A Minneapolis-based pastor has publicly described a disturbing encounter with US immigration officials during a recent enforcement operation, alleging blatant racial profiling and excessive use of force. Reverend Kenny Callaghan recounted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pointed a firearm directly at his face, forcibly handcuffed him, and shoved him into the back of an SUV, only to later release him after determining that he was white. A video of Callaghan narrating the incident during a television interview has since gone viral on social media, drawing widespread attention and outrage.
The pastor’s account comes just a day after a separate and far more fatal incident in Minneapolis, where an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman, during an immigration crackdown. Federal authorities later claimed the shooting was an act of self-defence, alleging that the woman had attempted to run over the officer. The two incidents together have intensified scrutiny of ICE’s conduct and accusations of racial bias in enforcement actions.
Describing the events, Callaghan said he noticed ICE agents surrounding a young woman whom he believed was Hispanic and being targeted unfairly. He intervened verbally, telling one of the agents to leave her alone and take him instead. According to Callaghan, this immediately escalated the situation. An agent stepped close to him, pointed a gun at his face, and asked him if he was afraid. Callaghan said he calmly replied that he was not, after which officers placed him in handcuffs and pushed him into the rear of a government vehicle.
While detained inside the SUV, Callaghan said the agents repeatedly returned to taunt him, asking multiple times whether he was frightened. Each time, he said, he told them that he was not afraid and would never be intimidated by them. He described the questioning as deliberate psychological harassment rather than a legitimate law enforcement procedure.
Callaghan said the encounter took a shocking turn during the third interaction, when the agents asked for his identification and mobile phone. When he directly asked whether he was under arrest, the agents initially refused to answer. Moments later, he said, they dismissed him with a remark that left him stunned, telling him that he was white and therefore “wouldn’t be any fun anyway,” before releasing him without charges.
The incident has further inflamed tensions in Minneapolis, a city already on edge following the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Notably, the site where Good was shot is located just about a mile from where George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in 2020, an event that sparked the largest racial justice protests in US history under the Black Lives Matter movement.
Despite public anger, US President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have defended the ICE agent involved in Good’s killing. Trump claimed the officer acted in self-defence and blamed what he described as the “radical Left,” alleging that the victim had violently attempted to strike the agent with her vehicle.
Local leaders in Minneapolis have strongly rejected this narrative. Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed the self-defence claim as a “garbage narrative” and openly criticised ICE operations in the city, telling federal agents to leave Minnesota. The killing of Renee Good marked the fifth death linked to immigration enforcement actions since 2024, further intensifying national debate over ICE practices, racial bias, and the broader direction of US immigration policy in major urban centres.
