Federal immigration enforcement intensified this week in several U.S. cities, provoking protests, fear and renewed questions about family separations.
Minneapolis
ICE began enhanced operations in Minneapolis that local residents say were largely focused on the city’s Somali community. People reported seeing federal vehicles near a school; neighbors took to the streets, blew whistles and shouted to confront what they believed were agents. One neighborhood resident said she wanted children to feel safe. The city’s mayor signed an executive order barring agents from conducting ICE operations on city-owned property. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that shackled detainees were later loaded onto a chartered jet and flown to Omaha, Nebraska.
New Orleans
Tensions escalated after masked ICE agents chased a woman identified as U.S. citizen Jacelynn Guzman to her home. Guzman said she told agents she was born and raised in the United States and that she is a citizen, but that the agents “did not care.”
New York City
Questions grew over the whereabouts of six-year-old first grader Yuanxin Zheng, who was separated from his migrant father after a scheduled immigration hearing. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said the boy had been detained and that authorities had not disclosed his location. A Homeland Security spokesperson told CBS News the father “was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child’s well-being.” The Department of Homeland Security said the family received an order of removal and that the child is now with the Office of Refugee Resettlement; the agency declined to say where the child was being held.
These actions have prompted local confrontations and broader scrutiny as community members and leaders press for more information about enforcement practices and the treatment of families and children.