A woman died Wednesday, Jan. 7, after being shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota in a confrontation over increased immigration raids in the state, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of DHS, noted that the woman was “a violent troublemaker who used her vehicle as a weapon, attempting to run over officers in an attempt to kill them,” which she called an “act of domestic terrorism,” so an ICE agent, who “feared for his life,” fired “defensive shots.”
Woman dies in operation in Minnesota
Better video: pic.twitter.com/xxLVDAcr77
– Vega-san🇺🇸🇵🇷✝️ (@Critical_San) January 7, 2026
“The alleged perpetrator was shot and is dead. The ICE officers who are injured are expected to make a full recovery,” the official, who did not disclose the victim’s identity or nationality, said on her social networks.
The incident occurred while ICE officers were conducting a raid in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s largest city.
There DHS reported the cumulative detention of more than 1,000 migrants, some from Ecuador, Mexico and El Salvador, including more than 150 on Monday, the largest immigration operation so far this year.
Protests against raids
Minnesota residents were protesting the raids Wednesday, prompting the DHS undersecretary to denounce that “rioters began blocking ICE officers.”
Citing that these agents face an increase of 1,300 % in attacks against them and 8,000 % in death threats.
The incident is reminiscent of a similar one that happened last September in Chicago, where ICE agents shot and killed a 38-year-old Mexican man also on the grounds that he “tried to drive his vehicle” at them.
In October, a Honduran man was run over and killed in Virginia after fleeing from immigration officials.
Mayor calls for ICE to leave the city
I am aware of a shooting involving an ICE agent at 34th Street & Portland. The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city. We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.
– Major Jacob Frey (@MajorFrey) January 7, 2026
The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, denounced after the shooting that “the presence of federal immigration agents is creating chaos in the city”.
“We are demanding that ICE leave the city immediately. We stand with our immigrant and refugee communities,” the Democrat said in X.
The events occur amid controversy in Minnesota, where the governor and former Democratic candidate for U.S. vice president in 2024, Tim Walz, announced Monday that he will not seek a third term.
This is because of the controversy over million-dollar frauds related to child care programs linked to the Somali community.
In the face of this scandal, CNN broke the news on Monday that President Donald Trump’s administration planned to send some 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis to spearhead a campaign of arrests of immigrants from the Somali community and other countries.
Today’s events also recall the 2020 death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, which sparked mass protests across the United States, demanding justice and denouncing racism and police brutality.
Filed under: Woman dies in operation in Minnesota
With information from EFE
