Minneapolis officials moved swiftly Thursday to close all public schools after a confrontation between federal immigration agents, teachers and community members erupted at a city high school — just hours after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, during an immigration enforcement operation elsewhere in the city.

The clash unfolded Wednesday afternoon at Roosevelt High School, less than three miles from where Good was killed on a snow-covered street. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol agents arrived at the school after a five-mile vehicle chase involving a suspect who allegedly rammed a government vehicle during an enforcement action. The pursuit ended as students were being dismissed, drawing agents onto school grounds at a moment of heightened tension across the city.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene. Armed federal agents poured out of unmarked SUVs near the school entrance as hundreds of students exited the building. Teachers and school staff attempted to block the agents from entering school property, urging them to stay away from students, according to multiple accounts. At least one educator was tackled and briefly detained, witnesses said.

“They came in like this was a military operation,” said Carol, a neighborhood resident who asked that her last name be withheld out of fear of retaliation. She said residents rushed outside blowing whistles and shouting at agents to leave the school. Video she recorded shows demonstrators chanting “Shame!” as officers pushed back the crowd.

The incident drew the attention of Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol commander who has overseen enforcement operations in several major U.S. cities. Witnesses said Bovino stood at a school entrance as an agent appeared to film him, a moment that many residents said deepened their sense that the operation was meant to project force rather than restore order.

DHS, in a statement, said agents were assaulted by an individual who identified himself as a teacher and that members of the crowd threw objects and paint at officers. The agency said agents used “targeted crowd control” but denied deploying tear gas — a claim disputed by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, which said chemical agents were used. The union confirmed that an educator was arrested and later released.

Parents and local officials expressed alarm that federal agents entered a school environment during dismissal. “School property should be off-limits,” said Kate Winkel, a nearby resident who witnessed the confrontation. “Kids need to feel safe at school.”

The episode unfolded against the backdrop of mounting anger over Good’s killing earlier the same day. Her death, captured on video later analyzed by national media, has sparked protests and renewed scrutiny of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, particularly in neighborhoods with large immigrant and Somali-American populations.

By Thursday evening, Minneapolis Public Schools announced that all classes would be canceled through Friday, citing safety concerns and the need to assess the situation. “This incident involved federal law enforcement agents and is currently under investigation,” the district said, adding that schools would reopen Monday.

For many in Minneapolis, the back-to-back events — a fatal shooting followed by federal agents clashing with teachers at a public high school — have crystallized fears that immigration enforcement has crossed a line, turning neighborhoods and now schools into flashpoints in a rapidly escalating national confrontation.

FRAUD, FEAR, AND FORCE: Trump Administration Plans Major Immigration Enforcement Surge in Minnesota Amid Fraud Scrutiny.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Trump administration is preparing a sweeping escalation of immigration enforcement in Minnesota, with plans to deploy roughly 2,000 federal agents to the state in what officials describe as an expansion of ongoing operations tied to fraud investigations and broader immigration priorities.

According to two law enforcement officials familiar with the plans, the deployment will focus heavily on the Twin Cities metropolitan area and include personnel from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol. Gregory Bovino, a senior Customs and Border Protection commander known for overseeing high-profile enforcement actions in other major U.S. cities, is expected to be involved.

The move represents a sharp intensification of federal activity already underway in Minnesota, following weeks of increasingly pointed rhetoric from President Donald Trump and senior administration officials linking alleged welfare and child care fraud to organizations associated with members of the state’s Somali community.

Asked to confirm the deployment, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged a heightened federal presence but declined to offer specifics. “For the safety of our officers, we do not discuss law enforcement footprint,” she said, adding that DHS has surged enforcement nationwide and has made more than 1,000 arrests of individuals accused of serious crimes, including homicide, sexual offenses and gang activity.

