Residents who captured the encounters on video said officers and agents deployed by the Trump administration in Minneapolis and nearby communities were intercepting U.S. citizens apparently at random, asking them to identify themselves and questioning their citizenship status.
“Show your papers” encounters have appeared on social media, even prompting Trump 2024 campaign supporter Joe Rogan to ask: “Are we really going to become the Gestapo?”
A man named Gage Diego Garcia said he had a confrontation with police in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, on Monday, telling NBC News that the incident began when he leaned into a friend’s car in an alley.
“They were acting aggressive and asked me for ID. I refused because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Garcia said. He said the agents “got angry and grabbed him” when he started blowing the whistle around his neck.
Video recorded by a friend shows officers pushing Garcia against the car and pointing a Taser at him. The video does not show what happened before police grabbed Garcia. Garcia later told NBC News that police caught him when he tried to whistle, and one officer accused him of assault by spitting at him.
“I just need your fucking ID,” a masked officer said. Garcia responded to the officer using profanity. The officer responded: “You’re a fucking asshole and you’re going to learn a lot of damn things.”
When police searched his pockets, one found his gun and said, “He’s got a gun! Look at that.” Garcia interjected, “A fully registered firearm, because I’m a U.S. citizen.” During the arrest, the two argued, with one officer saying, “You’re a damn citizen, you shouldn’t be doing this.” It’s unclear what the officer was referring to when he said that.
Garcia said that when he was driven to the Whipple Building in Minneapolis, police told him in response to his questions that he was being picked up because he looked like someone who had committed a crime. “When I asked what the crime was, I was told, ‘We’ll figure it out,'” he said.
He also said police told him, “I could fucking smoke you to death” and that things “could get really bad like what those agents did to Renee Goode.” Last week, a police officer shot Goode through her windshield as she drove down a Minneapolis street, killing her. She is an American citizen.
The Department of Homeland Security said the media is “peddling false narratives” and “attempting to demonize” law enforcement, saying law enforcement is being assaulted and beaten at far higher rates.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to NBC News that Garcia fled on foot after seeing the officers, “giving them reasonable suspicion.” She said Garcia became “extremely hostile” and claimed he spat in an officer’s face and physically assaulted him. McLaughlin did not respond specifically to Garcia’s allegations about what police said to him as he was being driven to the Whipple Building.
McLaughlin said the Fourth Amendment allows law enforcement to use “reasonable suspicion” to make an arrest, and the Supreme Court recently affirmed its authority to do so.
McLaughlin was referring to a September 2025 Supreme Court ruling that allowed immigration officials to continue to conduct immigration patrols based on race, ethnicity and language as factors that deter individuals. Opponents say it allows for racial profiling. McLaughlin said the Department of Homeland Security “enforces federal immigration laws without fear, favor, or bias.”
The Fourth Amendment also protects individuals from unlawful searches and seizures.
David Schultz, an attorney and legal studies professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, said U.S. citizens do not have to provide identification or prove their citizenship when walking or standing on the street or in public.
“We have a First Amendment right to associate, to be out on the streets, and we don’t have any requirement to have an ID,” Schultz said.
In one encounter on Sunday, a woman was stopped while walking in the neighborhood and asked about her citizenship status. Nimco Omar of Minneapolis said she was confused when she heard commands to stop as she parked her car and started walking. Suddenly, several people she thought were soldiers started running towards her.
“I was like, what happened? Did I do something? Did something happen? Is it a war?” she told NBC News in Minneapolis.
She said when she heard someone asking about her citizenship status, she realized they were immigration officials. Fearing she would be “kidnapped,” she took out her phone and recorded the encounter.
The video showed a masked police officer threatening to put her in a car to check her identity if she didn’t provide proof of identity. Omar calmly replied that she did not need an ID to walk around the city and that she was a U.S. citizen, declining to provide identification.
The officer continued to insist on identity verification, saying, “We’re doing an immigration check. We’re doing a citizenship check.” He repeatedly asked her where she was born and told her she could face federal charges if she lied about her citizenship.
Other similar encounters were documented in Minneapolis.
Over the weekend, police officers walked up to a man pumping gas, asked him if he was a U.S. citizen and demanded documents. The man responded, “I don’t need to show you.” Like Omar, the officer in the encounter said the man could show his ID there or take him aside. The man provided what appeared to be a permit, but the officer continued to ask if he was naturalized, where he was born, and when he was naturalized. In another incident, police questioned a man at a car charging station.
The Department of Homeland Security did not provide information on the citizenship status of those contacted in these encounters.
In his statement, McLaughlin provided no details about the incident with Omar, the gas man or the man at the car charging station.
These are not the first such encounters. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said in December that her son was stopped and asked about his citizenship status. The Department of Homeland Security said it had no record of the encounter.
The government has dispatched about 3,000 officers and agents to Minneapolis, a city of 430,000 people. Most of the law enforcement activity occurred in south Minneapolis, where a federal officer shot Goode.
Schultz suggested that American citizens who are stopped should remain calm, as Omar did. They should ask why they were stopped, they should ask if they were arrested. If the police refuse, they should ask if they are free to leave.
He said he would never hand over his ID. “There is no requirement in our society to prove who we are when we walk down the street,” he said.
When driving a car, if you are stopped for reasonable cause, you will need to show your driver’s license. But he said that while some states, not including Minnesota, have laws that allow authorities to question immigration status, you don’t have to say whether you are a citizen.
Shaquille Brewster and Keilani Koenig reported from Minneapolis, Colin Healy reported from New York, and Suzanne Gamboa reported from San Antonio.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com
