Amelia Schafer
ICT
Jose Roberto “Beto” Ramirez found himself sitting in the back of a blacked out Ford SUV, his hands cuffed behind his back as immigration agents mocked and teased him Thursday morning.
The 20-year-old was forcibly detained by ICE agents despite being a United States citizen and a Red Lake Nation descendant.
It had been less than 24 hours after immigration agents shot and killed a 37-year-old mother on the southside of Minneapolis, near a historically significant neighborhood for Indigenous peoples to be in community, sparking protests across the nation.
Ramirez was on his way to his aunt Shawntia Sosa-Clara’s house in Crystal, Minnesota, from McDonald’s when he noticed he was being tailed by a blacked out SUV.
With Renee Good’s death in the back of his mind, he began to panic.
Filled with anxiety, he called his aunt for advice. She told him to pull over at a nearby grocery store and wait for her.
In the HyVee grocery store parking lot, a video from Sosa-Clara’s Facebook shows agents striking Ramirez multiple times on his head and face and dragging him out of his aunt’s vehicle.
Ramirez said his phone was slapped out of his hand by an agent before the agent began to repeatedly strike him on his face and neck.
“I was complying with them and they just started acting crazy,” he told ICT. “They were trying to make it seem like I’m some kind of murder, like I did something wrong.”
Ramirez said multiple times he tried informing the agents he was a US citizen and a descendant of a federally recognized tribe, but his words fell on deaf ears, he said.
“I felt like I was kidnapped,” he said.
It’s been more than 24 hours since his detainment, Ramirez still had bruises on his wrists and the back of his neck. His handcuffs were too tight, he said, and every time the agent’s vehicle breaked he’d be sent flying forward, further tugging on the handcuffs.
Once he arrived at the B.H. Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Ramirez said he had to wait more than three hours outside in the cold. The only available bathroom, a porta potty, was locked. He had no access to food or water and his sweatshirt had been ripped when he was dragged out of his aunt’s car.
Once he was inside, agents questioned him, he said. They told him he had allegedly assaulted an officer who had since been sent to the hospital and that charges against him were pending. He was told he’d be sent to federal prison for this and that he’d ruined his life, he said.
At no point was he informed of why he was trailed by officers or apprehended.
As of Friday, no assault charges have been filed against Ramirez. ICE has not responded to ICT’s requests for comment regarding why Ramirez was detained.
Other community members have reported agents stopping them without reason and requesting identification.
Friday morning, on the southside of Minneapolis, Rachel Dionne-Thunder, who is Plains Cree and the co-founder of Indigenous Protectors Movement, said ICE agents stopped her and questioned her near the Powwow Grounds coffee shop.
Dionne-Thunder said she locked her vehicle doors when agents approached her and knew from prior Know Your Rights training that she did not need to comply with agents’ orders to show her ID or exit the vehicle.
“They don’t give you a reason [why they’re stopping you],” she said. “They just do it… They arrest and then they ask questions later.”
Several Native community members exited the coffee shop and came towards Dionne-Thunder’s car, after which the agents got back in their vehicles and left.
In a Friday press conference with Dionne-Thunder, community leaders, and The Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors, which is a coalition of urban Native organizations, they urged ICE to leave the city and stop harassing the Indigenous community. The group said that a task force of on-the-ground organizers will be patrolling the community to ensure safety.
Nearly a day after he was freed and bruises remaining from detainment, Ramirez says he’s still shocked by Thursday’s events.
“I’m nervous to go out now,” he said. “My auntie [Sosa-Clara] especially, she’s really traumatized. I feel bad that I involved her but calling her, I felt safe. She’s my go-to person. She doesn’t even want to go outside. She doesn’t want to send her kids to school.”
Ramirez said while he was waiting in the Whipple building, he met with a public defender and was released not long after.
Eventually Ramirez was released around 5:33 p.m. Central Time, a little over six and a half hours after he was initially detained.
“I thought I was going to be locked up for weeks,” he said. “They told me they were sending me two hours away to Sherbourne County.”
At home, he was greeted by his little cousins, aunts and uncles.
“There’s a lot of things going through my mind,” he said. “It was a crazy experience.”
Editor’s note: ICT identifies Ramirez as a descendant of the Red Lake Nation because his maternal great-grandparents were both enrolled members of the Red Lake Nation.