The woman was killed in a modest neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just blocks from some of the city’s oldest immigrant-run markets.
Chaos erupted on United States’ Minneapolis streets on Wednesday when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer opened fire on the woman while she was inside her vehicle, according to the department of homeland security.
The shooting took place in a residential neighborhood, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the officer acted after the 37-year-old woman tried to strike officers on the scene, reported Associated Press.
The killing marks a sharp escalation in the latest round of immigration crackdowns being carried out in major US cities under the Trump administration. It is at least the fifth fatality linked to immigration enforcement operations across several states since 2024, the news agency reported.
Trump says ICE shooting video ‘horrible to watch’
US President Donald Trump on Thursday defended the ICE agent involved in the fatal shooting of a woman during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, saying the incident appeared to be an act of self-defense.
Reacting to footage of the shooting, Trump said the video was a “horrible thing to watch” and alleged that the woman had deliberately targeted the officer.
🚨 BREAKING: New angle from the ICE involved shooting in Minneapolis shows the woman CLEARLY hitting the agent with her car before he fires at her
A vehicle is a deadly weapon. And she used that deadly weapon against an agent.
Self-defense. pic.twitter.com/kw3SbBzSrP
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 7, 2026
“The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
