The women help apprehend an ICE agent while he is in custody

When two women were detained in Brooklyn Park by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they ended up helping an agent during a medical emergency. Their arrest, captured on Brooklyn Park police camera, also gives an inside look at how local police interact with ICE.

Tippy Amundson and Heather Ziemian were watching their neighborhood together, watching ICE agents as kids got off the bus from school. It started when Amundson’s middle school neighbor called her and asked if her house would be a safe place to run if ICE was after him. He was worried that if he ran home, his parents might be arrested.

“All the kids in our neighborhood and the community are our kids,” Amundson said. “We have a responsibility to make sure they’re safe at the very least. And that’s what we were doing Thursday.”

When local police encounter ICE

On January 22, Amundson and Ziemian met an ICE agent at an apartment complex. They honked their car horn to alert neighbors of the presence of ICE. Immediately, the couple said they were swarmed by agents and asked to leave. The couple said they left the immediate vicinity but returned shortly after, when a Brooklyn Park police officer arrived.

In Brooklyn Park police body camera video shared with MPR News, a police officer approaches the scene and spots an ICE agent.

“We have ICE here. I think they’re waiting for him to come out of the garage,” the officer is heard on video saying. The officer then steps back, distancing himself from where the ICE agent is waiting.

Ninety seconds later, Amundson and Ziemian pulled up next to the officer, questioning why the officer was at the scene. Since the couple were not the original 911 callers, the officer declined to reveal why she was called to the scene. Amundson asks if ICE has contacted the police about them.

The officer is heard saying in the video: “Not you, you’re not in trouble.”

Amundson then poses a question that many members of the public have asked: “If ICE shows up at my house because my neighbors are inside my house, can I call you?”

The agent explains that federal law enforcement is separate from local law enforcement. In Brooklyn Park Websitethe Immigration FAQ states to call 911 if a resident witnesses illegal activity or to check if a search warrant is valid.

While Amundson and Zimian are talking with the officer, an ICE agent’s car approaches them with its headlights flashing. Women take it as a signal to get out of the way. But when they come forward to do so, they are surrounded, ordered out of their cars, and arrested.

“Despite warnings, the women again attempted to obstruct the operation, disobeyed law enforcement orders and ignored warnings, leading to their arrest,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

But dash cam video shows the women trying to leave the scene when an ICE vehicle appears.

The Brooklyn Park officer steps back when ICE arrives, but remains at the scene.

When she spoke to a second local officer, she said, “I didn’t know what to do. I was going to leave because, you know, but there’s also our community.”

Brooklyn Park police declined to be interviewed but shared in a statement that officers were present when ICE agents stopped the vehicle and arrested its occupants, but were not involved in the arrest.

Medical emergency

Amundson and Zimian were held in an ICE vehicle for only a few minutes when the medical emergency occurred.

The ICE agent in the front passenger seat said he wasn’t feeling well and then started convulsing.

Amundson and Ziemian immediately realized that there was an emergency.

“It was very clear that we were the only ones in the car who had any medical training at all,” said Amundson, a kindergarten teacher who had some medical training when she served on her school’s emergency board. According to the Department of Homeland Security, ICE agents are trained in the basics of CPR.

Amundson said she urged the ICE agent to stop and call 911, and then the two jumped into action. They say they were taken out of handcuffs. Amundson went to the passenger side and placed the client in the recovery position.

“In order to do that, I had to take his weapon that was on his hip and move it toward the front of his body,” Amundson said. “No one ever stopped me from touching that weapon.”

Amundson said she asked him his name and told him he would be okay and that she would stay with him until emergency services arrived. Zimian looked in the back of the ICE vehicle and found something she could put under the agent’s head to support him.

Amundson and Zemian look at the situation, shocked at how much freedom they have.

“I’m standing there with an incapacitated ICE agent, his service weapon, and an empty vehicle, and they’re worried about emptying another vehicle to put us in, to take us to Whipple,” Amundson said.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the two women “lied to law enforcement that they were nurses.” The agency also says the women remained secured in the vehicle and that agents stopped to provide assistance.

Amundson and Zimian were taken to the Whipple Federal Building in another vehicle when emergency services arrived. The women asked if they could contact their lawyers. ICE agents told them they weren’t sure if they would be allowed. But then they reconsidered.

“He sat for a second talking about it, and then he said, ‘Because you saved one of our guys, we’re going to let you make one phone call,'” Amundson said.

When Zemian reflects on what happened, she draws a comparison to the compassion they showed to an ICE agent having an epileptic seizure, which she feels the ICE agent does not show to the public.

“We would like everyone to see everyone as human beings, and that’s not what we see with a lot of people.”

The women were issued a citation by the Department of Homeland Security.

Since the arrest, Zimian said she has continued to patrol her neighborhood, but Amundson now stays closer to home on her street. She’s supporting her middle school neighbor, who has now stopped riding the bus and opted for e-learning.