20-year-old Somali-American speaks out after wrongful ICE detainment

Mubashir, a Somali American, was tackled and detained by ICE agents in Minneapolis, despite his status as an American citizen.

ICE agents wrongfully detained a young Somali-American adult in Minneapolis; now he’s speaking out on his experience. 20-year-old Mubashir joined Minneapolis city leaders for a press conference during which he opened up about the moment ICE agents attacked him. 

“I never expected to be standing in front of all these cameras and microphones, but what happened to me cannot stay quiet. What happened to me was unjust, uncalled for,” he shared. “I was simply on my lunch break. I wasn’t even outside for a mere second before I saw a masked person running at me full speed. He tackled me and pushed me inside the restaurant. I told him, ‘I’m a US citizen. What is going on?’ He didn’t seem to care. He dragged me outside through the snow. while I was handcuffed, restrained, helpless, and he pushed me to the ground and he put me in a choke hold.”

“All I did was step outside as a Somali American. And I just got chased by a masked person. The agent didn’t identify himself. He didn’t say, ‘ICE stop’ I felt like I was getting assaulted. I was getting kidnapped. And that’s exactly what it was,” he added. 

MINNEAPOLIS: “All I did was step outside as a Somali American citizen, and I got chased by a masked person, assaulted, kidnapped. It was inhumane. If this is what’s happening to a 🇺🇸 citizen on camera, imagine what could happen to your loved ones.” pic.twitter.com/IwWWFzfWGl— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) December 11, 2025

Video from the incident was also released during the press conference, showing ICE agents aggressively yelling, pushing, and dragging the handcuffed 20-year-old through the snow before ultimately taking him into custody. 

“What you very clearly saw in that video was Mubashir, an American citizen, someone who has been here nearly his entire life, tackled, handcuffed, taken into custody for no reason at all, in clear violation of law and the Constitution of the United States for simply walking down the street and looking like he’s Somali. This should make every single person in America, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, livid,” Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey noted. 

This incident comes shortly after President Trump publicly shared his disdain for the Somalis, claiming that they have “destroyed our country,” and referring to them as “garbage.” 

Mubashir recalled agents telling him that they needed to verify his citizenship, citing his running away as a reason to believe he was “an illegal.” 

“They said, ‘Let me take a picture of you to scan your face to see if you’re a US citizen.’ I declined because how will a picture prove I’m a US citizen? I told him, ‘I have my passport. It’s on my phone. Can I open and show you?’ He declined. I told him, ‘Can I give you my name and my date of birth?’ He declined,” Mubashir added, explaining that agents held him for 45 minutes, repeatedly asking to scan his face before ultimately taking him into the facility. “They made me step outside in the snow while it was snowing. And they said, ‘We have to scan your face, or we’re not going to let you inside the car.’ So I had no choice. I let them scan my face [because] I was so cold. I guess the face-scanning thing didn’t work. So they finally took me inside the facility. They kept me there for another 20-30 minutes.”

Inside, he recalled seeing people in holding cells. When he asked for medical assistance to address his numb hands and injuries from being tackled to the ground, officers reportedly told him that they did not have any medical staff at the facility. After repeatedly telling ICE agents that he had his passport on his phone, someone finally listened and verified his information. Despite being told that he would be escorted back to the location where agents detained him, Mubashir recalls being told that he would have to walk back in the snow. Ultimately, his parents came to pick him up, but Mubashir is still shocked by the incident. 

“If this is what’s happening to a US American citizen on camera, imagine what could happen to your loved ones when there’s no one around to witness what they’re doing,” he emphasized. “But thankfully, my incident was caught on camera. It was posted all over social media. This shouldn’t be happening to anyone.”