Mubashir, a 20-year-old Somali American citizen, said he was taking his lunch break in Minneapolis when a federal agent abruptly tackled him.
“I told him, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen, what is going on?’ He didn’t seem to care,” Mubashir, who declined to share his last name for safety reasons, recalled during a Wednesday press conference alongside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
Video that officials played at the press event captured two agents shoving Mubashir into a stairwell and handcuffing him. A subsequent clip showed an agent putting Mubashir in a chokehold and pushing him down into the snow before placing him in a vehicle.
Mubashir’s harrowing arrest underscores longstanding concerns local leaders have expressed about the potential for racial profiling as the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surges in the Minneapolis area. The recent operation, which reportedly includes a focus on Somali immigrants in the region, also follows repeated attacks Trump has levied against members of that community in recent weeks.
As Minnesota Public Radio reported, Mubashir was not suspected of any crime.
