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Federal agents targeted workers at a construction site in Chanhassen on Saturday, trapping them on a roof amid frigid temperatures, according to witnesses.
Posts on social media showed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a construction site with two people atop the wooden frame of a house.
Videos showed the area blocked off with police tape as law enforcement waited for them to come down for hours.
One worker was eventually brought down with a boom lift and taken into an ambulance. A Mercado Media livestream shows an ICE agent joined in the ambulance. It also shows the second worker came down around 1 p.m. and left the scene without being detained.
Dozens of people gathered at the site in opposition to ICE’s action.
State Rep. Alex Falconer, DFL-Eden Prairie, joined demonstrators around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. He said it was “reprehensible” and “immoral” for ICE to strand workers on a roof.
“These are people here building a house in the frigid Minnesota weather for other people to live in. These aren't dangerous people. They're trying to make a buck in this economy,” he said. “I just can't fathom how we got to this point as a society.”
Falconer said the workers appeared to be Latino. He shared ICE did not know the men’s names and seemed to be "just driving around doing a fishing expedition."
He estimates there were at least 30 federal agents present who took shifts rotating in and out of cars to stay warm. He said local law enforcement provided traffic and crowd control.
Two women ran around the side of the building and gave blankets to the last remaining worker, according to Falconer. He said law enforcement left the scene shortly afterwards.
ICE has yet to respond to a request for information about the operation.
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