Independent photojournalist Erik Herrera was repeatedly shoved by individuals angry with his coverage of an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement barricade in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Feb. 2, 2026.
Demonstrations against ICE actions in the Twin Cities area have been mounting since the beginning of January, following the expansion of an immigration crackdown, known as Operation Metro Surge, and federal officers’ fatal shooting of two Minneapolis residents — Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Herrera was working alongside Daily Caller reporter Jorge Ventura, documenting what was being referred to as a “filter blockade” — a makeshift barricade in the middle of the road meant to hinder ICE operations — in a south Minneapolis neighborhood.
The journalists took a car together to where it was reportedly set up. “It was just a bunch of random things in the middle of the intersection, so stuff like wood pallets, dumpsters, mattresses,” Ventura told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
He added that the checkpoint was being operated by several individuals, some of whom immediately approached to ask who they were. When they identified themselves as press, the individuals didn’t seem to mind them being there, Ventura said.
As the journalists began documenting the scene, Ventura said he noticed that one of the individuals had approached their ride-share driver.
“A couple of individuals basically said that our Uber driver was an ICE agent, because, I guess, they ran his license plate in their ‘database,’” he told the Tracker. “I head over there, and I’m just like, ‘Hey, he’s not an ICE agent, he’s Somalian, clearly.’ So that kind of started our interaction.”
Ventura said he tried to ask the individual about the database they had referenced and the checkpoint, but after a few questions, the man declined to do an interview and walked away. Then Ventura noticed that individuals manning the barricade were forcing two SUVs to turn around.
“It’s unconfirmed if they were federal agents, but they did have the markings: they had the all-black, tinted windows, and they were turning them around. So I started to zoom in and shoot video of that,” he said.
That’s when Ventura said two individuals began shoving both him and Ventura, attempting to block them from recording and forcing them to move back toward their waiting car. One also attempted several times to grab Ventura’s phone, at one point knocking it into the snow.
He told the Tracker he was able to retrieve his phone, and the pair then left the scene after only five minutes. Over the next few hours, they clipped together their footage and posted it online.
Herrera did not respond to a request for comment.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.