Police chief steps in to stop ICE arrest: ‘I gave her a ride home’

The police chief for a southern Minnesota city intervened this week to prevent federal immigration officers from arresting a Minnesotan, Minnesota Public Radio reported Saturday.

The Minnesotan – a woman who did not want to be identified out of fear of retaliation – spoke with MPR about her encounter with federal immigration officers, who she had been tracking the movements of in her vehicle with a dashcam.

The woman said that after tracking federal immigration officers’ movements, three vehicles began “chasing her,” MPR reported, and trying to “box her in.” Video of the incident shared with the outlet shows a vehicle speeding in front of her and slamming its breaks, after which three officers exited the vehicle and drew their firearms, demanding she exit the vehicle.

The federal immigration officers then dragged the woman out of her car, leaving her “with multiple cuts, scrapes and bruises,” MPR reported, and ultimately arrested and started transporting her to the Twin Cities, “presumably” to an ICE detention facility at the Whipple Federal Building.

The woman recalled, however, the federal immigration officers receiving a phone call – “apparently from an ICE supervisor” – after which the officers reversed course and drove back to St. Peter, where she was arrested.

St. Peter Police Chief Matt Grochow, in an email to MPR, confirmed that the federal immigration officers had taken the woman to the St. Peter Police Department headquarters.

“ICE returned the female to our police department, I saw her, and I gave her a ride home,” Grochow told MPR in an email.

While Grochow did not respond to any additional questions as to his involvement, the woman shared details of her ride home with Grochow.

“He knew where I lived already, because he had already been in contact with my husband.” the woman told MPR. “He started talking to me like he just couldn't [believe] how terrible it was, what was happening. And he was so sorry and so scared for me and that type of thing, and [he] was so upset by what they're doing to our community.”