Protesters hold signs as they march from Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent, calling on federal authorities to leave the city, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 10, 2026. (Octavio Jones – AFP / Getty Images)
By Sean Hustedde January 20, 2026 at 3:30am
Protesters surrounded a group of software engineers having lunch in a Minneapolis restaurant because they purportedly looked like Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Alpha News reported.
The engineers, who were all white men wearing sweatshirts and jackets, were eating lunch when one of them received a message from an anti-ICE Signal chat he participated in, stating that there were ICE agents in the restaurant where they were eating, according to Alpha News.
Within 15 minutes, anti-ICE protesters began surrounding the restaurant, yelling and blowing whistles as the men attempted to exit from the restaurant, the outlet reported.
Alpha News interviewed one of the engineers, identified only as Lee, and obtained video footage of the incident.
“Who do you work with here?” said a protester in the video.
“We do custom apps for a whole bunch of companies around Minnesota and the country, one of the men responded.
In the video, one of the men asked the crowd, “Do I look like an ICE agent?”
One of the protesters responded, “Yeah, you look like … [an] ICE agent.”
The man tried to tell the protesters he is also against ICE but he was only met with protesters yelling “If you’re not with us then you’re against us!” and “Get out of our… city!”
Lee told Alpha News one of his friends was shocked by the messages claiming that their group was ICE because Lee’s friend was vocally anti-ICE and a member of the Signal chat.
According to Lee, the person who had incorrectly “confirmed” the group of cashiers to be ICE was the restaurant’s owner, who had been working the cash register, the outlet reported.
Rampant protests against ICE have increased throughout the U.S., after an ICE officer on Jan. 7 fatally shot Renee Good, who had accelerated her vehicle in his direction.
A video went viral on X Friday, showing anti-ICE activists misidentifying a man as an ICE agent because he was driving a vehicle that resembled those often used by the agency.
In response to the intensifying protests, the Pentagon reportedly ordered roughly 1,500 active-duty soldiers to stand by and prepare for potential deployment in Minneapolis.
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