Federal immigration agents filmed dragging a woman from her car in
Minneapolis
[January 16, 2026]
By SAFIYAH RIDDLE, SARAH BRUMFIELD and HALLIE GOLDEN
A U.S. citizen on her way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis was
dragged out of her car and detained by immigration officers, according
to a statement released by the woman on Thursday, after a video of her
arrest drew millions of views on social media.
Aliya Rahman said she was brought to a detention center where she was
denied medical care and lost consciousness. The Department of Homeland
Security said she was an agitator who was obstructing ICE agents
conducting arrests in the area.
That video is the latest in a deluge of online content that documents an
intensifying immigration crackdown across the midwestern city, as
thousands of federal agents execute arrests amid protests in what local
officials have likened to a "federal invasion.”
Dragged from her car
Rahman said that she was on her way to a routine appointment at the
Traumatic Brain Injury Center when she encountered federal immigration
agents at an intersection. Video appears to show federal immigration
agents shouting commands over a cacophony of whistles, car horns and
screams from protesters.
In the video, one masked agent smashes Rahman's passenger side window
while others cut her seatbelt and drag her out of the car through the
driver's side door. Numerous guards then carried her by her arms and
legs towards an ICE vehicle.
“I'm disabled trying to go to the doctor up there, that's why I didn't
move,” Rahman said, gesturing down the street as officers pulled her
arms behind her back.
Rahman was caught in a “terrible and confusing position” and had “no
where to go,” according to Alexa Van Brunt, Rahman's attorney and
director of the MacArthur Justice Center.
“Her only options were to move her car forward in the direction of ICE
officers and risk being accused of trying to harm them—which led to
Renee Good’s death—or stay stationary, which in the end led to physical
violence and abuse,” Van Brunt wrote in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security disputed that
account in an emailed statement on Thursday, saying that Rahman was an
agitator who “ignored multiple commands by an officer to move her
vehicle away from the scene.” She was arrested along with six other
people the department called agitators, one of whom was accused of
jumping on an officer's back.
The department did not specify if Rahman was charged or respond to
questions about her assertion that she was denied medical treatment.
Barrage of viral videos draw scrutiny
The video of Rahman's arrest is one of many that have garnered millions
of views in recent days — and been scrutinized amid conflicting accounts
from federal officials and civilian eyewitnesses.
Often, what's in dispute pertains to what happened just before or just
after a given recording. But many contain common themes: Protesters
blowing whistles, yelling or honking horns. Immigration officers
breaking vehicle windows, using pepper spray on protesters and warning
observers not to follow them through public spaces. Immigrants and
citizens alike forcibly pulled from cars, stores or homes and detained
for hours, days or longer.
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A person is detained by federal agents near the scene where Renee
Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13,
2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
In one video, heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram
to break through the front door of Garrison Gibson’s Minneapolis
home, where his wife and 9-year-old child also were inside. The
video shot inside the home captures a woman’s voice asking, “Where
is the warrant?” and, “Can you put the guns down? There is kids in
this house.”
Another video shows ICE agents, including Border Patrol Cmdr.
Gregory Bovino, detain two employees at a Target store in Richfield,
Minnesota. Both are U.S. citizens who were later released, according
to social media posts from family members.
Monica Bicking, 40, was leaving the homeless shelter where she works
as a nurse when she took a video that appears to show a federal
agent kneeing a man at least five times in the face while several
other agents pin him facedown on the pavement in south Minneapolis.
Bicking works full time, so she says she doesn’t intentionally
attend organized protests or confrontations with ICE. But she has
started to carry a whistle in case she encounters ICE agents on her
way to work or while running errands, which she says has become
commonplace in recent weeks.
“We’re hypervigilant every time we leave our houses, looking for
ICE, trying to protect our neighbors, trying to support our
neighbors, who are now just on lockdown,” Bicking said.
‘I thought I was going to die’
Rahman said in her statement that after her detainment, she felt
lucky to be alive.
“Masked agents dragged me from my car and bound me like an animal,
even after I told them that I was disabled," Rahman said.
While in custody, Rahman said she repeatedly asked for a doctor, but
was instead taken to the detention center.
“It was not until I lost consciousness in my cell that I was finally
taken to a hospital,” Rahman said.
Rahman was treated for injuries consistent with assault, according
to her counsel, and has been released from the hospital.
She thanked the emergency department staff for their care.
“They gave me hope when I thought I was going to die.”
—
Associated Press journalist Rebecca Boone reported from Boise,
Idaho.
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