The enforcement push comes amid renewed political focus on long-running fraud cases in Minnesota. In 2022, federal prosecutors charged dozens of people in the Feeding Our Future case, alleging a nonprofit falsely claimed to provide meals to children during the pandemic while diverting tens of millions of dollars. At least 37 defendants have pleaded guilty. Court records do not clearly indicate how many of those charged are Somali.

Still, the case has been repeatedly cited by Trump, who has used sweeping language to characterize Minnesota’s Somali population, without providing evidence to support broader claims of community-wide misconduct.

Tensions intensified again late last year after a video by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley alleged widespread fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minneapolis. The video went viral after being shared by prominent political figures, despite state officials later saying inspections found the facilities operating within regulations. Several providers rejected the allegations outright.

Even so, federal authorities have frozen portions of child care funding to Minnesota, and state officials face mounting pressure as they work to meet federal documentation deadlines.

The impact on the ground has been immediate. Somali-Americans — most of whom are U.S. citizens — say the expanding enforcement has created fear and uncertainty. Some report carrying passports or citizenship documents out of concern they could be stopped or questioned. In one incident last month, a masked federal agent briefly detained a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Somali descent before releasing him, prompting public outcry.

Local officials have also raised alarms. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara criticized federal agents after video surfaced showing an officer kneeling on a woman during an enforcement operation — an image that resonated deeply in a city still marked by the killing of George Floyd.

Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country, is deeply rooted in the state. Census data show that nearly 58% of Somalis in Minnesota were born in the United States, and the vast majority of foreign-born Somalis are naturalized citizens.

Community leaders warn that isolated cases of wrongdoing are being used to cast suspicion on an entire population. “A single case is generalized, and fear follows,” said Jaylani Hussein of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Families feel it immediately. Trust erodes. And communities that contribute every day to this state are left under a cloud.”

As federal agents prepare to expand their footprint, Minnesota has become a test case — not just for immigration enforcement, but for how far political narratives can reshape the lives of communities caught in their path.

A political firestorm is building in Washington after FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that major Minnesota fraud investigations were deliberately buried under the Biden administration.

According to investigative journalist Catherine Herridge, Patel has been tracking the sprawling Minnesota fraud scandal for months and believes the original probes were quietly sidelined because they risked implicating individuals politically aligned with former President Joe Biden.

The scope of the investigation is staggering.

Between May and December 2025 alone, the FBI opened 16 active investigations into 32 healthcare and in-home care providers, examining allegations that range from healthcare fraud and money laundering to cybercrime, public corruption — and even possible terrorist financing.

So far, 78 individuals have been indicted and 57 convicted, with investigators now expanding the probe nationwide to determine whether the same fraud networks operated beyond Minnesota and whether elected officials were involved.

At the center of the scandal is the infamous “Feeding Our Future” case, which exposed an alleged $250 million fraud scheme tied to federal COVID-era nutrition programs. Prosecutors say enormous sums were claimed for meals that were never served, with money allegedly laundered through shell entities to enrich participants.

The revelations have ignited bipartisan outrage — but especially fury among conservative lawmakers and media figures.

On Newsmax, host Rob Finnerty accused Democrats of orchestrating a cover-up and demanded congressional testimony from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

“After watching conservatives prosecuted endlessly, the time has come for accountability on the left,” Finnerty said, calling for investigations to go “all the way to the top.”

With congressional hearings looming and federal agencies intensifying enforcement, the Minnesota fraud scandal is no longer a local issue — it is rapidly becoming a national reckoning over corruption, political protection, and the misuse of taxpayer money.

A traffic stop. A fleeing suspect. Gunfire in a residential street—tensions over ICE spill into St. Paul.

A federal immigration agent was struck by a vehicle and fired their weapon during an arrest in St. Paul on Sunday morning, amid heightened tensions over federal immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities, police said.

According to the St. Paul Police Department, officers responded to the incident around 8:20 a.m. in the 1300 block of Westminster Street. The department said the injured federal agent sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while the suspect was not wounded. St. Paul police were not involved in the arrest or the use of force.

