According to a community advocacy group in Duluth, Minn., U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested five members of a roofing crew at a job site last Friday.

Ryan Perez, the organizing director for Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action, stated that on Feb. 28, federal agents detained the men for unclear reasons. A family member of one of the field crew informed him of the detention. 

Perez is part of the Immigrant Defense Network that launched amid President Donald Trump’s vow to carry out mass deportations. The status of men’s cases and the pretense under which they were arrested remain unknown, according to the Duluth News Tribune, which first reported the story.

“Due to our operational tempo and the increased interest in our agency, we are not able to research and respond to specifics of routine daily operations for ICE,” regional spokesperson Alethea Smock wrote in response to a media inquiry by the Forum News Service.

Duluth is a port city on Lake Superior in Northeast Minnesota, about 154 miles from Minneapolis. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a population of around 87,600; roughly 3% is foreign-born.

The Duluth Police Department stated that it was not notified about the enforcement action nor participated in the roundup, which took place in the city's Lakeside neighborhood. 

“DPD’s public safety response remains the same,” Duluth Police Chief Mike Ceynowa said in a statement. 

“Our main priority has been and always will be the safety and security of our community,” Ceynowa added. “We weren’t involved in any immigration incidents [or] informed of actions occurring in our community.”

The city’s Mayor, Roger Reinert, stressed that the city is not responsible for immigration issues. “We have multiple levels of government in the United States, and each is charged with different responsibilities,” he said. 

“At the local level, our city staff continue to be focused on core city services: streets, utilities and public safety,” Reinert continued. “Local government is not responsible for immigration enforcement.”

The Duluth action was one of several recent measures by ICE agents in The Gopher State: Last Friday, CBS News reported that seven people were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a workplace raid earlier that week at HardCoat, Inc., a St. Louis Park-based manufacturing company.

Those arrests also came without warning, surprising St. Louis and Hennepin County officials. Each office said it was unaware of the raid.

A spokesperson for HardCoat, Inc., an aluminum anodizing finishing company, declined comment. 

Enforcement actions step up nationwide

Earlier last month, WTVJ-TV in Miami-Dade, Fla., captured video of several agents descending on a construction site in Wilton Manors, a bedroom community just north of Fort Lauderdale, resulting in the detention of two men, one of which was a member of the construction crew.

The contractor, Jeb Schaefer of Schaefer Construction, says he received a call from a subcontractor saying there was “a problem” during demolition.

“Of course, my mind immediately thought we hit a water pipe,” he could be heard telling a reporter on the scene. “[I] didn't know that, you know, I was going to be seeing 15 you know agents trying to arrest one person on my job site.”

During his campaign for a return to the White House, President Donald Trump boldly promised to implement the largest mass deportation in U.S. history during a second term, occasionally indicating he aims to deport every individual living in the country illegally. 

According to 2022 statistics, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pegs that figure north of 11 million.

This is what Americans voted for

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency made over 20,000 arrests in Trump’s first month. The administration has also reversed policies that prohibited raids at sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and places of worship.

However, the agency has remained mum on how many of those arrested have criminal records, which Trump said would be the principal targets of the raids during his campaign. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, as of February 23, 2025, 52.1% of individuals in ICE detention had no criminal record. 

Immigrant rights advocates and lawyers have sounded alarms about potential civil rights violations.

Kevin Gaunt and Adam Rosser, immigration attorneys with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, which has 19 offices across the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, say that Trump's recent executive orders signal a renewed focus on worksite enforcement. 

“Employers across industries must prepare for what many experts anticipate will be the most aggressive immigration enforcement environment in recent history,” the pair wrote in a white paper on the administration’s stepped-up enforcement actions.

“The Biden administration's more measured approach to worksite enforcement has given way to what immigration officials describe as a comprehensive strategy to combat unauthorized employment,” they continued. “This shift isn't merely a change in tone — it represents a fundamental restructuring of how federal agencies approach workplace immigration compliance.”

5 Takeaways

• Increase in Worksite Immigration Raids – ICE has intensified workplace enforcement, arresting undocumented workers in multiple states, often without prior notice to local authorities.
• Local Government’s Limited Role — Duluth, Minn. officials emphasized that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility; local agencies are neither informed nor involved in raids.
• Shifting Federal Immigration Policy – The current administration has reversed restrictions on raids at sensitive locations and prioritizes aggressive worksite enforcement.
• Legal Boundaries of ICE Actions – ICE must adhere to constitutional protections against unlawful searches and seizures, but it primarily operates under administrative, not judicial, warrants.
• Potential Civil Rights Concerns – Advocates and attorneys warn of due process violations, as over half of those detained in ICE custody reportedly have no criminal record.

What are the laws ICE is supposed to follow?

John Fabbricatore, a former ICE Denver field office director, detailed the agency’s rigorous 20-week training program on immigration law; agents study constitutional law, immigration regulations, visa policies, removal procedures and naturalization processes.

Like other law enforcement agencies, ICE is bound by the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments: the right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to remain silent, respectively.

Hans Meyer, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Denver, said ICE’s federal statutory obligations set “limits on their authority to be able to conduct certain investigations.”

For instance, agents cannot detain individuals unless they have reasonable suspicion grounded in facts obtained during an investigation.

“Law enforcement officers — and ICE — cannot use things like race as a justification to detain somebody,” Meyer told the Forum News Service. “They can’t use the fact that somebody’s speaking Spanish.”

Fabbricatore said the development of reasonable suspicion and probable cause applies to all law enforcement officers — not just those at ICE.

The former Denver field office director emphasized that ICE possesses both civil and criminal arrest powers, with charges determined by the nature of the investigation. 

He noted that an individual in the U.S. unlawfully may face a civil charge, especially if they initially entered the country legally. Consequently, overstaying a visa is considered a civil immigration violation.

“Not having (legal) status is a civil matter in the U.S. It’s not a criminal matter,” Meyer noted.

What role do warrants play in detainment?

A warrant is a legal document that grants law enforcement the authority to arrest individuals, conduct searches of properties or individuals, and more; a judge specifically issues a judicial warrant.

But judicial warrants “very rarely exist in the immigration space,” Meyer said. That’s a key difference between the standard criminal justice system and the immigration system, he added.

“In the immigration space, there are no warrants for arrests really issued by immigration courts because it’s a civil matter,” Meyer said.

Instead, ICE officers gather enough information to support the issuance of an administrative warrant. Fabbricatore confirmed that ICE supervisors sign these warrants. However, because they are not signed by judges — who would independently review them — Meyer argued that “there are no checks and balances."

An administrative warrant doesn’t allow ICE officers to enter private property like a home or a car. Instead, they must obtain consent.

Depending on the case, Fabbricatore said ICE can pursue criminal warrants. His example: a prior gang member who committed gun violence and was deported but then reentered the country.

He described an alternative scenario: “When a person that they’re looking for isn’t there, (they) contact everybody else in that place … and coerce them into speaking, and then use the information against them to justify their arrest.”

What roofing contractors need to know about immigration enforcement

As 2025 unfolds, company owners can expect the government to use technology more extensively through enhanced electronic verification systems and, potentially, the nationwide implementation of mandatory E-Verify. Learn how to protect your company and employees.