As enforcement expands in Minneapolis and beyond, residents question ICE, Border Patrol, and National Guard roles
The aggressive immigration crackdown unfolding in Minneapolis follows months of clashes between federal officers and residents of major cities over the Trump administration’s deportation campaign and anticrime efforts.
The Trump administration has deployed a variety of federal forces to city streets. Often, it can be difficult for the public to tell these officers apart, or to understand what powers each agency has and whether established norms are being broken. Here is a guide to how these forces have operated in other cities, including alongside local law enforcement.
Who they are
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the primary immigration law enforcement agency in the country, and its officers wear a variety of uniforms and identifiers.
ICE is made up of two main branches. The officers of Enforcement and Removal Operations typically handle arrests and deportations. In the past, Homeland Security Investigations focused on transnational crimes, but Mr. Trump has called on his officers to make other arrests in the field.
Confusion over immigration officers’ relationship to other law enforcement is not new. In 2020, community organizations in California sued ICE, claiming officers misrepresented themselves as the police during immigration operations. The lawsuit was settled in August and mandated that officers clearly identify themselves as ICE on their clothing.
Elsewhere, ICE officers may operate in plain clothes with no or minimal identification but are supposed to identify themselves during arrests.
One case involving a Turkish doctoral student sparked outrage when footage surfaced of plainclothes agents confronting her on the street outside Boston in March. Still other ICE officers may appear in full military-style fatigues, like the agency’s Special Response Teams, who are trained for high-risk operations. Since the anti-ICE summer protests in Los Angeles, they have also been guarding ICE facilities and making some street arrests.
Customs and Border Protection is charged with law enforcement at the border, but Mr. Trump has deployed his agents nationwide to arrest immigrants. Within 100 miles of the border, they have greater authority than local law enforcement to conduct certain searches.
Like ICE officers, their uniforms vary. After protests mounted over his immigration crackdown, Mr. Trump sent National Guard troops to Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., citing a need to protect immigration agents and federal property. He has also been called upon the National Guard to work alongside the local police in Memphis and Washington, D.C.
Local officials in most of these cities, which are led by Democrats, have strongly objected to the deployments, saying Mr. Trump is misusing the Guard, a part-time military force that most often is called upon during natural disasters,wars or civil unrest.
