ICE agent dragged, kneeled on woman reported to be pregnant during Minneapolis arrest attempt; police chief calls conduct "egregious"

On December 15, 2025, an ICE agent kneeled on the back of a woman reported to be pregnant, his wrist bound to hers by a restraint, before dragging her one-handed through the snow toward a vehicle during an immigration enforcement stop in south Minneapolis. Video captured by a bystander showed the woman and onlookers shouting that she could not breathe as the agent pulled her across an intersection; the woman was eventually released from the agent's grip. ICE said the stop began when officers tried to detain a driver and a woman then attempted to vandalize an ICE vehicle with spray paint, after which a crowd formed.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, whose officers responded to the scene and disengaged after determining there was no violence against federal agents, called the footage "profoundly disturbing" and said the agents' conduct showed "egregious disregard for human dignity" and "a lack of accountability from our federal partners." Eric Balliet, who spent 25 years with ICE and its predecessor including leading its internal-affairs equivalent, reviewed the footage at a local outlet's request and said he had never seen a suspect "dragged one-handed across a street" in his career. Lauryn Spencer, the bystander who filmed the incident, said she and other onlookers were shoved and sprayed with a chemical irritant when she tried to ask the woman her name.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin disputed the account, saying protesters threw rocks, ice and pepper spray at agents and assaulted officers, that two people were charged with assaulting federal officers, and that agents abandoned the woman's arrest after being "swarmed." Agents were seen using chemical irritants and a taser against the crowd during the encounter.