Editor's Note: This story was updated with more information and the reactions of officials and community members at 4:05 p.m. Friday, June 12.
BEMIDJI — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained workers from at least one Bemidji construction site Thursday, June 11.
Mayor Jorge Prince confirmed the operation in a Friday morning post on Facebook. Prince said the Bemidji Police Department did not participate in the operation.
"Yesterday, I was informed that an ICE operation took place at Vista North," Prince wrote. "Several employees of a contractor working on site were detained. No requests were made of the Bemidji Police Department and BPD did not coordinate nor participate in any of ICE's actions. As this was a federal immigration operation, no additional information has been provided to our city at present."
Federal immigration authorities in Grand Forks and Minneapolis did not respond to multiple requests for comment by Friday afternoon. KAXE requested information on how many people were detained, their ages, their countries of origin and of any crimes the detainees were accused or convicted of.
The Villas at Vista North is a townhome complex near Sanford Health-Bemidji hospital. Friday morning, two vacant white vans plus a trailer were left in one of the neighborhoods. Nearby on Hannah Avenue, another white van appeared abandoned on the shoulder.
Images shared with KAXE show ICE agents staged in a parking lot behind Paul Bunyan Mall on Thursday afternoon. Another image shows a man wearing a bulletproof vest with “Police ICE” printed on it outside the Circle K gas station on Bemidji Avenue.
During an interview on Mix 103.7 on Friday morning, Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs said deputies were also not involved in assisting with the operation. But he said he was informed by ICE on Tuesday about their plans to carry out detentions in the community.
“As it pertains to public safety, state and local officials need to be involved in some way, shape or form,” Riggs said. “I'm not saying we need to be the one. We don't have the ability to arrest based off of just simply the crime of coming into the United States, because there is no paralleling state crime that follows that.”
Riggs said ICE had a “minor incident where some folks ran from them and they ended up wrangling a number.”
A request for comment from Riggs was not returned as of Friday afternoon.
State Rep. Bidal Duran, a Republican representing Bemidji and a former Hubbard County sheriff’s deputy, said Friday that he spoke with ICE officials directly, describing the activity as “a precise, intelligence-driven effort rather than a broad sweep.”
“The activity was a targeted enforcement operation focused on specific individuals with prior removal orders or other immigration violations,” his social media announcement stated.
“ICE has further informed me that no additional operations are planned or ongoing in the Bemidji area at this time.”
‘Just trying to work’
Information about detainments began circulating among mutual aid groups and across social media Thursday afternoon. Estimates from local watchdogs range from 20-40 people being detained between Thursday and Friday.
An assistant manager at a local Mexican restaurant said by phone Friday that while he did not have a lot of information about ICE’s activity in Bemidji, he thought it was a terrible thing to happen to this community.
“People are just trying to work, make money for their families, make a living,” he said, expressing that he did not wish to be named. “Some people don’t like that, and they’re getting ICE called on them. It’s just a terrible situation.”
Around a dozen people, who were mostly Indigenous women, gathered at the Lake Bemidji waterfront Friday to demonstrate against ICE.
Nicole Buckanaga of the Leech Lake Band said she became alarmed after hearing from a fellow band member, whose son reported he was almost detained by ICE while working on a construction site.
“He's a Leech Lake enrollee, and they attempted to say that he was undocumented to be here,” Buckanaga said.
She said work is underway to build relationships with local and tribal officials and that Friday’s gathering was just the beginning.
“I think we need to put some pressure on the officials who allowed them here,” she said. “We need to follow the money because that's where we'll get the answers.”
She added that in addition to the three nearby tribal nations of Leech Lake, White Earth and Red Lake, there are as many as 70 different Indigenous tribes represented in the Bemidji community.
“A very unique dynamic of this economy here, the tribes fuel this economy,” she said, referencing past tribal boycotts of Bemidji businesses. “Our economic buying power is great in numbers.”
Also among those gathered was Angie Goggleye, a longtime resident of Bemidji and a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.
“People that [ICE is] going after are the hard workers, they come from good families, good backgrounds, Goggleye said, “and I think they should just go after drug dealers and pedophiles. Leave us alone.”
Also Friday, the Red Lake Tribal Council issued a resolution prohibiting ICE from entering the Red Lake Nation without a signed judicial order. The lengthy resolution describes the council as “ashamed and disgusted at the obvious violations of constitutional rights that are routinely directed at U.S. citizens by ICE officers.”
“Tribal council members were informed that ICE officers apprehended a Leech Lake tribal member in the Walker vicinity, and the tribal council suspects that it is just a matter of time before ICE attempts to enter the Red Lake Nation,” the resolution reads.
News Director Chelsey Perkins contributed to this story.
This is a developing story. Check back at kaxe.org as we continue to get more information. Those with additional information can email news@kaxe.org.
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