sosa-Clara met him there, then called Robbinsdale police. Only ICE agents were involved in the detention, and Robbinsdale Police Capt. John Elder said his officers “had nothing to do with the arrest. Our officers had no interactions with the detainee.”
Ramirez’s mother, Raelyn Duffy, who is an enrolled tribal citizen of the Red Lake Nation, said her son is a U.S. citizen. She brought his passport and birth certificate to the B.H. Whipple Federal Building near Fort Snelling in an attempt to prove his citizenship, but she was initially turned away and could not contact him for several hours.
Sosa-Clara said in the video that after agents surrounded the vehicle — she estimated there were about 20 agents — she began livestreaming the interaction. She said agents tried to scan Ramirez’s face for identification, and that at one point an agent punched him and multiple agents hit him. The Star Tribune account does report that agents struck Ramirez during the encounter.
Sosa-Clara also said she handed Ramirez his driver’s license when agents demanded identification, but it was lost amid the commotion.
Duffy said a lawyer planned to meet her at the Whipple building when it reopened Friday morning. According to statements from Minnesota legislators, Ramirez was not initially allowed to show proof of citizenship at the time of his arrest.
Ramirez was released from ICE custody later Thursday afternoon; as of Friday there were no announced assault charges.
Chairman Steve Sitting Bear of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe issued a statement reminding tribal citizens to carry identification such as tribal ID cards or degrees of Indian blood, and reiterated that tribal members are U.S. citizens and that “our members are not immigrants” subject to immigration enforcement on sovereign tribal lands.
