Dodge County woman describes ICE encounter caught on video

When Olivia Jensen heard federal immigration officials were in Rochester last Wednesday, she decided to take a drive to see what was going on. 

As she entered northwest Rochester, she spotted a dark gray Durango following a woman in another vehicle; the driver would later be identified as Mary Thammavong. 

Jensen followed the Durango as the ICE agents followed Thammavong  into the Walmart parking lot. 

The agents and Jensen would end up getting into a verbal confrontation, with Jensen remaining in her vehicle as they walked around it. The sight has become a normal scene when observers and federal immigration enforcement agents end up at the same location. 

Horns were honking. Words were exchanged. According to Jensen, there were other people in the parking lot who honked horns and blew whistles as well. 

According to Jensen, the agents left; she and others followed. 

“I kept my distance….they'd go left around the block, and I'd go right and meet them back at a stop sign, and you could tell they were p****,” Jensen said. 

Eventually, they moved out of Rochester. Jensen figured they’d be heading toward her address. 

“I had a gut feeling,” Jensen recalled. “I was like, oh…I thought they were gonna go to my house in Hayfield because I knew they ran my plates.”

Jensen was right: The Durango was headed to Dodge County. But instead of Hayfield, they wound up in Claremont instead.

Visit to parents’ house 

Agents drove more than 30 miles from Rochester to Claremont. 

When they pulled into Claremont, Jensen realized where they were going: her parents’ house. 

Jensen said she isn’t close to her parents, without going into details. 

“I haven't spoken to them in like three years, so I thought it was just ironically funny that that's where they pulled up,” Jensen said. 

In a video posted to Facebook and Tik Tok, which has since gone viral — picked up by right wing news organizations such as the Daily Caller – Jensen and the same three agents from the Walmart parking lot continued to exchange words. 

The interaction begins with an agent with the initials ERO on a law enforcement vest saying he wouldn’t be surprised if her parents paid all her bills. 

“We just wanted to make sure you got home,” the agent said. 

Jensen is then heard telling the agent that she didn’t live in the house. 

“OK, Olivia, we appreciate it,” the agent responds. 

The first agent walks back to the ICE vehicle and is seen talking to other agents. 

A second agent then walks up to Jensen’s car. Jensen is heard calling him a “race traitor.”

“You know we were trying to get a child molester, right?” the agent said. 

Jensen argued they weren’t. 

The original agent comes back over to Jensen’s vehicle and says, “How would you know?”

Jensen responds by saying they were talking to a woman. 

“Then his plate came back as murder,” the second agent said. 

As the second agent was making the allegations, the first agent spoke at the same time, defending his colleague.

He told Jensen it was racist, especially as a white woman, to call someone a race traitor.

“Just so you know, this isn’t a good look for you,” the first agent said. 

Jensen responded: “(Do) you think I care about my look?”

The agent replied, “Oh, no. No, trust me, it is evident (by) how you look that you don’t care.”

The agent told Jensen if she impeded, she would be arrested. 

The DCI has reached out to ICE about the video and the agents’ allegations and has not received a response. 

Visit to courthouse 

Following the conclusion of the video, according to Jensen, agents spent an additional 20-plus minutes outside her parents’ home. 

Eventually they left, and Jensen assumed they were going back to Rochester, so she followed them on Highway 14.

Instead of returning to Rochester, the agents exited the highway at Kasson. Jensen said she knew at that point, they were likely going to the Dodge County courthouse in Mantorville.

According to Jensen, the agents drove around the parking lot three times, and she drove around as well. 

Eventually, two agents got out of the vehicle and entered the courthouse. One of them stayed in the car, according to Jensen. 

“I was like, OK, this is weird,” Jensen recalled. “So I went and parked on the street, right in front of the courthouse, so I could see them… through the cars.”

According to Jensen, a Dodge County Sheriff’s Office deputy came out of the courthouse, got into a squad car and circled the lot twice.

The deputy saw Jensen, who was then parked beside the agents’ Durango. 

Jensen said one of the agents got out of the car and started showing the deputy what she believed to be pictures on his phone. 

It is unclear why the federal officers visited the courthouse; Jensen said she has not been contacted by any members of law enforcement since the incident. 

The DCI contacted Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose for this story and asked the following:

Do you know why the (federal agents) were in Mantorville, specifically at the courthouse?

Are there any procedures in place if ICE agents come to the courthouse? 

Were you provided notice that they were coming?

The DCI also asked for any body cam or squad camera video from the incident. 

“None of the information you are requesting is public, other than an ICE Courthouse Policy, which we don’t have, and squad video if there were any – which there isn’t,” Rose wrote.

