Patty O’Keefe says she’s just one example of many facing violence and intimidation by federal immigration agents in Minnesota.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday at Minneapolis City Hall, O’Keefe described how ICE agents broke her car window, pepper sprayed into her windshield vent, dragged her outside and detained her and a friend on Jan. 11.

“I was taunted, mocked. I was called ugly. There was a picture taken of me. Just, like, belittled (and) demoralized,” O’Keefe said. Of Renee Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis woman fatally shot by an ICE agent, O’Keefe said she was told: “You guys have to stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.” 

Reports of violence, retaliation and threats by federal immigration agents against peaceful protesters and legal observers are multiplying in the Twin Cities. Free speech lawyers say what’s happening in Minnesota matches a pattern of tactics used across the country, documented in a series of federal lawsuits.

“What we’re seeing in Minnesota is both a continuation and an escalation of what we’ve seen in other states,” said John Boehler, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Minnesota in a Jan. 13 interview.

The ACLU and other firms filed the Minnesota lawsuit on Dec. 17, and backed similar cases in Illinois, Oregon and California courts. 

The federal government has consistently denied the allegations, saying its agents are the ones under attack.

Reports, videos document use of force by ICE

The free speech case in Minnesota, Tincher v. Noem, was filed about two weeks into “Operation Metro Surge.” 

Lead plaintiff Susan Tincher alleges federal agents shackled her in a cell for five hours and cut off her bra and her wedding ring of 32 years in retaliation for attempting to observe their actions on Dec. 9.

Tincher said she was detained after asking a law enforcement officer to identify herself as ICE from about 6 feet away on public property. About 15 seconds later, Tincher said several agents pulled her to the ground and handcuffed her face-down in the snow, legal filings show.

“I don’t know what they think I was obstructing. I was just standing there. I hadn’t even taken out my phone to record yet,” Tincher said in the lawsuit.

David Easterwood, acting field office director for St. Paul’s ICE office, responded by alleging officers are subjected to “increased threats, violence, aggression, attacks, vehicle block-ins, and obstruction of immigration enforcement operations.” 

He said Tincher had attempted to enter an established law enforcement perimeter, refused commands to leave and attempted to push an ICE officer, legal filings show. 

Citing DHS’ use of force policy, Easterwood said officers “only use force that is necessary and reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances.” 

Some people who don’t pose an immediate threat to law enforcement may be impacted by crowd control devices like tear gas due to simple proximity, he said in legal filings.

Easterwood said, during his tenure, “I did not witness, or am I aware of, any ICE employee knowingly targeting or retaliating against peaceful protesters or legal observers with less lethal munitions and/or crowd control devices for exercising their First Amendment Rights.”

Related: Empty desks: As attendance declines amid federal enforcement actions, St. Paul schools offer virtual option

But anecdotal and video evidence of people being subject to ICE violence is growing, especially after Good’s shooting on Jan. 7. 

Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said he was assaulted by an ICE agent on Monday evening, an incident documented on video.

“I stood there and I just kept my distance, and was legally observing their operations, when an ICE agent pushed me from behind,” Payne said Wednesday. He said he was pushed after watching another ICE officer point a taser at a crowd of onlookers.

Doron Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, said attendees at an all-ages concert Sunday in Northeast Minneapolis ran outside in response to ICE activity near the venue.

ICE “promptly pepper sprayed them,” he said, and they ran inside. “Kids just trying to have a fun Sunday night, pepper-sprayed on Central Avenue.” 

As immigration raids and protests continue, the ACLU-Minnesota is gathering data about potential abuses of people’s free speech and other constitutional rights using an online form. 

Free speech lawsuits allege a pattern of suppression

The actions in such reports and videos fit a pattern in the lawsuits filed in California, Oregon and Illinois.

The California lawsuit dates back to June 2025. Among the journalist and protester plaintiffs is Abigail Olmeda, who alleges federal agents fired rubber bullets at a crowd without warning from 40 feet away, injuring her. 

The Illinois lawsuit, filed in October, describes how federal agents fired pepper balls from a rooftop at pastor David Black while he prayed during a protest in Chicago.

