U.S. Border Patrol agents smash a man's car window before dragging him out and taking him into custody when he failed to present citizenship documentation at a gas station on Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Trump administration has sent an estimated 2,000 federal agents into the area as they make a push to arrest undocumented immigrants. Four days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, federal agents in St. Paul constrained the airflow to a man’s neck until he became unconscious. Orbin Mauricio Henríquez Serrano, a Honduran national, was at a Speedway on Sunday afternoon when a dozen masked Border Patrol officers suddenly swarmed his vehicle. They demanded he roll down his window and show his papers. When he didn’t comply, they shattered the window and dragged him out, pressing him against the ground until his body went limp. They carried him into a dark, unmarked van and drove away. Watching the video of his arrest on Monday, his sister Consuelo was sure he was dead. It wasn’t until a day later that she could confirm he had survived – and that he’d been sent to an infamous detention tent camp in Texas. She told HuffPost she was able to speak to him for “a few seconds” over the phone. “He only managed to tell me that he is very injured,” she said. A friend who helped set up a GoFundMe page for the family shared photos with HuffPost showing the aftermath of the incident ― Serrano’s car, windows busted out, sitting in a suburban driveway. U.S. Border Patrol agents detain a man who failed to present citizenship documentation at a gas station on Jan. 11, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota. When he didn’t comply, they shattered his car window and dragged him out, pressing him against the ground until his body went limp. In the week since Good was killed, federal agents have continued to pour into Minnesota. The state calls it an “invasion.” The Trump administration has deployed a massive amount of force to Minneapolis — 800 Border Patrol and 2,000 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers, amounting to five times the headcount of the Minneapolis police force. President Donald Trump has threatened even more by invoking the Insurrection Act, which would send the U.S. military to police the streets. On Wednesday night, federal agents shot a man in the leg during what they said was an immigration enforcement operation. “To us, these are red coats,” Chris Lund, an attorney working to free a community member who’d been arrested and detained in the Whipple Federal Building told me, as federal agents glared at us from across the way. “These are imperial agents that are here to hurt us.” Despite the awesome force arrayed against them, Minnesotans are fighting back. When federal agents arrive in a neighborhood, residents hound them. The near constant use of chemical agents and physical violence doesn’t stop those efforts. The orange stain of pepper spray has become something of a mark of pride among some locals ― evidence they have stood up for their neighbours. Many of those neighbours are too scared to leave their homes; when they do, they carry proof of citizenship. One volunteer, Elanor, said there are some tell-tale signs of federal vehicles: masked men, of course. Out-of-state plates, especially those covered by snow ― real or fake. “Reckless driving” is another trademark, she said: “running red lights, driving well over the speed limit.” (Many people who spoke with HuffPost asked to be identified by only their first name or to remain anonymous given the potential for retribution by law enforcement or employers.) Group chats buzz, directing concerned residents to where they might be able to confront agents. Around the Twin Cities dozens of volunteers ― some in neon vests, others more incognito, behind masks and beanies ― track the movements of vehicles they suspect might belong to the federal mission. Caravans of cars or jeering crowds of pedestrians quickly form when the feds are spotted, accompanied by a cacophony of car horns and whistles. Immigration agents seem willing to do almost anything to stop it, from scanning people’s license plates and then leading them on a drive to their own homes, to breaking people’s windows and detaining them. Then there are the threats: “ Don’t make a bad decision today! ” “ Go home to your children, it’s Sunday. You did not learn from what just happened! ” “ You guys gotta stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead. ” Several times when HuffPost was present, immigration agents flashed a middle finger at observers gathered outside the Whipple Building as they drove off. One pair did a coordinated “6-7” meme. One agent made a distinct “A-OK” shape with his hand. A cyclist rides past posters of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Good was shot and killed by federal agents during a brief altercation with federal agents on Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. Though ICE is the bigger force, Border Patrol and its on-the-ground commander Gregory Bovino carry out many of the most brutal acts. The public face of the federal occupation in Minnesota, Bovino, a roving Border Patrol commander, has a well-earned reputation for police brutality and racial profiling. Federal judges have issued rulings attempting to restrain his behavior in California and Illinois . But his practice in this administration of jumping from state to state ― as well as an assist from conservatives on the Supreme Court , who embraced racial profiling ― has allowed him to operate effectively with impunity. After Ross shot and killed Good, Bovino said “ hats off ” to the killer, and in response to a tweet saying the Department of Homeland Security had killed an American citizen, Bovino’s account responded: “ Triggered much? ” Bovino expresses disdain for people who get in his way. In a Monday interview with CBS’ Twin Cities affiliate, WCCO, he warned that “weaker-minded people” might “fall victim” to the likes of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, or “a community activist that has an agenda.” That same day, videos showed two Target workers, both US citizens , taunting Bovino and several