U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is bringing the heat to frigid Minnesota as “Operation Metro Surge” continues in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
The immigration enforcement effort has prompted Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar to falsely claim her son was stopped by ICE agents, the police chief to make illogical Biblical comparisons and protestors to pelt federal agents with snowballs.
A surge of ICE agents has led to nearly 700 arrests and chaotic clashes in snowy, subzero weather, The New York Times reported.
The immigration sweep is targeting criminal illegal aliens and the “worst of the worst,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. A massive welfare fraud scandal in the state has also put a target on the Twin Cities’ Somali community.
Other reports from Fox News Digital and MPR News have said ICE has arrested more than 400 illegal immigrants since the operation began on Dec. 1.
One of those arrested was Abdul Dahir Ibrahim, a Somali illegal alien with a 30-year history of fraud and ties to high-profile Minnesota politicians including Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Somali-born Omar.
“Tim Walz and Jacob Frey failed to protect the people of Minnesota,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in regard to the hundreds of illegal immigrants who have been arrested. “They let these monsters and child predators roam free.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara joined Mayor Jacob Frey and religious leaders on Tuesday to discuss the impact of immigration enforcement efforts in the city.
O’Hara said it has been a “very, very difficult time” and the “fear is real” among the city’s immigrant residents and businesses. He tried to tug at people’s Christian empathy and compared the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph to ICE operations in the city.
In the now-viral clip, O’Hara explains he was raised Catholic and says, “I cannot help but think about what is happening in our city today and how that echoes with how outsiders have been treated for thousands of years, how Mary and Joseph themselves were considered outsiders and forced to stay in a barn.”
Describing Mary and Joseph as “illegal immigrants” is a faulty theological argument as many have noted, including Raymond Arroyo, a regular contributor on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.” Instead, he twists scripture out of context to push a political agenda.
Mary and Joseph were travelers between two areas of the Roman Empire, not immigrants or outsiders. Could it be the Catholic Bishops are promoting this tripe because the church receives government funding to assist in the migrants’ cause?
“They were not outsiders,” Arroyo said in the Fox News clip. “This idea that Mary and Joseph were refugees. You’re going to hear that a lot. They went to Egypt. Egypt was a Roman province, so they went from one Roman province to the other and then guess what, they returned to their country of origin. Something you never hear mentioned when these ICE and deportation stories and the gospel narrative tries to collude. They went back home, which is maybe an important lesson to remember.
McLaughlin took to social media to set O’Hara’s false narrative straight.
“How abhorrent and humiliating this Minneapolis Police Chief refuses to do his job and has allowed these pedophiles and rapists to terrorize Minneapolis and hurt the very people he swore an oath to protect,” she wrote on X.
McLaughlin shared a few of the recent arrests in the Twin Cities:
- Vannaleut Keomany, a 59-year-old criminal illegal alien from Laos who was convicted of two counts of rape. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Keomany has had a final order of removal since December 17, 2009.
- Por Moua, a 50-year-old criminal illegal alien from Laos who was convicted of first-degree great bodily harm and sentenced to 14 years and seven months; third-degree sexual conduct and sentenced to 18 months; sexual intercourse with a CHILD (in California) and sentenced to 210 days; and false imprisonment (in California) and sentenced to a year and four months. Moua has had a final order of removal since October 31, 2000.
- Tou Vang, a 42-year-old criminal illegal alien from Laos who was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13. Vang has had a final order of removal since October 31, 2006.
- Ban Du La Sein, a 47-year-old criminal illegal alien from Burma who has been convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion in Nobles County. He was sentenced to four years in prison and 10 years of probation. Du La Sein has had a final order of removal since February 27, 2014.
Meanwhile, protestors have turned to pelting federal agents with snowballs, incessantly honking horns and blowing ear-piercing whistles in an effort to stop immigration arrests in the city.
In a video shared by MPR News, protestors swarmed two ICE agents who were attempting to arrest a woman in a traffic stop north of Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue at about 1 p.m. on Dec. 15 in Minneapolis.
Activists have been on high alert and working to impede ICE operations in the Twin Cities since the crackdown began in early December. They gathered at the intersection, joined by neighbors and passersby, to record and interfere with the arrest. They also hurled snowballs, ice and verbal abuse at them.
In another report, MPR News said a spokesperson for ICE responded to questions with a statement that described the 400 people arrested in Minnesota this month as the “worst of the worst.” ICE did not respond to specific questions about the operation or Monday’s attempted arrests in south Minneapolis.
ICE offered an update on the situation Thursday on its X account, sharing a post from a local reporter Julio Rosas saying that “Sources in the Minneapolis Police Department tell me there is extreme frustration after their leadership ordered them to not help ICE agents who were being attacked by locals.”
Another video shows a woman lying down in front of a car tire and being dragged through the snow in because she wouldn’t get out of the way.
Various mainstream media reports have said witnesses and DHS offer starkly different accounts of what happened.
Protestors yelled that the woman was pregnant and dragged for no reason. ICE agents said protestors were out of control and hurled rocks and chunks of ice at them.
During the encounter, a Department of Homeland Security supervisor called Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office requesting assistance. He said 60-70 agitators surrounded them and trying to fight them.
People can be heard yelling, “You a black man working for the devil, and “Let f*cking go of her, you idiot.”
The Minneapolis Police Department and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office responded to help regain control of the crowd.
The Minneapolis City Council voted last week to unanimously to strengthen the city’s separation ordinance, which bans Minneapolis police from assisting in federal immigration actions, MPR News reported.
