Man freed after Minneapolis immigration raid talks about his experience

(17 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++CLIENTS NOTE: EXTRA SOUNDBITE ADDED++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Minneapolis, Minnesota - 17 January 2026
++STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Garrison Gibson, released from immigration detention center:
"Yes, they told me I was going to Texas to be deported. And I said, like, how can you all deport me when I've been following all these instructions for all these years? And the guy was like, 'it's above my pay grade'."
++WHITE FLASH++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Garrison Gibson, released from immigration detention center:
"I'm not a violent person. If I was a violent person, I would not have been out these past 17 years checking in. Right? I'm a nice person, man. Everybody that knows me knows I'm a nice, laid back person."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Garrison Gibson, released by ICE
"I've just been staying in the house trying to stay away. I don't leave the house because when I did leave the house to go to the store, like I went to the store, I was gone for like 30 minutes. My daughter called me like five times just to make sure I was okay."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A man who was released from an immigration detention center following his arrest during the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown spoke about his experience on Saturday.

Video of federal officers breaking down Garrison Gibson's front door with a battering ram January 11 became another rallying point for protesters who oppose the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in and around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which federal officials say has resulted in more than 2,500 arrests.

Protests and counterprotests were expected to take place Saturday, as the immigration enforcement operation grinds on.

Gibson, 38, was ordered to be deported, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed.

He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision.

After his arrest Sunday, a judge ruled federal officials hadn't given Gibson enough notice that his supervision status had been revoked.

Then Gibson was taken back into custody for several hours Friday when he made a routine check-in with immigration officials.

Gibson’s cousin Abena Abraham said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told her Friday that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered Gibson to be arrested again.

The White House denied the account of the re-arrest and the suggestion that Miller had anything to do with it.

Gibson was flown to a Texas immigration detention facility after his arrest, but was returned home following the judge's ruling.

He said his family had to use a dumbbell to keep their front door closed amid the subfreezing temperatures outside before spending $700 to fix the damage.

“They told me I was going to Texas to be deported,” Gibson said at a news conference.

The Department of Homeland Security said an “activist judge” again was trying to stop the government from deporting "criminal illegal aliens."

“We will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

Gibson said he has done everything he was supposed to do: “If I was a violent person, I would not have been out these past 17 years, checking in."

The Department of Homeland Security has called its Minnesota crackdown its largest yet, with more than 2,000 federal officers taking part.



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