Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been stopping U.S. citizens in public and demanding proof of legal status — and that off-duty police officers of color have been among those confronted at gunpoint.
Speaking at a Tuesday press conference, Bruley said he does not support eliminating ICE, but he strongly criticized what he described as the agency’s recent street-level tactics.
“Recently, as the last two weeks, we as law enforcement community have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from US citizens,” he said. “What we’re hearing is they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause and being forced to show paperwork to determine if they are here legally.”
Bruley said the reports began with community complaints — then escalated when officers reported similar encounters happening to them while they were off duty.
“As this went on over the past two weeks, we started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off duty,” he continued. “Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them.”
He described one incident in which agents allegedly surrounded an off-duty officer’s vehicle.
Bruley said ICE “boxed in” the officer on a roadway and demanded documentation — even though, he said, the officer is a U.S. citizen and did not have any such paperwork.
“They demanded her paperwork, of which she’s a US citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork,” he said. When the officer tried to record the encounter on her phone, Bruley said the phone was knocked from her hands and she was prevented from filming.
“The officer had their gun drawn during this interaction,” he added. Bruley said the officer ultimately identified herself as a Brooklyn Park police officer in an attempt to slow down the encounter and reduce the risk of escalation.
“The agents then immediately left after hearing this, making no other comments, no other apologies, just got in their vehicles and left.”
Bruley said the incident was not a one-off and claimed other police leaders had heard similar reports involving their off-duty personnel.
“In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers,” he remarked. He emphasized that the significance goes beyond the fact that police officers were targeted — pointing instead to what he called the pattern and the constitutional implications.
“This isn’t just important because it happened to off-duty police officers, but what it did do is we know that our officers know what the Constitution is, they know what right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted, and that’s what they were.”
Bruley ended with a warning about what such encounters could mean for the broader community.
“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day,” he said. “It has to stop.”
