A Border Patrol agent was recorded on video in Minneapolis chasing down a teenager, locking him in between his legs on the ground and detaining him.
The video, taken Thursday, showed an agent wearing a Border Patrol vest chase after the teen, who can be heard yelling in Spanish that he is legal.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the incident unfolded as Border Patrol agents were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. They had attempted to stop a black Toyota Camry, but the car allegedly sped away.
The driver, whom the department identified as Joffre Alexander Jara Llangari, then crashed into a tree, the spokesperson said. DHS described Llangari as “a 19-year-old illegal alien from Ecuador.”
He and the passenger, Rosa Florinda Llangari-Tenecoraa, fled on foot until they were arrested, the spokesperson said.
DHS said Llangari had been served a notice to appear in 2024 and Llangari-Tenecoraa had been served with a notice to appear in 2022.
“Both will remain in custody pending removal proceedings,” DHS said.
Skylar Fehlen, a local resident, witnessed the crash and recorded the video.
In it, the agent can be seen chasing a teen wearing a gray hoodie. The woman filming is heard screaming, “Stop! Stop! No!”
The teen was later seen lying on his stomach on the snow-covered street, between the legs of the agent standing above him.
Someone can be heard in the video asking the agent if he had a warrant, to no response.
The teenager yelled in Spanish, “Yo soy legal, yo soy legal,” meaning, “I’m legal, I’m legal.”
The woman filming repeatedly blew a whistle, a community effort to alert the public about the presence of immigration officers.
The agent brought out a pair of handcuffs, and moments later the boy was seen standing with his hands cuffed behind his back, being escorted into a black SUV by three people. The SUV later drove off.
Fehlen told The Associated Press she was in her living room when she saw a car hit a tree and two teens run out. She grabbed her whistle and ran outside and eventually found the one of the teens.
“He yells for help, ‘Help me, help me, help me,’ and the ICE agent ends up coming, running and tackling him in the middle of the street, pins him down, is speaking to him in Spanish, trying to get him to calm down, and then he arrests him,” she said.
Fehlen criticized the federal immigration crackdown that has rocked the nation, and prominently Minneapolis, over the last few months.
“They don’t care about documentation. They’re absolutely taking everybody, and then they end up releasing them just because they’re on this power trip,” she told The Associated Press.
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has targeted major blue cities across the nation. More than 3,000 federal immigration personnel have been deployed to Minneapolis since December in what the administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
Officers have apprehended more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants in Minneapolis over the last six weeks alone, DHS said.