other agents. “Hey, are you guys American citizens?” Bovino asked, marching toward them. “None of your business,” they replied. “Fuck you.” Before long, an agent ran after the pair and tackled them to the ground. DHS claimed later that this was for the offence of “impeding federal officers”. Rather than book the young men in jail and put them in front of a judge, at least one of them was simply dropped off several miles away, sobbing and bleeding . “I’m not OK!” he cried. “They slammed me on the fucking ground!” Bovino was also present at the gas station Sunday, snarling at protesters to step back as his men squeezed the wind out of Serrano. Once they loaded the unconscious man into their van, the Border Patrol convoy took Serrano to their home base: the massive, and recently fortified, Whipple Federal Building. There, over the next several hours, agents pelted a crowd of angry protesters with pepperballs, gas and flash bang grenades. They shoved them and arrested them. The agents take that same posture on the streets of Minneapolis. Recently, they broke down the door to one home despite not having a judicial search warrant . They frequently approach people on the street and simply demand to see their papers , threatening prolonged detainment if they don’t comply. They’ve deployed chemical irritants at a school. Separately, they dragged one woman ― who said she was on her way to a doctor’s appointment ― out of the window of her sedan. “I’m autistic and I have a brain injury — put me down!” the woman screamed as officers carried her by her extremities. “I’m disabled and I need accommodations!” On Monday, Border Patrol agents tried to force their way into a neighbourhood pizza place that had recently raised over $83,000 to help families impacted by the surge of immigration agents in the area. When a crowd gathered to confront the agents, one of them deployed a teargas canister and drove off. After this story was published, Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said in a statement: “ICE law enforcement officers are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritise the safety of the public and our officers. Officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics and regularly receive ongoing use of force training.  The agency’s current use of force policy is the same as it was in 2023 under President Biden’s administration.” Terrorised by their own government, many people have quit public life altogether. Some pregnant patients are too afraid to come in for prenatal care, a registered nurse said. Kids are asking what to do if ICE shows up at school, a school administrator lamented. Most stalls were closed at Mercado Central, a colourful indoor market selling food, toys and clothing, on Sunday. “People don’t want to go out,” a man working a flat-top grill said in Spanish. “People aren’t coming to the market. Sales are very low, and that affects us.” For some, the surge of immigration agents is dredging up decades-old trauma. Josefina Catalan, now 51, said her mother was deported when she was 3 years old. She was left with a caretaker whose husband molested her, she recalled. Catalan became legalized thanks to the Reagan administration’s amnesty program. “I understand the feelings of the children at this moment,” she said, referring to Good’s kids, including a 6-year-old son. “They’re going through the nightmare I went through when I was a child.” Josefina Catalan performs a native American smudging ceremony at a memorial to Renee Good as demonstrators participated in a march past the site on Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Good was fatally shot by an immigration enforcement agent during an incident in south Minneapolis on Jan. 7. At the makeshift memorial on Portland Avenue, where Good was killed, a group of Somali women passed out free sambusas and tea to the crowd. Trump flooded the Twin Cities with DHS agents seemingly due to a conservative influencer’s viral video smearing Somalis. The women were among the many residents who now carry their documents with them everywhere they go, intent on being able to show they’re citizens if federal officers stop them. Sometimes, it’s not enough. Abdirhman Ahmed Hassan and Ahmed Ahmed, U.S.-born cousins who are both 21 years old, said ICE had “yanked” their uncle from his car and pointed a gun at him, despite him presenting a valid passport. When asked how Minneapolis has felt in recent weeks, Hassan responded in one word: “Germany.” “People stopping you for random bullshit,” he said. “It’s frightening.” One Ojibwe woman said encountering immigration agents would be terrifying, even if she were able to show them her tribal ID. “I’d probably end up getting shot by them, because I’d freak out, you know?” At the Whipple Federal Building, protesters gather daily to translate their neighbors’ fears into outrage. The street outside the main gate, which immigration agents pass through daily, has become the closest thing to a town square the people of the Twin Cities have to air their grievances with the provisional local government. One recent night, Heidi Leaf, a project manager, was one of several people using megaphones there to full effect, not only giving the agents a piece of her mind but, as she told me, laying a curse upon them for their deeds. “Your bloodline ends with you!” she chanted, over and over. (“The main curse is much longer,” she noted.) James McGuiggan, a retired Air Force staff sergeant who wore an Operation Enduring Freedom Veteran hat and a T-shirt that read “No One Is Illegal on Stolen Land,” smoked nearby and expressed himself with his middle finger. “This is fucked up… This is a land of immigrants,” McGuiggan said. He was the only one in the crowd not to flinch when federal agents suddenly deployed another round of flash-bang grenades in the air above us. “Oh, fuck you!” he yelled instead. “I was fucking in Andrews [Air Force Base], guarding fucking presidents ― Air Force One ― and never fucking thought this would happen,” he said, gesturing around him. “Everything I feel like I did was for nothing, because now they’re doing this shit to people ― shooting American citizens just for trying to protect people.”