Federal immigration agents arrest Minnesota man; family says he's in process for legal status

Months after the unprecedented immigration crackdown in the state during Operation Metro Surge, federal agents arrested a man in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on Wednesday whose family says he is going through the process to obtain legal status.

The arrest was captured on video by his daughter, Chelsea Bernal and neighbors. The altercation lasted several minutes before Jose Ruelas Viorato, 45, was taken into an unmarked black SUV. Records show he is currently detained in a Sherburne County facility after being transferred from the federal Whipple Building at Fort Snelling.

Court records show he has several parking tickets, but has not been charged or convicted of any violent crime.

In the video — shared widely online — Ruelas appears to struggle and at times resist arrest. He wraps his hand around one agent's leg as he is on the ground when the other agent tells that other officer to "strike to the face," punching Ruelas. 

Bernal described being awoken to screams around 7 a.m. 

"I was awakened to him screaming really loud this morning, and I got scared because I've never heard my dad scream that way," she said. "So I ran downstairs to my mom also yelling inside the house, and I came out and ICE agents were detaining my dad on a pole that he was holding on to for dear life."

Bernal and her brother, Andres Ruelas, are American citizens and said their father has been working through the immigration system to obtain legal status for years and that he is currently on a waiting list — and has been since 1999. WCCO could not confirm where he stands in that process as of today. 

At one point in the video, Bernal tells the agents he is "in the process of getting papers," and one of the agents replies "if you're in the process you shouldn't have any issues, right?" 

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment on the incident or an inquiry about the use-of-force policy for the agency. 

The arrest underscores a shift in the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement compared to recent years, said Ana Pottratz Acosta, an associate professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law who practiced immigration law for years. 

Under prior administrations, people with violent criminal histories and more recent arrivals were the priority, whereas people who entered without proper documents or overstayed a visa and had been living in the United States awhile were at the "bottom of the priority list."

Metro Surge yielded an unprecedented number of arrests, she said, but while that operation has ended, ICE arrests are still at higher levels than in previous years. 

"The number of people being apprehended or arrested by ICE here in Minnesota, looking at it right now or over the past three or four months compared to, let's say,  two or three years ago — it's much, much higher," she said. 

"Arrests are continuing to happen of immigrants in our communities in Minnesota. And a lot of the time, the people who are being targeted or arrested are people who are trying to go through the process the right way — attending their hearings, going to an appointment as part of the process to apply for permanent residence," she added. "So those are really kind of the general trends that we're seeing."

Bernal and Andres Ruelas received a call from their father saying that he is OK, but they didn't get many other details and are awaiting more information about what led up to the arrest. They said he had left their home to go to a nearby grocery store for breakfast and he was detained right when he got back. 

"I just think it's sad to see that ICE is getting people that aren't criminals, that aren't doing bad to this world, and they're just trying to provide for their families," Andres said.