The officers and agents the Trump administration has unleashed in Minneapolis and nearby communities have moved to stop U.S. citizens seemingly at random, ask for identification and question them about their citizenship, say residents who recorded the encounters on video.
The “show me the papers” meetings are popping up on social media and have even prompted podcaster Joe Rogan, a Trump supporter in the 2024 campaign, to ask, “Are we really going to be the Gestapo?”
One man, Gage Diego Garcia, said he was detained for six hours Monday in Columbia Heights, Minn., after an encounter with officers he told NBC News began when he was leaning into his friend’s car in a driveway.
“They came pretty aggressive and asked for my ID. I refused because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Garcia said. He said that as he began to blow a whistle around his neck, the agents “got angry and grabbed him.”
Video recorded by a friend shows officers shoving Garcia into the side of a car and Tasing them. The video does not show what happened before officers caught Garcia. Garcia later told NBC News that officers caught him trying to blow the whistle, and one officer accused him of spitting on him.
“All we needed was your ID,” said a masked officer. Garcia responds to the officer using expletives. The officer replies, “You’re a bastard and you’ll learn the hard way.”
As the officers search his pockets, one finds his firearm, saying, “He’s got a gun on him! Look at that.” Garcia chimes in, saying, “a fully registered firearm because I’m an American citizen.” Later, during the arrest, the two claim, an officer is heard saying, “You’re a damn citizen, you shouldn’t have done that.” It’s not clear what the officer meant when he said that.
Garcia said that as he was being led to the Whipple Building in Minneapolis, officers told him, in response to his question, that he was being picked up because he looked like someone who had committed a crime. “When I asked what crime, I was told, ‘we’ll figure it out,'” he said.
He also said the officers told him, “I could have smoked you,” and that things “could have really gone south for you, like the agents did to Renee Good.” Good was shot last week by an officer who fired through his windshield as he drove forward on a street in Minneapolis. He was an American citizen.
The Department of Homeland Security said the media is “peddling a false narrative” and “trying to demonize” law enforcement, which it says are being attacked and assaulted at significantly higher rates.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to NBC News that Garcia fled on foot when he saw the officers, “giving them reasonable suspicion.” She said Garcia became “extremely hostile” and allegedly physically assaulted an officer by spitting in his face. McLaughlin did not specifically address Garcia’s allegations about what officers told him as he was led to the Whipple Building.
McLaughlin said the Fourth Amendment allows law enforcement to use “reasonable suspicion” to make arrests, and that the Supreme Court recently affirmed its authority to do so.
McLaughlin was referring to a September 2025 Supreme Court ruling that allowed immigration officers to continue immigration patrols using race, ethnicity and language as factors in stopping people. Opponents said it allowed for racial profiling. McLaughlin said DHS “enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor or prejudice.”
The Fourth Amendment also protects individuals against illegal search and seizure.
David Schultz, an attorney and professor of legal studies at Hamline University in St. Paul, said U.S. citizens do not have to show ID or prove their citizenship when walking or standing on the street or in public.
“We have a First Amendment right to association, to be on the street, and we have no requirement to have an ID,” Schultz said.
In one meeting on Sunday, a woman was stopped and grilled about her citizenship while walking through her neighborhood. Nimco Omar of Minneapolis said she was confused when, as she started walking after parking her car, she heard commands to stop. Suddenly, several people who she thought were soldiers started running towards her.
“I thought, what’s going on? Did I do something? Is something going on? Is it war?” she told NBC News in an interview in Minneapolis.
She said when she heard someone asking for her citizenship she realized they were immigration officers. Fearing that she would be “kidnapped”, she pulled out her phone to record the encounter.
The video shows a masked officer threatening to put her in a vehicle to identify her if she doesn’t provide ID. Omar calmly replies that she doesn’t need an ID to walk around her town and that she is an American citizen, refusing to provide her ID.
The officer continues to insist on identification and says, “We’re doing an immigration check. We’re doing a citizen check.” He repeatedly asks her where she was born and informs her that if she lies about being a citizen, she could face federal charges.
Other such encounters have been recorded in Minneapolis.
Last weekend, officers approached a man pumping gas and asked him if he was an American citizen, demanding to see documents. The man replies, “I don’t have to show you.” As with Omar, the officer in this encounter states that the man can show him his ID there or take it away. The man provides what appears to be a permit, but the officer continues to ask if he is naturalized, where he was born, and when he was naturalized. In another incident, police questioned a man at a vehicle charging station.
DHS did not provide information regarding the citizenship status of individuals approached in these meetings.
In his statement, McLaughlin did not provide details about the incidents with Omar, the gas pump man or the man at the vehicle charging station.
These are not the first such meetings. Rep. Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said in December that her son was stopped and asked about his citizenship. The Department of Homeland Security said it had no record of the meeting.
The administration has sent about 3,000 officers and agents to Minneapolis, a city of 430,000. Much of the law enforcement activity took place in south Minneapolis, where a federal officer shot Good.
Schultz advised that American citizens who are stopped should keep calm, as Omar did. They should ask why they are being stopped and should ask if they are under arrest. If the officers say no, then they should ask if they are free to leave.
He said he would never surrender IDs and “we have no requirement in our society to prove who we are to walk the streets,” he said.
When driving a car and if it is stopped for probable cause, it is necessary to show your driver’s license. But he said you are not required to say whether you are a citizen, although some states, except Minnesota, have laws that allow authorities to question immigration status.
Shaquille Brewster and Kailani Koenig reported from Minneapolis, Colin Sheeley from New York and Suzanne Gamboa from San Antonio.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com