ICE agents arrested award-winning journalist Georgia Fort at her home for filming a January 18 demonstration at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota where a senior ICE official works as a pastor. Fort recalled her arrest to Democracy Now:
My home was surrounded by about two dozen federal agents, including agents from DEA and HSI. I asked to see the warrant. My mother was here. My mother asked to see the warrant. They did show us an arrest warrant, which was then sent to my attorney, who verified its legitimacy. Since it was an arrest warrant, we decided that it would be safest for me to exit through the garage, so that we could lock the door to our home behind me.
And so, I surrendered. I walked out of my garage with my hands up. And I asked the agents who were there to arrest me if they knew that I was a member of the press. They said they did know that I was a member of the press. I informed them that this was a violation of my constitutional right, of the First Amendment.
And they told me, you know, “We’re just here to do our job.” And I said, “I was just doing my job, and now I’m being arrested for it.” And so, by about 6:30 a.m., they had me in cuffs in the back of the vehicle. We were headed to Whipple.
What I later learned, after I was released, is that these agents stayed outside of my home for more than two hours. And when my 17-year-old daughter felt, you know, threatened, felt scared that these agents weren’t leaving, she decided that it would be safer for her to drive to a relative’s home.
And so she loaded up her sisters, who are 7 and 8, and they went to leave, somewhere where they could go and feel safe. And these agents stopped my children on their way trying to leave because they were scared that these agents were not leaving even after two hours of me being apprehended, my husband also. He was trailing them. He drove out at the same time that they drove out.
They stopped him, questioning him, asking them if they were taking my belongings away, when they were simply trying to leave, because no one could understand, if I was arrested at 6:30 in the morning, why were all of these agents still just sitting outside of my home at 8:30, 9 a.m.
(Sources: Georgia Fort, Democracy Now)