Federal agents took the suspect into custody at the scene.

The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect as an undocumented immigrant from Cuba. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the individual was “noncompliant” during a traffic stop and attempted to flee, striking two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with the vehicle.

After being hit, one officer fired two shots, McLaughlin said. Both officers were transported to a hospital for evaluation.

“Every use of force incident and any discharge of an ICE firearm must be properly reported and reviewed by the agency in accordance with policy,” McLaughlin said, adding that the shooting will undergo both an external law enforcement review and an internal ICE investigation.

The incident comes against a backdrop of escalating friction between federal immigration authorities and local officials. On Friday, St. Paul city leaders sent a cease-and-desist letter to DHS, ordering federal agents to stop using city-owned parking lots to stage vehicles and personnel.

Just one day earlier, thousands of demonstrators marched in Minneapolis, crossing the river toward St. Paul to protest ICE operations across the Twin Cities.

Since the administration of Donald Trump ordered a surge of federal immigration agents into Minnesota earlier this month, DHS says more than 400 people have been arrested. Authorities have not disclosed how many remain in custody or have been transferred out of state.

The St. Paul shooting adds to growing concerns among residents and officials that aggressive enforcement tactics are pushing routine encounters into volatile territory, further inflaming an already polarized debate over immigration enforcement in the region.

They Are Hunting Faces: Omar Says ICE Stopped Her Son in Minneapolis. From Mosque to Target Parking Lot. 

MINNEAPOLIS — Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said U.S. immigration agents briefly detained her son over the weekend in Minnesota, an incident she described as emblematic of what she called racially targeted enforcement as the Trump administration intensifies immigration operations in Somali-majority neighborhoods.

In an interview with Minneapolis broadcaster WCCO on Sunday, Omar said her son was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after leaving a Target store. She said he was released once he presented his U.S. passport.

“Once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” Omar said, adding that her son routinely carries identification because of heightened anxiety within the community.

Omar also said that earlier in the day, ICE agents entered a mosque where her son had been praying, before leaving without making arrests. She said the encounter reinforced her concerns that federal agents are engaging in racial profiling under an operation known as Operation Metro Surge, which has deployed immigration officers across the Twin Cities.

“I told him how worried I am,” Omar said. “They are racially profiling. They are looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented.”

The Democratic lawmaker, who has represented Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District since 2019, is the first Somali American elected to the U.S. Congress and a frequent target of political attacks by President Donald Trump. In recent remarks, Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage” and suggested Omar should be expelled from the country — comments that civil rights groups and local officials have condemned as openly racist.

The Trump administration has framed the Minnesota operation as part of a broader effort to remove undocumented immigrants with criminal records. However, Omar and other critics argue the tactics being used — including traffic stops and visible enforcement near mosques and commercial centers — are creating fear among law-abiding residents, many of whom are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Last week, Omar sent a formal letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, accusing the agency of “blatant racial profiling” and conduct “designed for social media rather than befitting a law enforcement agency.” She said reports from constituents describe unnecessary force and intimidation, particularly toward young men.

Minnesota is home to the largest Somali diaspora in the United States, with tens of thousands of Somali Americans concentrated in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs. Many families arrived as refugees during the civil war of the 1990s and have since built businesses, civic institutions, and political influence. Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have defended the community, noting that most Somali residents are U.S. citizens and contribute significantly to the city’s economy and cultural life.

Civil liberties advocates warn that aggressive enforcement strategies risk undermining trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement, particularly at a time when national rhetoric around immigration has grown increasingly hostile.

For Omar, the encounter involving her son has personal and political resonance. “No one should have to carry their passport just to go about their daily life,” she said. “That is not what equal protection under the law looks like.”

The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly commented on Omar’s account of the incident. ICE has previously said its operations are intelligence-driven and not based on race or ethnicity.

As enforcement activity continues, community leaders say the broader impact may extend beyond immigration policy — reshaping how Somali Americans perceive their place in the country and how visible they feel they can safely be.

