An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has fatally shot a 37-year-old woman during an operation in Minneapolis, federal authorities said, an incident that came as the Trump administration has staged a massive enforcement effort in the city. 

Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, said they were aware of the shooting and denounced the surge of federal officers. Frey said the enforcement operation “is causing chaos in our city. We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately”. 

Senator Tina Smith said in a social media post that the deceased woman was a US citizen. “I’m gathering information, but the situation on the ground is volatile,” Smith wrote on X. “ICE should leave now for everyone’s safety.” 

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the shooting took place after “rioters” obstructed ICE officers and one driver attempted to “run over” law enforcement officers, which she called an “act of domestic terrorism”. 

McLaughlin said an ICE officer “fearing for his life … fired defensive shots” that killed the woman. 

Asked by The Washington Post if ICE would heed Frey’s call to leave the city, McLaughlin responded by email: “No.” 

An onlooker holds a sign that reads "Shame" as members of law enforcement work the scene following a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal law enforcement operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo / Getty Images 

Television news footage of the scene showed police vehicles responding and police tape cordoning off some areas, with journalists and other bystanders being kept away from the immediate location of the shooting. 

The incident occurred amid a reported surge in ICE activity that saw hundreds of additional agents deployed to the city following weeks of heightened immigration enforcement and hundreds of arrests. 

A city spokesman said he was aware of the incident but could not provide more details. 

Representative Ilhan Omar said the woman who was shot was a “legal observer”, apparently referring to activists who monitor federal immigration officers. 

“I’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and will update as soon as I receive information. ICE must stop terrorising our communities and leave our city,” Omar wrote on X. 

President Donald Trump ordered immigration officials to expand their presence in Minneapolis at the beginning of December, focusing on the state’s large Somali immigrant population, whom he called “garbage”. 

The incident is the latest eruption of violence during Trump’s second term, as he and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller lead the push to deport millions of immigrants. 

Officials have surged immigration officers into Democratic-led cities and towns and increasingly used force to arrest them and deter protests, smashing windows, deploying tear gas and tackling immigrants and demonstrators. 

Some have been shot: in September, an ICE officer fatally shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant, in the Chicago area after alleging that he drove his vehicle toward law enforcement officials. 

In November, a federal judge in Chicago said that immigration officers and Border Patrol were using excessive force against protesters, saying the “use of force shocks the conscience”. 

US District Judge Sara Ellis pointed to multiple examples of immigration officers excessively deploying tear gas, pepper spray and other crowd control devices. She also said Gregory Bovino, a senior US Border Patrol commander, had “admitted that he lied” about getting struck by a rock in the head before using tear gas against civilians. 

As news of the shooting spread in Minneapolis on Wednesday, protesters gathered at the scene, yelling at immigration agents and throwing snowballs, according to livestream footage. The footage showed ICE agents responding with tear gas. Bovino was also at the scene, according to news reports. 

After law enforcement from the Minneapolis Police Department and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office appeared on the scene, city council member Jamal Osman told a livestreamer that ICE was being asked to leave. 

“The chief is trying to do everything he can to get ICE off the street,” he said. 

Republicans in recent months have focused on ongoing social services fraud in Minnesota involving hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen public funds. Some but not all of the criminals prosecuted for fraud are Somali, but Republicans have focused on that group’s involvement. 

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, whose office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, announced on Monday he would no longer seek a third term as governor amid the controversy. In a social media post Wednesday, Walz said his team is “working to gather information” and asked “folks to remain calm”. 

Frey had previously expressed concern that ICE’s presence in Minneapolis could spill over into violence, and damage already frayed relations between citizens and law enforcement. 

“I am gravely concerned that if we continue on this present trajectory somebody is going to get killed,” he said at a December 23 news conference. 

- Caroline O'Donovan and Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post