“We treat ICE just like any other law enforcement agency and any communications with them or information on their purpose for being here is not public data and certainly not something we are going to share with the media/public.”

In response to a follow-up email from DCI, Rose referred the DCI to ICE. 

ICE has not responded to an inquiry for this story. 

“You are asking me questions about what ICE was doing yesterday - we aren’t ICE. You and I have already been through this,” Rose wrote. “If you have questions about what they are doing you should be calling ICE. As I’ve already told you regarding any communication our agency has with ICE, when they are working - that communication isn’t public data and not something I would share with the media.”

The DCI followed up with two more questions asking for confirmation or denial of Jensen’s claim that a deputy spoke with ICE agents. Rose did not respond.

Rose previously told the DCI that ICE has not been contacting/working well with the DCSO during Operation Metro Surge.

He declined to say if that relationship had changed.

Tough relationship

Last month, he said things had changed between the two agencies.

“Prior to the current ICE operations, our local ICE agents have always been very helpful and have always communicated well with our office,” Rose said. “During these current ICE operations with agents deploying out of the metro, there has been no communication with our office.”

He said at the time that they were “aware that there are some local residents who have been detained and removed by ICE here in Dodge County.

“We've only found out from family and friends of the detainee(s) after the incident, not from ICE,” Rose wrote last month. 

The current operation has left local law enforcement agencies in the dark, he said. 

“Unfortunately, we don't have access to data to verify the legitimacy of their actions, to verify federal warrants or detainers, or to determine why these residents were targeted and detained,” he wrote. 

The lack of cooperation is something local officials aren’t used to, Rose continued. “Some of the tactics being used during these ICE operations and the failure and refusal to communicate with our office is all very concerning,” he said. 

He also said the Dodge County Sheriff's Office only communicates with ICE “regarding someone’s immigration status if the person is wanted for crimes (other than being undocumented) and/or is actively committing serious crimes against anyone within our communities.

“We are absolutely concerned about how their tactics and actions reflect on our office and local law enforcement. We've worked hard to try and build trust within our minority communities,” Rose wrote. “This trust is important to ensure our local residents are comfortable and willing to come to us when crimes occur and/or when they fall victim to crimes. We don't enforce immigration or federal laws. If you are a victim, or you want to report a crime - we don't care if you're documented or not. Our responsibility is to you and your family's safety, not your immigration status.” 

Concerns about what happens if iCE shows up to a county owned building has previously been addressed. 

Staff expresses concerns 

In an email sent in January from Dodge County Administrator Jim Elmquist and obtained by the DCI via a standard public data request, there were questions raised about county procedures regarding ICE. 

“It has been brought to our attention that there have been employee questions regarding what to do if ICE arrives in the course of business at Dodge County,” Elmquist wrote. 

Elmquist explained that department heads had a discussion about it and shared some guidance for staff: 

• ICE has access to public spaces, such as the roadway in front of the building and lobby areas. 
• Alternatively, they would not have access to non-public spaces. Those include anywhere only open to staff or where the public is allowed with “escort only.” 
• As you would any person you work with at Dodge County, be respectful.
• Do not interfere with ICE if faced with a situation in a public space.
• Do not place yourself or a co-worker in a harmful situation.  
• Please ensure you are wearing your work badge, especially if you’re out in public in the course of business.
• If possible, the Sheriff’s Office would like a call to their non-emergency number (507-635-6200) if there is an ICE presence in the building or a worker is approached by ICE in public during the course of business.  
• If you have questions, please contact your Department Head or Administration in any situation. 

How it all started

According to Thammavong, she began recording agents outside a bus stop in her neighborhood, which led to them following her. 

The agents followed her around in circles for 10 to 15 minutes, Thammavong said, before she went to Walmart.

There, agents were seen on video asking for her ID, and she complied. 

Toward the end of the video, an agent is seen asking Thammavong if her husband was at work. When she answered no, they asked where he worked. She said, “Nowhere.”

The agent made it clear they hadn’t been looking for him before they talked with her. 

“He wasn’t even on our radar…but you just aided in your husband’s deportation,” the agent said. 

Thammavong then asked if she was under arrest. 

“No, but your husband is,” the agent said.

According to Thammavong, her husband has had legal status in the United States since 1989. 

In 1993, at age 19, he was charged with attempted murder — and acquitted — but was convicted of second-degree assault, according to public court records. 

He served time in prison and was released in 1999.

Since 2008, he has been required to do check-ins twice a year at the Whipple Federal Building, where he provides them with any new information, such as changes in address and phone number, according toThammavong. 

His last check-in was in December, she said.