Inside “Little Mogadishu”: Minnesota’s Somali Community Under Pressure From Fraud Scandals and Trump’s Attacks.

MINNEAPOLIS — The nation’s largest Somali community is once again at the center of a fierce political storm. In Cedar–Riverside, the Minneapolis neighborhood long known as “Little Mogadishu,” residents find themselves navigating a double assault: a sweeping federal fraud scandal that has damaged public trust, and an escalating barrage of inflammatory rhetoric from President Donald Trump and his allies.

Trump’s latest comments — accusing Somalis of “ripping off the state for billions” and declaring “we don’t want them in our country” — were the bluntest yet.

They landed hard in a community already reeling from the fallout of the Feeding Our Future scandal, the largest pandemic-era fraud case in U.S. history, in which a number of Somali Minnesotans were charged or convicted.

Trump and members of his administration have also revived unproven allegations of widespread immigration fraud, including long-discredited claims about Rep. Ilhan Omar.

For many Somali Minnesotans, the political climate now feels like a return to the darkest years after 9/11, when suspicion overshadowed daily life.

A Community on the Defensive

Residents interviewed by Fox News Digital expressed frustration that the actions of a small group have branded an entire community as criminal.

They argue the portrayal erases the lived reality of tens of thousands of Somali Minnesotans who work in factories, trucking, nursing, tech, and small business — and who have spent decades building a stable community in the upper Midwest.

But the scrutiny is unavoidable. The fraud cases, combined with longstanding concerns over gang activity and the small number of Minnesotan youth who once joined al-Shabaab, have created a narrative that is difficult to escape.

A Neighborhood Transformed

In Cedar–Riverside, the demographic shift is unmistakable. Once a bohemian student-and-nightlife corridor, it now carries the visual and cultural imprint of a Somali-majority district: mosques replacing bars, Arabic and Somali signage replacing English storefronts, and the fading modernist towers of Riverside Plaza looming over a neighborhood struggling under poverty rates triple the state average.

During Fox News Digital’s visit, streets were quiet and storefronts shuttered. Men gathered outside mosques for prayer; volunteers in reflective vests assisted people suffering from addiction-related medical crises. Political posters for Somali-American candidates blanketed corners.

The cultural vibrancy remained, but the economic struggle was visible.

Between Aspiration and Hardship

Despite the negative headlines, the community is not monolithic. Younger Somalis spoke openly about wanting to blend into American culture, code-switch between identities, or enter creative fields. Others highlighted the intense pressures of being part of multiple minority categories at once — Black, Muslim, immigrant, refugee — in a society where each marker carries its own challenges.

At Karmel Mall, the bustling heart of the Somali diaspora, barbers, hair stylists, shop owners, and tech workers described a different narrative: resilience, ambition, and a community determined to prove its place in America.

Many emphasized that their stories — educational success, entrepreneurship, civic engagement — rarely make national news.

Yet poverty remains entrenched. Median household incomes hover around $43,600, and more than a third of Somali Minnesotans live below the poverty line. Leaders like CAIR–Minnesota’s Jaylani Hussein argue that these struggles are symptoms of a young, still-developing immigrant community — not evidence of cultural failure.

The Shadow of Politics

What troubles Somali leaders most is not the fraud scandal itself but the political reaction to it. Trump’s remarks have revived fears of mass suspicion, surveillance, and scapegoating.

Community elders worry that decades of effort to integrate into Minnesota’s social fabric could be undone overnight by rhetoric that conflates individuals’ crimes with collective identity.

Somali residents say they cannot escape the reality that the community is now part of America’s political battleground — a symbol used by both parties, though often without nuance.

“Minnesota has had thirty years with the Somali community,” Hussein said. “Ninety-five percent of it has been positive. Our children were born here — they are Minnesotans now.”

But the fight over “Little Mogadishu’s” place in Minnesota — and in American identity — is far from over.