Oregon’s lawsuit was filed in November. Among other things, it alleges agents shot 84-year-old protester Laurie Eckman in the head with projectiles without warning before knocking her husband to the ground and spraying him with tear gas. 

The lawsuits are fast-moving and legally complicated, given the underlying questions about where to draw the line between protest and obstruction of law enforcement activities during often-chaotic confrontations.

Regardless, patterns in the lawsuits allege federal agents are using force even in clear instances where there was no threat to their safety. The reason, they allege, is an attempt to quiet people’s anger over the government’s immigration agenda.

“The problem is that the government is seemingly purposefully blurring the line between obstruction and First Amendment activity,” said Kevin Fee, legal director for the ACLU-Illinois in an interview. “It’s essentially casting all public expressions of rage, and discomfort with administration policy, as obstruction.”

He said the vast majority of protesters are not engaging in illegal protest activity. In cases where they do, he said they should be treated as individuals and prosecuted accordingly.

“This broad brush approach of treating entire crowds of people who are out clearly in protest as criminal obstructionists is disingenuous, and it’s dangerous,” Fee said. 

Related: State of Minnesota’s lawsuit accuses Trump administration of violating free speech rights

Federal officials have repeatedly characterized protesters as violent. 

A day after Good was killed, the Department of Homeland Security said its law enforcement officers “face a more than 1,300% increase in assaults, a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks against them, and an 8,000% increase in death threats.”

An analysis last month by the Los Angeles Times did not find evidence to support Department of Homeland Security claims about increasing assaults or threats on immigration officers. 

In its statement to MinnPost, DHS said “rioters, gangbangers, and terrorists have opened fire on our federal law enforcement officers, thrown rocks, bottles, and fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, rammed them, ambushed them, and they have destroyed multiple law enforcement vehicles.” 

“Despite these real dangers, our law enforcement shows incredible restraint in exhausting all options before force is escalated. Why does the media continue to carry water for these domestic terrorists?”

What if any relief could court cases bring protesters?

Judges in the California and Illinois lawsuits both initially barred federal agents from certain conduct, like firing pepper balls or tear gas at people posing no imminent threat.

The judge in the California case, Hernán D. Vera, issued an opinion in September after reviewing testimony from over 50 journalists, protesters and observers. 

He wrote the court has no sympathy for individuals who engaged in violent protest activity, and they should be charged according to their actions.

“But the actions of a relative few does not give DHS carte blanche to unleash near-lethal force on crowds of third parties in the vicinity,” Vera wrote for the District Court for the Central District of California.

That case is still open, now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals .

In Illinois, District Court Judge Sara Ellis wrote a 233-page opinion in favor of the protester and journalist plaintiffs in November after reviewing over 80 declarations, as well as videos and other pieces of evidence.

Ellis found repeated pieces of evidence disproving federal government claims that protesters were the aggressors. Top ICE official, Gregory Bovino, at times was “outright lying” during his testimony, Ellis wrote.

Related: Immigration agents are shooting people. Is it legal?

The federal government appealed the Illinois case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel ruled in their favor, finding Ellis’ ruling overly broad, and paused the restrictions she had ordered on federal agents’ conduct.

In Minnesota, lawyers are waiting on a judge to decide whether to issue an injunction on federal agents’ actions following a court hearing on Tuesday.

On Monday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a different lawsuit attempting to expel immigration enforcement agents from the state. 

Announcing it, he said federal agents are “arresting, threatening, and using force against innocent bystanders,” “using force against individuals peacefully engaging in constitutionally protected speech,” and “pointing firearms at individuals who pose no threat to DHS agents.”

Boehler, with the Minnesota-ACLU, said the case was filed on behalf of regular people who are protecting their neighbors and documenting federal government actions.

The stakes go beyond the state of Minnesota, Boehler said, noting how when ICE loses in court in one city, they move to another.

“Part of what we want here is to continue demonstrating that pattern to the federal court,” he said, “so that when ICE leaves Minneapolis and chooses their next target, those residents are prepared.”

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