U.S. citizen swept up in ICE enforcement as Twin Cities operation continues

Kim Hyatt and Sofia Barnett, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jan 8, 2026

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A 20-year-old Crystal man was detained by immigration agents in Robbinsdale early Jan. 8 in an encounter his family described as violent and that a relative livestreamed on Facebook.

The man, Jose Roberto Ramirez, was born in Minneapolis, according to a copy of his birth certificate provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune by his family. Ramirez was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a Hy-Vee at about 11 a.m.

Raelyn Duffy, his mother and a member of the Red Lake Nation, said she brought his passport and birth certificate to the Whipple Federal Building near Fort Snelling but was turned away and has not been able to contact him.

Speaking through tears, Duffy said agents told her son he “wasn’t from here” and did not allow him to show his ID. Ramirez’s father was born in Mexico, and Duffy was born in Minnesota.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The arrest comes about 24 hours after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in south Minneapolis and as the Department of Homeland Security announces a significant increase in federal agents on the ground a month after launching “Operation Metro Surge.”

Duffy said she first learned of the arrest while at work, when a co-worker pulled her aside and showed her the video her sister, Shawntia Sosa-Clara, had posted of the encounter.

“It just looked like he got rushed. They just punched him, pulled him out of the car, arrested him,” Duffy said.

Sosa-Clara said Ramirez called her when he realized he was being followed by federal agents, and she met him at Hy-Vee. She said she called Robbinsdale police, and officers were there when she arrived. There appeared to be only one ICE vehicle.

Robbinsdale Police Capt. John Elder said his officers were at the scene but “we had nothing to do with the arrest. Our officers had no interactions with the detainee.”

Agents briefly put their guns away and got back into their vehicle, Sosa-Clara said. Bystanders urged her to get her nephew into her car and away from the area. As she attempted to leave, she said ICE agents suddenly surrounded the vehicle.

“We just got swarmed up on and blocked in, and there was about 20 ICE agents came after us, and that’s when I started recording,” she said.

As agents demanded Ramirez’s ID, Sosa-Clara said she handed him his driver’s license but it got lost in the shuffle.

“As they were scanning his face, another agent came and punches him, and they just started hitting him,” she said.

Sosa-Clara said an officer told her “there’s nothing we can do, just make sure you have your documents.” She told them that they did and that he’s a citizen who was born here.

She said she has been unable to get information from federal officials about where he is being detained.

“I can’t track him down. I don’t know where he’s at,” she said. “No one will tell me anything. I don’t know what to do.”

Duffy said a lawyer plans to meet her at the Whipple building early Friday morning when it reopens. Meanwhile, Sosa-Clara said she’s afraid to leave her house.

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