Ice Facility
Paul Goyette from Chicago, USA, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

A heated encounter in Minneapolis has ignited fresh outrage after a Somali man told the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent to arrest Melania Trump instead, invoking the First Lady's immigrant past and the Filipina wife of ICE officer Jonathan Ross, the agent who fatally shot Renée Nicole Good earlier this month.

The tense exchange, captured on video and now circulating widely online, has become a lightning rod in the national immigration debate.

Coming amid protests over Good's killing and growing scrutiny of ICE tactics, the moment crystallised accusations of hypocrisy, selective enforcement and unchecked power.

As demonstrators rally across US cities, the confrontation underscores a deeper public question: who immigration laws are truly enforced against, and who remains beyond their reach.

Man Wants ICE to Arrest Immigrants in the White House

During the encounter, the Somali man criticised the entire ICE operation by saying that if they were 'looking for an immigrant', she's in the White House, referring to First Lady Melania Trump. This comment was aimed at Melania's own history as an immigrant before she became US President Donald Trump's wife.

Comments in the post support the Somali man, saying 'And that's the God-given truth. You're looking for fraud? Start with the White House....' Others suggest ICE officers begin with political leaders who themselves immigrated, like Elon Musk, rather than naturalised civilians.

Others also commented on the agents' decision to mask up, calling them 'a bunch of pathetic cowards' because they allegedly cover their faces and operate in large, armed groups.

In the video, the ICE officer didn't respond to the Somali man's statements 'because of the noise'. Social media users quickly added that if an individual cannot hear questions 'based on all the noise', it should be the same for people being asked about identification or citizenship status.

Is Melania Trump an Immigrant?

Melania Trump, the First Lady of the United States, is an immigrant who was born in Slovenia, then part of the former Yugoslavia. She began modelling as a teenager in Europe and moved to New York in 1996 to further her career. After living and working in the United States for several years, she became a naturalised US citizen in 2006 — meaning she was not a US-born citizen but earned citizenship through the naturalisation process. During her time as First Lady and previously in the early 2000s, she has occasionally spoken about her journey from Slovenia to the US.

Everything We Know About Jonathan Ross's Filipina Wife

In Ross's case, multiple reports state that his wife is of Filipino heritage and is now a US citizen. According to interviews with Ross's father, she became a naturalised American citizen after immigrating from the Philippines.

Jonathan Ross
ICE Officer Jonathan Ross with wife Patrixia Ross Facebook/Pierce Forsythe

The couple married in August 2012, and she holds US citizenship, though the exact details of when she entered the country or her immigration history have not been publicly confirmed by official records.

While both Melania and Ross's wife are immigrants who later became US citizens, their experiences are very different. The first lady immigrated to the US voluntarily, primarily for career opportunities in modelling. Meanwhile, the ICE shooter's Filipina wife became a US citizen after marrying Ross, who was already in the border patrol at the time.

This heated exchange is one of several cases where activists and community members took to the streets of their states to chant 'ICE out for good' and demand that ICE be held responsible for what many see as an unjustified use of lethal force. At large demonstrations in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities, participants carried signs and memorials for Good while calling attention to the need to cease excessive force against civilians.