BOSTON (AP) — The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed as they ramp up arrests toward President Donald Trump's promises of mass deportations.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he was “deeply upset” by an ICE operation at a popular Italian restaurant just before the dinner rush on Friday. A chaotic showdown unfolded outside as customers and witnesses shouted, smoke filled the air, and agents wore heavy tactical gear to face an angry crowd.
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A man crosses a street where graffiti reads "melt ICE," at the site of a recent ICE operation at a popular Italian restaurant in the neighborhood of South Park Monday, June 2, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A man looks at signs left in front the restaurant Buona Forchetta, the site of a recent ICE operation in the neighborhood of South Park, Monday, June 2, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons announces that his agency took nearly 1,500 immigrants into custody in Massachusetts over the month of May during a press conference at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Mass., on Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons announces that his agency took nearly 1,500 immigrants into custody in Massachusetts over the month of May during a news conference at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
Todd Lyons, ICE's acting director, turned emotional when asked to explain why officials wear masks. He said some have received death threats and been harassed online.
“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” he said at a news conference in Boston to announce nearly 1,500 arrests in the region as part of a month-long “surge operation.”
Lyons was leaving the room when a reporter asked him about the masks. He returned to the podium.
“Is that the issue here that we’re just upset about the masks?” he asked. “Or is anyone upset about the fact that ICE officers’ families were labeled terrorists?”
Lyons may have been referring to comments by San Diego Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, who called ICE officers “terrorists” after Friday's restaurant raid. “This isn't safety. It's state-sponsored terrorism," Elo-Rivera wrote on Instagram.
The Department of Homeland Security reposted Elo-Rivera's message, saying that likening ICE to terrorists was “sickening.” The councilman stuck by his comments on Monday.
Other elected officials, such as Gloria and U.S. Rep. Scott Peters of San Diego, both Democrats, were more muted but also sharply critical of ICE and the Republican White House.
“Federal actions like these are billed as a public safety measure, but it had the complete opposite effect. What we saw undermines trust and creates fear in our community,” Gloria said.
ICE said Monday that the operation at Buona Forchetta, an anchor of San Diego's trendy South Park neighborhood, resulted in four arrests of people in the U.S. illegally. Authorities executed criminal search warrants for illegal hiring and making false statements when the crowd “became unruly,” prompting them to use flash-bang devices.
“When gatherings like these are formed, it not only places law enforcement in danger but also the demonstrators/onlookers attempting to impede law enforcement activity,” ICE said in a statement.
The owners said they were closing their restaurants in Southern California for two days.
“We wish we could find stronger words, but the truth is we are heartbroken,” the owners said in a statement. “The traumatic incident involving a federal enforcement operation at our original and beloved South Park location has left a mark on all of us. A wound that is still raw, still echoing in our kitchens, our dining rooms, and our hearts.”
Lyons said in an interview on Fox & Friends Sunday that ICE was averaging about 1,600 arrests a day, a sharp increase from previous data that showed 78,155 arrests between Jan. 20 and May 19 — a daily average of 656. He said ICE can and will do more.
Stephen Miller, the key architect of Trump's immigration policy, last week set a goal of 3,000 arrests a day and said the number could go higher. That pace would be a huge challenge with current funding. ICE housed an average of more than 46,000 detainees during the first half of May, already above its budgeted capacity.
Lyons said operations like the surge in Massachusetts wouldn’t be necessary if “sanctuary cities would change their policy.” There’s no legal definition for sanctuary city policies, but they generally limit cooperation by local law enforcement with federal immigration officers. Homeland Security published a list of more than 500 sanctuary jurisdictions but removed it from its website after criticism that it contained inaccuracies, even from its allies.
Lyons stood near a poster board with mug shots of unnamed immigrants. A full list of those arrested was not available, nor was information about the crimes specific individuals are accused of committing.
Lyons called them “dangerous criminals” who are “terrorizing family, friends and our neighbors.”
State, local and federal authorities participated in a raid Saturday at a South Carolina nightclub that officials said was popular with drug dealers, resulting in the arrests of 66 people who were in the country illegally. Cardell Morant, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in South Carolina and North Carolina, said the 3 a.m. operations came during a “cartel after-party.”
Officials did not release additional details about the charges being faced by those who were arrested during the raid in Charleston County.
Rebecca Santana in Washington, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.
A man crosses a street where graffiti reads "melt ICE," at the site of a recent ICE operation at a popular Italian restaurant in the neighborhood of South Park Monday, June 2, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A man looks at signs left in front the restaurant Buona Forchetta, the site of a recent ICE operation in the neighborhood of South Park, Monday, June 2, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons announces that his agency took nearly 1,500 immigrants into custody in Massachusetts over the month of May during a press conference at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Mass., on Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons announces that his agency took nearly 1,500 immigrants into custody in Massachusetts over the month of May during a news conference at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis Saturday to protest the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer there and the shooting of two protesters in Portland, Oregon, as Minnesota leaders urged demonstrators to remain peaceful.
The Minneapolis gathering was one of hundreds of protests planned in towns and cities across the country over the weekend. It came in a city on edge since the killing of Renee Good on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
“We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest Saturday. “ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable.”
On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as demonstrators threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested. He faulted “agitators that are trying to rile up large crowds.”
“This is what Donald Trump wants,” Frey said of the president who has demanded massive immigration enforcement efforts in several U.S. cities. “He wants us to take the bait.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz echoed the call for peace.
“Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone,” Walz posted on social media. “Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don’t give him what he wants.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities is its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation. Trump's administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers.
Connor Maloney said he was attending the Minneapolis protest to support his community and because he's frustrated with the immigration crackdown.
“Almost daily I see them harassing people,” he said. “It’s just sickening that it’s happening in our community around us.”
Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to attend a protest in Durham, North Carolina, on Saturday because of the “horrifying” killing of Good in Minneapolis.
“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”
Indivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states.
In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups organized the demonstration that began in a park about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where the 37-year-old Good was shot on Wednesday. Marchers carried signs calling for ICE to leave and voiced support for Good and immigrants.
A couple of miles away, just as the demonstration began, an Associated Press photographer witnessed heavily armed officers — at least one in Border Patrol uniform — approach a person who had been following them. Two of the agents had long guns out when they ordered the person to stop following them, telling him it was his “first and final warning.”
The agents eventually drove onto the interstate without detaining the driver.
Protests held in the neighborhood have been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.
O’Hara said city police officers have responded to calls about cars abandoned because their drivers have been apprehended by immigration enforcement. In one case, the car was left in park and in another case a dog was left in the vehicle.
He said immigration enforcement activities are happening “all over the city” and that 911 callers have been alerting authorities to ICE activity, arrests and abandoned vehicles.
The Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.
Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February.
Three congresswomen from Minnesota attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning and were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.
U.S, Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.
“They do not care that they are violating federal law,” Craig said after being turned away.
A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing policies that limit congressional visits to immigration facilities. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by 12 members of Congress who sued in Washington, D.C. to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities.
Associated Press writers Allen Breed in Durham, North Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.
People place flowers for a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Friday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Rep. Kelly Morrison D-Minn., center, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., second from the right, and Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., far right, at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference as Police Chief Brian O'Hara listens, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Federal agents look on as protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A woman holds a sign for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier in the week, as people gather outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Two people sit in the street with their hands up in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Minnesota State Patrol officers are seen during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Minnesota State Patrol officers are seen during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Two people sit in the street holding hands in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
