The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota under the title Hussen v. Noem, is signed by Mubashir Khalif Hussen, Mahamed Eydarus, and Javier Doe on behalf of themselves and all others “similarly situated.”The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several law firms, allege that federal agents, as part of an operation called Operation Metro Surge, conducted roadblocks, interrogations, and arrests without warrants or sufficient legal cause, disproportionately targeting individuals perceived to be of Somali or Latino origin.They claim these practices violate constitutional protections, particularly against unreasonable searches and seizures, and have instilled fear in local communities.The plaintiffs are not seeking financial compensation but are demanding that the federal court declare these practices unlawful and order them to cease, citing violations of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.The lawsuit specifically names the Department of Homeland Security, its Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).The case is ongoing and has yet to be considered on its merits by the court.January 16, 2026Ranking Member Jayapal and distinguished members of Congress, thank you for the invitation to testify before you today.My name is Mubashir Khalif Hussen. I am a 20-year-old U.S. citizen. My family is Somali, and when I was six or seven years old, my family arrived in the United States from Ethiopia as refugees. Eight months after arriving in the United States, we moved to Minnesota.I became a naturalized citizen in 2019, along with my parents and siblings. But my citizenship did not protect me from being physically detained and hurt by ICE agents.On December 10, 2025, I was at work in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Around 1 p.m. I heard a commotion outside and what sounded like whistles and car horns. When I looked out the window, I saw what I assumed were ICE agents on the street. I did not want to be confronted by ICE, so I waited 20 or 30 minutes until the sounds died down before taking my lunch break.As I exited the building, I paused to speak with someone on the street about what had happened earlier. That was when I noticed an unmarked, tan SUV approaching us.A man wearing a ski mask and a police-style vest exited the vehicle and quickly walked toward me. The man did not say “stop” and did not identify himself. I turned to walk away, hoping he would leave me alone. The man quickened his pace, grabbed me forcefully, pushed me into a restaurant, and asked, “Why are you running from me?” I was not running. I was just walking away because I did not want to talk to him. I knew that ICE agents had been targeting people that look like me.I immediately started repeating over and over again, “I’m a citizen, I’m a citizen,” but the agent did not stop to look at my ID.A second ICE agent entered the restaurant. Together, they dragged me outside and put me into a headlock on the ground. I repeated, “I’m a citizen, I have an ID.” The agent kept saying, “That don’t matter, that don’t matter.” They put me in the back of an SUV.While I was sitting in the back of the SUV, my boss came out with a copy of my passport card. He held the paper up to the windshield, but the ICE officers ignored him and refused to take the documents into account.They eventually drove one street over before parking and telling me that they had to “scan my face.” I was terrified of what they were going to do with a picture of me, and I did not trust them. I would not let them take a picture of me.The officers also kept telling me that they were going to “take me in” if I did not let them “scan my face.” One of the officers pulled out his phone and threatened to “push a button” and “call for transport.”At that point, there were three ICE agents with me in the car. My back hurt from when I was put in a headlock on the ground and the handcuffs were extremely tight on my wrist. Each time I asked the agents if they could loosen them, the officers squeezed them tighter. When I asked for medical attention for my back, the original ICE officer grabbed me and forcefully pulled me to the ground.After about half an hour, the ICE agents drove me to their office near Fort Snelling. When we arrived, they forced me to take the “face scan.”When we got into the building, the agents took the handcuffs off and put shackles on my ankles before searching me. I asked for water, and they said no. Then, an employee told me I was getting deported.I again insisted that I was a citizen and that I could show proof of it on my phone. I showed the picture of my passport card to a woman at the ICE office. She took a photo of my passport card and then searched for my name in a criminal database. Eventually she just said, “Kick him out.”It is difficult to believe that this happened to me. I knew that the president had made statements about Somali people and that there would be additional ICE officers in the Twin Cities focused on Somali people, but I did not think that this would happen to someone in my family – we are all United States citizens so we should not be at risk of being jailed or deported by ICE.In the neighborhood in which I work, I hear screaming all the time, coming from encounters with federal immigration agents. I also hear whistles and honking all the time. When I hear these things, my heart starts beating fast and I can’t breathe. It brings me back to what I went through, and it almost feels like it is happening to me again. It is terrifying right now, wherever I go.I am here today because what happened to me is wrong. The targeting, harassing, violence, and detention of Somali Americans is wrong, and I am worried for the safety of me, my family, my neighbors and community.If Congress does not act, we will continue to be harmed simply for living in the United States of America.0:00-1:15La lecture audio n'est pas prise en charge par votre navigateur. Veuillez le mettre à niveau.“There’s something wrong with him [Minnesota governor Tim Waltz]. And when you look at what he’s done with Somalia, where Somalia, which is barely a country, you know, they have no, they have no anything, they just run around killing each other. There’s no structure. And when I see somebody like Ilhan Omar, who I don’t know at all, but I always watch her for years, I’ve watched her complain about our constitution, how she’s being treated badly, our constitution, the United States of America is a bad place, hates everybody, hates Jewish people, hates everybody. And I think she’s an incompetent person. She’s a real terrible person. But when I watch what is happening in Minnesota, the land of 1000 lakes or however many lakes they have, they got a lot of lakes, but this beautiful place, and I see these people ripping it off. And now I’m understanding, and you’re going to look at that, Scott, I hear they ripped off Somalians, ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions, every year, billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing.” (Trump, December 2, 2025)