Second ICE shooting in a week spurs further protests in Minneapolis

A Venezuelan man who allegedly fled a traffic stop in Minneapolis was shot in the leg on Wednesday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, the government said, amid a surge that has spurred dramatic resistance in the mid-western city of Minnesota.

People quickly gathered to protest the shooting and were met by law enforcement agents who fired tear gas and crowd-control munitions late into the night.

Reuters journalists photographed law enforcement agents and protesters on dark streets obscured by clouds of tear gas and occasionally illuminated by beams from agents' headlamps and flashes from crowd-control munitions.

People in the streets near the shooting were accused of throwing fireworks, ice and rocks at law enforcement and of "engaging in unlawful acts," according to statements made by Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara at a press conference. Both he and Mayor Jacob Frey urged the crowds to disperse. "We do not need this to escalate any further," O'Hara said.

Politically-motivated

"We cannot counter Donald Trump's chaos with our own brand of chaos," added Frey, though he has had harsh words for the prevalence of ICE in his city, accusing their presence in Democratically-governed cities of being politically-motivated.

Trump, a Republican, has argued that large-scale surges in Democratic-led cities such as Minneapolis are necessary as authorities there do not sufficiently cooperate with immigration enforcement.

He has threatened to cut off federal funding next month for any state that includes sanctuary cities.

ICE agents acting as traffic police

The incident unfolded in sub-freezing weather Wednesday evening when the Venezuelan targeted by federal law enforcement officers at the traffic stop tried to get away and crashed his vehicle into a parked car, before fleeing on foot, according to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The wounded man and the two other fled into the apartment where they barricaded themselves before all were taken into custody, the government said.

The man who was shot and the officer were both hospitalized, the DHS said. A person familiar with the situation said the wounded suspect was in stable condition. The condition of the officer was not immediately known.

City on edge

This latest shooting comes a week after a U.S. immigration officer fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in the face while in her car in Minneapolis. Good, a U.S. citizen, encountered ICE agents while taking part in a neighborhood patrol network of local activists tracking and monitoring the activities of federal officers.

The city has been on edge since her killing, which spurred country-wide protests against state-sanctioned violence.

Opponents of the ICE surge say Good posed no physical threat to the officer who shot her. Rather than end the ICE surge, as demanded by state and local leaders, the Trump administration instead said it would send hundreds more agents to bolster a force of about 2,000 deployed to the city earlier.

The latest shooting followed days of chaotic clashes in Minneapolis between heavily armed federal agents and civilians they stop in the streets, as well as with activists, such as Good, who have showed up to observe and record such encounters.

Ice agents vs. community members

ICE agents appear to be conducting roving sweeps and arresting people without warrants, based on resident accounts and videos.

Reuters journalists have documented scores of agents carrying weapons through the icy streets of residential neighborhoods, wearing military-style camouflage gear and masks that cover their faces. The agents have used chemical irritants on protesters, sometimes firing orange pepper spray into faces at close range or igniting flash-bang grenades near groups in the street.

They are often met by residents blowing whistles and shouting at the officers. On occasion, the agents have smashed car windows and pulled people from their vehicles, videos show.

Some have confronted non-white U.S. citizens, demanding to see their identification before walking away, drawing angry jeers and accusations of racism from bystanders. DHS has rejected accusations of racial profiling, saying arrests are based on reasonable suspicion that individuals lack legal immigration status.

Immigration officers have also arrested U.S. citizens for allegedly disrupting enforcement. Groups of agents have chased protesters, including at least one dressed in a giraffe costume, before wrestling them to the ground to detain them.

Raids and sweeps of legal status refugees

The nonprofit World Relief said dozens of weekend arrests of legal refugees in the state, including children, were part of a Trump effort to re-vet refugees who entered under Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

Asked about such arrests, DHS referred to accusations of fraud against members of Minnesota's Somali community.

"The Trump administration will not stand idly by as the U.S. immigration system is weaponized by those seeking to defraud the American people," a DHS spokesperson said.

Trump has seized on the fraud accusations, throwing insults at Somalis in Minnesota (many of whom are in fact U.S. citizens, either born or naturalized), calling them "garbage" whom he wants deported. Administration officials have sought to tie the Minneapolis crackdown to the scandal.