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The arrest of Ringstrom became the latest detention of one of thousands of local activists for violating Title 18, Section 111 of the U.S. Code, a catch-all charge for anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes” with a federal officer conducting official duties. The statute can be charged as a felony or misdemeanor. As a felony, it carries up to 20 years in prison, but penalties beyond eight years are reserved for people who use “a deadly or dangerous weapon” or cause an injury.

A Reuters review of federal court records found that the Trump administration has prosecuted at least 655 people under that charge across the U.S. since a series of city-focused immigration crackdowns began last summer. That’s more than double the prosecutions during the same period in 2024-2025, according to a review of publicly available criminal filings in Westlaw, a legal research database owned by Thomson Reuters.

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ICE has been tracking the names of protesters in an internal database for several months, according to two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operations.

The government database contains names, photos, actions that provoked suspicion, locations and license plates, the officials said, adding that the effort was intended to spot patterns that could lead to charges.

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While new internal ICE guidance, reported by Reuters in late January, instructed officers not to engage with protesters, the encounters have not stopped.

Two videos in recent weeks verified by Reuters showed ICE officers drawing their weapons as they approached vehicles that allegedly had been following them.

South of Minneapolis on January 29, the same day Ringstrom was arrested, federal immigration officers abruptly swerved, stopped their vehicle and approached a woman driving behind them with guns drawn, according to dashcam footage from her vehicle first reported by Minnesota Public Radio and verified by Reuters.

McLaughlin said ICE officers were attempting to arrest a criminal offender when the woman began “stalking and obstructing” them, leading the officers to try to arrest her.

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Earlier in January, two friends – Brandon Siguenza and Patty O’Keefe – who were following an ICE vehicle in Minneapolis said officers fired pepper spray into their car, smashed their car window and detained them for eight hours.

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The post ICE Is Cracking Down on People Who Follow Them in Their Cars appeared first on American Renaissance.