A St. Paul resident says federal officers knocked on her door and asked her to identify Hmong and Asian households in her North End neighborhood last week.

And on Sunday, in St. Paul’s Frogtown, video showed federal agents leaving a front yard of a home. A post on Reddit titled it as Border Patrol Chief “Greg Bovino has officially kicked off door to door raids.”

ICE and Border Patrol spokespeople did not respond to a request for information Monday about whether are they going door to door.

Vice President JD Vance noted on Fox News on Wednesday: “I think we’re going to see those deportation numbers ramp up as we get more and more people online working for ICE, going door-to-door and making sure that if you’re an illegal alien, you’ve got to get out of this country and if you want to come back, apply for the proper channels.”

On Wednesday, an immigration officer fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in her vehicle in Minneapolis, which has drawn continued protests.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement. More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, according to Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Videos shared on social media, along with photographs, show the prevalence of federal agents in the Twin Cities and St. Paul recently.

Man detained at Snelling Avenue gas station

Bovino was present Sunday when a man was taken into custody from a vehicle stopped at a gas station on St. Paul’s Snelling Avenue at Portland Avenue.

A Getty Images photographer at the scene reported that federal agents smashed the man’s car window before dragging him out when he didn’t present citizenship documentation. Video from Ford Fischer with News2Share showed agents roughly handcuffing the man with his face on the pavement, and carrying him away as people in the area yelled, honked and blew whistles.

U.S. Border Patrol agents take an activist into custody following an altercation at a gas station on Jan. 11, 2026 in St. Paul. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Information about the man and his condition wasn’t made available Monday.

“As the federal occupation of Minnesota intensifies, we have seen and heard of countless incidents of violence being perpetrated by ICE here in Ward Four and in the surrounding neighborhoods, including the attack at Speedway yesterday,” City Council Member Molly Coleman, who represents the area, wrote on social media Monday. “What we saw at Speedway — what we’re seeing across the region — continues to make clear what we’ve long known: ICE has no place in our community.”

An activist was also taken into custody in the gas station’s parking lot. The man’s girlfriend told Fox 9 he was released Sunday night.

Border Patrol chief at Midway Target

U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino walks through a Target store Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Also on Sunday, an Associated Press photographer took a photo of Bovino in the Target in St. Paul’s Midway on University Avenue. Video from Fischer showed Bovino leaving the restroom area in the front of the store and walking out as people cursed at him to leave.

U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego posted on X (formerly Twitter), “What US citizen wants to go shopping on a Sunday and see armed masked men walking around? Target on a Sunday morning is not a war zone. Treating it like it is creates the tension you see here.”

Bovino responded on X: “Calm down there, pardner. Went in to use the restroom like any member of the public or law enforcement. In talking with Minneapolis residents and legal immigrants at Target, and a myriad of other locations, they say the opposite of you. Don’t be tone deaf.”

North End resident describes ICE asking about Asian neighbors

Elizabeth Lugert-Thom, of St. Paul, warned people on social media last week that two men came to her door in the North End on Wednesday. One had a badge hanging around his neck and she could make out “HS” on it and may have said “Homeland” on it, leading her to believe it was a Homeland Security badge.

“They did not identify themselves,” she said Monday. “They just starting asking questions and showed me a picture and asked if I knew who this person was.” She didn’t and told them so.

“They said, ‘This is for your safety. We need to find this person,’” according to Lugert-Thom, who said she doesn’t know why they came to her home. “They specifically asked me if I knew where the Hmong families lived on my street and in the neighborhood.”

Lugert-Thom responded, “I don’t know anything about that” and she said they then asked, “Well, what about the Asian families?” She also told them she didn’t know, so they would leave.

She said she posted about it on Facebook because “I was a bit shaken and a bit shocked of what I was asked to do.”

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City Council Member HwaJeong Kim, who is a volunteer with the Immigrant Defense Network and who represents Lugert-Thom’s ward, said she’s hearing frequently from neighborhood networks about people being taken into custody.

