A U.S. citizen said she was dragged from her car by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on Thursday while traveling to a medical appointment, then detained at a facility where she was denied medical care before losing consciousness in her cell. Aliya Rahman, who said she is disabled, released a statement after video of her removal — which appears to show agents smashing her passenger window, cutting her seatbelt, and carrying her to an ICE vehicle — drew millions of views on social media. The Department of Homeland Security disputed her account, calling her an agitator who had ignored commands to move her vehicle away from the scene.
The arrest is among several incidents documented in recent days through cellphone footage showing federal agents breaking into a Minneapolis home with a battering ram, detaining U.S. citizen workers at a retail store, and kneeing a detained man in the face — videos that have drawn millions of views as thousands of federal agents carry out an immigration enforcement operation that local officials have described as a “federal invasion.”
What the video shows
Rahman said she was on her way to a routine appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when she encountered federal agents at an intersection. The video circulating on social media appears to show agents shouting commands over a cacophony of whistles, car horns, and screams from protesters nearby. One masked agent smashes the passenger window as others cut the seatbelt and pull Rahman from the driver’s side door. Multiple agents then carry her by her arms and legs toward an ICE vehicle.
“I’m disabled trying to go to the doctor up there, that’s why I didn’t move,” Rahman said in the video as officers pulled her arms behind her back.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed statement that Rahman “ignored multiple commands by an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene” and had been arrested along with six others the department described as agitators, one of whom was accused of jumping on an officer’s back. The department did not specify whether Rahman was charged and did not respond to questions about her assertion that she was denied medical treatment.
‘No where to go’
Rahman’s attorney, Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said her client was caught in a “terrible and confusing position” with “no where to go.”
“Her only options were to move her car forward in the direction of ICE officers and risk being accused of trying to harm them — which led to Renee Good’s death — or stay stationary, which in the end led to physical violence and abuse,” Van Brunt said in a statement.
Rahman said she repeatedly asked for a doctor while in custody but was brought to a detention center rather than a medical facility. She said she received no hospital care until she lost consciousness in her cell. Her counsel said she was treated for injuries consistent with assault and has since been released from the hospital.
“Masked agents dragged me from my car and bound me like an animal, even after I told them that I was disabled,” Rahman said in her statement. “It was not until I lost consciousness in my cell that I was finally taken to a hospital.”
Of the hospital staff who treated her, she said: “They gave me hope when I thought I was going to die.”
Other videos draw scrutiny
The Rahman arrest is one of multiple incidents documented on video in recent days as federal agents carry out immigration enforcement operations across Minneapolis.
In one video, heavily armed agents used a battering ram to break through the front door of Garrison Gibson’s Minneapolis home while his wife and 9-year-old child were inside. A voice recorded inside the home asks, “Where is the warrant?” and, “Can you put the guns down? There is kids in this house.”
Another video shows ICE agents, including Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, detaining two employees at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota. Both are U.S. citizens who were later released, according to social media posts from family members.
Cellphone footage from south Minneapolis appears to show a federal Border Patrol agent kneeing a detained man in the face at least five times while other agents hold him facedown on the pavement.
Monica Bicking, 40, a nurse who said she filmed that incident on her way out of the homeless shelter where she works, said immigration enforcement encounters have become a constant presence in her daily life.
“We’re hypervigilant every time we leave our houses, looking for ICE, trying to protect our neighbors, trying to support our neighbors, who are now just on lockdown,” Bicking said.