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January 13, 2026

4 entries on this date.

ICE detained Circle Pines, Minnesota restaurant worker at work, flew him to Texas detention within about 12 hours

On January 13, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a worker at Pancho's Taqueria and Mexican Cafe in Circle Pines, Minnesota, during the federal Operation Metro Surge immigration-enforcement deployment to the Twin Cities. The worker -- identified by restaurant owners only as "Kevin" to protect his safety -- was taken to a federal building in Minneapolis and flown to an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas roughly 12 hours later, before his family or an attorney located him. Restaurant owner Frank Chase said Kevin held valid work authorization; ICE and CBP did not respond to reporters' requests for comment on the detention.

Federal agents dragged U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman from her car and detained her without charge in Minneapolis

On January 13, 2026, masked federal agents smashed the window of U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman's car, cut her seatbelt, and dragged her out at a Minneapolis intersection while she was driving to an appointment at the city's Traumatic Brain Injury Center. Rahman, who is autistic and has a prior brain injury, told agents she was disabled; she was taken to the Whipple detention facility, denied medical care until she lost consciousness, and was never charged with a crime. The Department of Homeland Security called her an "agitator" who ignored commands to move her vehicle, one of seven people arrested at the scene during Operation Metro Surge.

CNN report reveals Pentagon directed dozens of active-duty military lawyers to prosecute civilians in Minneapolis

On January 13, 2026, CNN reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had directed the military services to identify 40 judge advocate general officers, from which 25 would be selected to serve as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys prosecuting civilians in Minneapolis amid an immigration-enforcement crackdown. The detailing of active-duty uniformed lawyers to Justice Department prosecutions followed similar moves in Washington, D.C., and Memphis, and drew challenges under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. Former JAG officers argued the practice assigned uniformed military attorneys to prosecute ordinary civilian crimes unrelated to the armed forces.

Justice Department was investigating Renee Good's widow while declining to investigate the ICE agent who killed her

By January 13, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice was pursuing a criminal investigation into Becca Good, the widow of Renee Good — fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross during Operation Metro Surge — for allegedly impeding a federal officer, while Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said there was "currently no basis" for a civil-rights investigation into Ross. The dual decision, which drew on a statute from Attorney General Pam Bondi's December domestic-terrorism memo, prompted at least a dozen career federal prosecutors to resign across the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's office and the DOJ Civil Rights Division's criminal section. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said "the only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her."