“They took someone walking on the sidewalk this morning in my ward before 9:30 this morning,” Kim said Monday. “… Rolled up, took them, gone.

“We already knew that they were doing it, and now they’re just not even hiding. … If you are Black, if you’re Brown, if you are Asian, Latina, even Indigenous, if you are just not white, at this point, you are a target.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The land surrounding the Pine Needles cabin on the St. Croix River in Marine on St. Croix could be permanently protected under a plan proposed by Washington County and the Minnesota Land Trust.

Most of the 27-acre property, owned by the Science Museum of Minnesota, is being considered for a conservation easement, meaning that the vast majority of the land would have permanent restrictions on development and would remain as open space. If the project moves forward to closing, the Land Trust and Washington County will pay the Science Museum in exchange for the conservation easement.

The cabin, at 18037 St. Croix Trail N., was previously owned by James Taylor Dunn, a noted historian of the St. Croix River Valley. Dunn wanted the property, which is now the site of an artist-in-residency program run by the St. Croix Watershed Research Station, to be used as a scholarly and artistic retreat.

Washington County board members last week got an update on plans for the Pine Needles conservation easement during a workshop.

“My tree-hugger heart is happy,” said Washington County Board Vice Chair Bethany Cox. “I’ve paddled by so many times, I’m actually shocked it wasn’t already under conservation easement.”

Priority area

Greg Seitz, a Pine Needles artist-in-residence, paddles away from shore on the St. Croix River on Aug. 4, 2025. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

The Pine Needles land is located within one of the county’s top 10 priority conservation areas, is less than 300 feet from William O’Brian State Park, and includes more than 1,700 feet of St. Croix River shoreline, said Serena Raths, a planner for Washington County.

The property “is exactly the kind of land the county’s Land and Water Legacy Program was created to protect,” Raths said. “Conserving it preserves high-quality habitat for species in need of conservation and safeguards the water quality of creeks flowing to the St. Croix River … for generations.”

The cabin and some of its surrounding areas would be included in a “building envelope” that would be excluded from the easement restrictions to accommodate the Science Museum’s needs for the property, Raths said.

More than 300 acres associated with the St. Croix Watershed Research Station has already been protected through a continued partnership with Washington County and the Minnesota Land Trust.

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“We are excited about the opportunity to add the 27 acres of Pine Needles,” said Adam Heathcote, director of the Department of Water and Climate Change at the Science Museum of Minnesota, which includes the St. Croix Watershed Station.

The land at Pine Needles includes “spectacular stands of maple and basswood forest” and “some of the most majestic white pine trees remaining along the St. Croix River,” he said.

“This natural beauty has served as inspiration for more than 80 artists in the Pine Needles program over the last 24 years, and countless members of the St. Croix Valley public have been positively impacted through participation in their annual community outreach events,” he said. “It is our intent to ensure that Pine Needles will continue to serve this important purpose in perpetuity and a conservation easement would help make this possible.”

Shared cost

Greg Seitz sits at a desk overlooking the St. Croix River while working on his book highlighting the river’s watershed at the historic Pine Needles cabin in Marine on St. Croix. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

Under the plan being considered, the Minnesota Land Trust and Washington County would co-hold the conservation easement. The Minnesota Land Trust would be responsible for 60 percent of the costs, and the county would pay the rest, Raths said. The Minnesota Land Trust’s contribution is estimated to be between $568,200 to $1,136,400, she said.

Funds for the county’s portion of the conservation easement, estimated between $378,000 and $757,000, would come from a $4.4 million extension to the Land and Water Legacy Program that the county board approved in May 2024. The $4.4 million came from $3.4 million in 2024 interest earnings and $1 million in unspent funds from budget year 2023, Raths said.

The exact amount paid for the conservation easement will be determined by an appraisal of the land’s development rights value, Raths said.

The easement will restrict uses like commercial, industrial and agricultural activities, as well as any major disturbances to the property’s natural features, according to Raths. The Science Museum will retain ownership of the land and all rights not restricted by the easement, including, but not limited to, maintaining existing structures and trails, conducting habitat management and using the land recreationally.

