AP
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Minneapolis\u2019 police chief is criticizing federal immigration agents after a confrontation with protesters and an attempted arrest of a woman in which an officer kneeled on her back as she lay atop a snow bank and then tried to drag her to a car.\n <\/p>\n
\n Tensions<\/a> have been rising in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as federal authorities continue an immigration crackdown<\/a> focused on the region\u2019s Somali community<\/a>, the largest in the country.\n <\/p>\n \n Onlooker video of the confrontation Monday in a Minneapolis neighborhood showed people yelling at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to release the woman, claiming she is pregnant and couldn\u2019t breathe. After kneeling on her, an agent later dragged the woman by one arm on her back toward a vehicle.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLet her go! Let her go!\u201d onlookers yelled as the agent dragged the woman at an intersection close to a Somali business district. The woman was let go.\n <\/p>\n \n Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara told a news conference Tuesday that city police were called to the confrontation by a federal agent who said officers needed help.\n <\/p>\n \n When police arrived, they did not see violence against federal officers and left in an effort to de-escalate the situation, O\u2019Hara said. He added that \u201cother law enforcement agencies\u201d may have been using \u201cquestionable methods.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have been training our officers for the last five years very, very intensely on de-escalation,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. \u201cBut unfortunately that is not, that is often not what we are seeing from other agencies in the city.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Lauryn Spencer was driving on her lunch break when she heard whistles and honking, which observers have used to warn others of an ICE presence.\n <\/p>\n \n She said she approached the scene and began recording immediately, but was shoved back by an officer when she tried asking the woman on the ground what her name was. Spencer said she and others in the crowd were also sprayed with chemical irritants by one of the agents.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey were being very aggressive from the beginning, like there was never a time where they attempted to use diplomacy,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see anybody throw any hard items. The snowballs were definitely being thrown, but we didn\u2019t start throwing snowballs until they started dragging her around by her wrist.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said federal officers were targeting a vehicle when protesters \u201cthrew rocks, chunks of ice, assaulted officers and used pepper spray\u201d against the officers. The officers sustained multiple injuries including cuts, McLaughlin said in a statement, adding that two people were charged with assaulting federal officers and remain in custody.\n <\/p>\n \n Officers tried to arrest the woman shown in the video because she \u201crushed an ICE vehicle and attempted to vandalize it,\u201d but the officers abandoned the arrest after being swarmed by protesters, McLaughlin said.\n <\/p>\n \n Hodan Hassan, a former Minnesota state legislator, said she believes ICE tactics are becoming more harsh as the Minneapolis-St. Paul operation continues.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe first week, they were not very aggressive. They were stopping people. Second week, we saw them really aggressive,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n