ST. PETER, Minn. \u2014 The police assisted a local resident with a ride home on Thursday.<\/p>\n
According to MPR News, the incident unfolded near Jefferson Park when federal agents detained a woman who had been observing and recording immigration enforcement activity from her vehicle. The woman, a U.S. citizen and St. Peter resident who asked not to be identified out of fear for her safety, said agents removed her from her car at gunpoint and took her into custody.<\/p>\n
Video shared with MPR News shows agents in three vehicles pursuing and boxing in the woman\u2019s car. Three agents exit one vehicle with guns drawn, shouting commands for her to get out. The woman repeatedly refuses, telling the agents she will not leave her vehicle.<\/p>\n
While still inside the car, she can be heard speaking with other observers on speakerphone and asking them to call 911. Agents then open the car door\u2014unlocked automatically when the vehicle was put into park\u2014pull her out and force her to the ground. She said agents were overly aggressive, pinning her down and handcuffing her, leaving her with cuts, scrapes and bruises.<\/p>\n
The woman\u2019s husband arrived at the scene shortly afterward and recorded a separate video. He can be heard telling agents not to search the vehicle without a warrant, arguing such a search would be illegal. One agent responds, \u201cI\u2019m not getting into the legality of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman said she was placed in a federal vehicle and driven north toward the Twin Cities, where ICE operates a detention facility near Minneapolis\u2013St. Paul International Airport. About 20 minutes into the drive, near Le Sueur, agents received a phone call\u2014she believes from an ICE supervisor\u2014and turned around, heading back toward St. Peter.<\/p>\n
After his wife was taken into custody, the husband contacted his attorney and later spoke by phone with St. Peter Police Chief Matt Grochow, whom he said he has known for years. During the conversation, the husband urged the chief to increase local police visibility during federal enforcement actions.<\/p>\n
The husband said Grochow later called back, saying he believed he had located the woman. Minutes afterward, Grochow called again and told him she was being brought home.<\/p>\n
Federal agents ultimately turned the woman over to the St. Peter Police Department. She said Chief Grochow met her at the police station, spoke with her about what had happened, and then drove her home in his squad car.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just couldn\u2019t believe how terrible it was,\u201d the woman said, adding that the chief expressed concern about what was happening in the community.<\/p>\n
In an email to MPR News, Grochow confirmed the account, writing that ICE returned the woman to his department and that he gave her a ride home. He did not respond to follow-up questions about how or why his department became involved.<\/p>\n
MPR News also contacted the Department of Homeland Security about the incident. A spokesperson requested the woman\u2019s name, date of birth and immigration \u201cA-number.\u201d Because the woman is a U.S. citizen and out of concern for her safety, MPR News did not provide that information. DHS has not offered further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETER, Minn. \u2014 The police assisted a local resident with a ride home on Thursday. According to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-139009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}