Minnesota has been taking the heat from ICE for weeks now. Immigration agents swarming major cities have not just individuals but entire businesses on edge. A Minnesota man who owns a laundromat in Saint Paul has been speaking out against ICE as a warning to people in his area. Now, his business was targeted by ICE officials when one of his employers was there. What they did to threaten her is more evidence of how far they will go to strike fear into communities.
Hamadeh (@rentandrant) shared a TikTok video where he says, “ICE thugs showed up at my business again because I’ve been speaking out about it.” In the video, you see the agents leave their SUV and walk up to his laundromat, where they stopped in front of the door. Hamadeh has posted on his door, “Everyone is welcome here! Except ICE.” The posted notice explains that they deny ICE the right to access their private areas without a warrant. However, the agents ignored this (as they do) and went inside anyway.
Once inside, the agents went in without a warrant and found the female employee working inside. As Hamadeh says, his employee is fully documented but they decided to harass her anyway. Hamadeh explains that, when speaking to his employee, they told her “not to get hostile and not run. They prevented her from grabbing her legal documentation.” You see the agents following her closely and, when she turns a corner, they step in front of her so they’re face-to-face. Hamadeh says, “This is intimidation. Not a conversation.”
At this point, Hamadeh says that one of the agents told his employee that “she was getting deported today.” You can tell she looks frightened as she walks them in circles. She makes her way to the front desk and finally gets a chance to hand the agents her legal documents. Everything checks out and they start making their way to the door. One of the agents, who told her she’s being deported, turned and said to her that “she got lucky today.” This is an incredible oversight and a way they thought they’d strike fear in a place they know they aren’t wanted. It’s horrible that people need to be afraid of showing up for work because they might face an unwanted ICE encounter.
One commenter said in disbelief, “’She was lucky today.’ She is a U.S. citizen.” Another pointed out, “Can we talk about how extra terrifying as a woman this is? Literally 9 masked men swarmed her and she was alone!” That’s their intimidation tactic, though. They thought they’d get her alone and then take her if the documents didn’t check out. And who would have been there to stop them?