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Conservation easements follow the land, not the landowner, “so even if the property is sold in the future, it will remain permanently protected,” Raths said.

In November 2006, Washington County voters approved a $20 million land and water protection referendum. The county expended $19 million of the funds to complete 53 projects protecting more than 1,900 acres and leveraged more than $34 million in partnership funds.

Plans for the Pine Needles conservation easement will go to the county’s parks and open space commission later this month and eventually to the Marine on St. Croix City Council before coming back to the board around June for a vote, Raths said.

A 3-year-old child has died as the result of a weekend dog attack in northwestern Minnesota’s Otter Tail County.

According to a press release from the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 1 p.m. Sunday, Otter Tail County 911 dispatchers received a call from a 51-year-old woman who reported that she was driving herself and her 3-year-old grandson to the Perham hospital for significant dog bite injuries.

The incident occurred at the woman’s residence, which is located west of New York Mills.

Deputies met the pair at the ER and through the investigation it was determined the 3-year-old boy had climbed into an outside enclosed area where the dog was kept.

The boy was attacked by the dog, described as an adult American bulldog, and the grandmother also suffered significant injuries while stopping the attack.

The boy died and the woman was transported to a Fargo, N.D., hospital.

The dog was later put down, the sheriff’s office said. The investigation is continuing.

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St. Paul public school students can enroll in online classes if they feel unsafe attending class in person due to the immigration enforcement action in the Twin Cities.

Students and families interested in virtual learning should contact their current school’s principal or the district’s student placement center as soon as possible and request enrollment in the SPPS Online School, according to a district statement. The online school enrolls students K-12.

“ICE agents are not welcome in Saint Paul,” said a statement issued Friday by district officials. “They were not invited to our community, and they have been asked to leave by Governor Walz and numerous local elected officials. The Saint Paul School Board unequivocally joins that call: ICE must leave our community immediately.”

The St. Paul Public Schools board reiterated that ICE agents are not permitted on school grounds without a court-signed judicial warrant and the district will not coordinate with ICE operations. The district also will do everything within its legal authority to protect students and families from immigration enforcement in schools, the statement said.

Board members also said in their statement that their “hearts are broken” for the family of Renée Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

“We grieve alongside the students and families in the Saint Paul Public Schools community who have been torn from us by ICE enforcement actions,” the statement continued. “ICE is not making our community safer – they are terrorizing our neighbors, tearing apart families, and creating an environment of fear that harms everyone. Our community is not safer when people are afraid to leave their homes. Our students cannot learn in an atmosphere of chaos and terror. The presence of ICE in our neighborhoods fundamentally undermines the conditions necessary for children to thrive and for families to feel secure.”

Anyone who observes ICE agents near a school building should immediately contact the building’s principal, said the statement. Contact information for principals can be found at each school’s website.

St. Paul Conservancy for Performing Artists

Meanwhile, Tim Sullivan, the academic director for the charter school St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, said in a communication to families Monday that the school “remains committed to providing a safe, supportive learning environment for every student, regardless of immigration status, as required by state and federal law.”

Staff are trained to immediately notify school administration if any immigration or law enforcement agency comes to the school so that proper legal procedures are followed, Sullivan wrote. ICE is not permitted in the school without a court-signed judicial warrant and access to school spaces within the building are controlled and monitored, according to Sullivan.

Students’ privacy and safety are protected by state and federal law and the school takes those protections seriously, he wrote.

“We understand that this may be an anxious time for some families. Please know that your child’s health, safety, and welfare is always our number one priority,” Sullivan wrote. “If you have questions, need to update emergency contacts, or would like more information, please reach out. We are here to support you.”

Minneapolis Public Schools

Minneapolis Public Schools was closed Thursday and Friday and activities were canceled after a report of armed U.S. Border Patrol officers at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. The officers entered school property during Wednesday’s dismissal period, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

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Minneapolis students returned to in-person classes Monday, with the option to choose remote learning through Feb. 12.

For more information on SPPS safety policies and resources for families, go to spps.org/immigration.