What agencies arrest protesters at ICE demonstrations and how many were charged?
Executive summary
Federal immigration officers and other federal law-enforcement components — primarily ICE and its investigative arm HSI, operating under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) umbrella — have been the principal actors arresting protesters at demonstrations tied to ICE operations, but local and other federal actors (Border Patrol/CBP, FBI) have also played roles; case counts vary widely by incident, ranging from single-digit arrests to scores or more depending on location and enforcement posture [1] [2] [3]. Reporting shows concrete examples — four aggressive protesters arrested in Omaha by ICE/HSI and at least three arrests tied to a Minneapolis church protest — while broader tallies are disputed and the legal status of many arrests and charges remains the subject of lawsuits and judicial limits [1] [4] [5].
1. Who does the arresting: ICE, HSI and DHS at the center of demonstrations
ICE itself and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a component of ICE, are repeatedly identified in agency statements and news reports as the officers who make arrests during or immediately after protest actions surrounding enforcement operations; ICE’s own release described HSI Kansas City agents arresting four protesters in Omaha after they allegedly threatened federal officers and damaged federal property [1].
2. Other federal actors: CBP/Border Patrol, FBI and DOJ involvement
Beyond ICE/HSI, reporting documents Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officers operating as part of DHS deployments, as well as FBI and Department of Justice prosecutors becoming involved in arrests and subsequent charging decisions — for example, federal prosecutors sought charges after a church disruption in Minneapolis and FBI personnel publicly announced subsequent arrests [5] [4].
3. Local law enforcement and multi-agency arrests: messy coordination on the ground
Local police and airport authorities have at times detained protesters or assisted in crowd-control actions around ICE operations; one account notes airport police saying arrests were made when permitted activity “went beyond agreed upon terms,” and more general reporting describes “law enforcement officials from multiple agencies” arresting demonstrators at some anti-ICE actions [6] [3].
4. How many were arrested and how many charged: concrete examples, disputed totals
Specific, verifiable tallies exist for discrete incidents — ICE reported four arrests in Omaha tied to property damage and threats [1], PBS and WGBH documented three people arrested after a Minnesota church protest though at least one high-profile potential charge was later rebuffed by a judge [4] [7]. Other reporting offers broader and conflicting figures: a BBC story cites a DHS spokesperson saying “at least 3,000 people have been arrested in Minneapolis since the deployments,” while comprehensive national counts are absent and media outlets describe “dozens” or “hundreds” arrested at various protests without centralized verification [8] [3] [6].
5. Charges and legal outcomes: federal statutes and judicial pushback
When charges are filed, they have often used federal statutes — including obstruction, assaulting or impeding federal officers, and laws prohibiting interference with official duties — but several cases have drawn judicial scrutiny and civil-rights litigation; a federal judge in Minnesota has barred ICE and DHS agents involved in a large deployment from arresting peaceful protesters or using certain crowd-control tools, and the ACLU has filed suits challenging warrantless stops and arrests tied to protest encounters [1] [5] [9].
6. Why numbers diverge and what remains unknown
Discrepancies in totals arise because some figures come from agency press releases highlighting individual arrests (which may emphasize alleged criminality), while other counts are crowd-sourced, reported by local authorities, or cited in lawsuits and activist tallies; major deployments (notably Minnesota’s “Operation Metro Surge”) increased both enforcement presence and protest activity, producing widely varying public counts and ongoing litigation that will affect final charging and prosecution numbers — a definitive, consolidated national count of protesters arrested and charged in relation to ICE demonstrations is not available in the provided reporting [5] [2] [10].