Two Minnesota residents arrested while observing federal immigration enforcement operations on Sunday described harsh conditions and alleged offers of payment for information during an eight-hour detention at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling. Patricia O’Keefe, 36, and Brandon Sigüenza, 32, both U.S. citizens from Minneapolis and St. Louis Park respectively, were arrested after federal agents pepper-sprayed their vehicle and broke its windows near Bethel Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, where they had responded to an alert about ICE activity. During questioning, Sigüenza said federal agents made an unusual proposition: “It was a deal they offered me,” he said, explaining that agents offered money or legal protection for undocumented people he knew in exchange for names of protest organizers or other undocumented individuals—an offer he rejected.
O’Keefe reported that an agent made derogatory comments about Renee Nicole Good, the U.S. citizen fatally shot by ICE days earlier, saying “stop obstructing us, that’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.”
Both detainees described witnessing overcrowded cells filled with Hispanic men, denied requests for water and bathroom access, and saw injured detainees—including one with a forehead gash and another with cuts from broken glass—receive no medical attention. “I heard screaming, I heard crying,” Sigüenza said of the conditions inside, where he observed people with “their heads in their hands” looking “weak and tired.”
The pair were released without charges around 6 p.m. Sunday, their experience providing rare insight into ICE processing operations at the facility where hundreds have been detained in recent weeks, just one day after three Democratic U.S. House members were denied full access during an inspection visit.