{"id":3778,"date":"2026-01-30T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=3778"},"modified":"2026-01-30T21:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:16:12","slug":"suburban-teen-brothers-on-ice-watch-in-minneapolis-this-is-nothing-like-chicago-this-is-so-much-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=3778","title":{"rendered":"Suburban teen brothers on ICE watch in Minneapolis: ‘This is nothing like Chicago. This is so much worse.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Last Saturday, 17-year-old Ben Luhmann was behind the wheel with his 16-year-old brother Sam in the passenger seat, like they had been countless times before. As they drove through frigid Minneapolis to yet another scene where federal immigration agents had taken over the streets, their phones went off, alerting them of pepper spray being deployed.<\/p>\n

Then another alert came through. Shots fired.<\/p>\n

They pulled up to the scene, greeted by a swarm of agents, anguished neighbors and flashing lights. The brothers watched as paramedics unloaded a stretcher from an ambulance.<\/p>\n

Sam asked someone on the scene if the person who was shot had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said \u2018There were so many shots,\u2019\u201d Sam recalled. \u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know how somebody would live through that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The man was Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n

Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents<\/u><\/a> as he recorded them and then tried to help a woman who was shoved to the ground.<\/p>\n

As protesters converged on the scene the boys kept recording before eventually heading back to their Airbnb that evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a shower just because I was covered in tear gas, and then I immediately went to my phone \u2026 to watch every angle I could find\u201d Sam said. \u201cAnd I was terrified. There\u2019s so many people out here that are doing exactly what he did that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Pretti, the Luhmann brothers observe and document immigration agents\u2019 actions. They had traveled from their home in West Chicago to Minneapolis the day after an agent shot to death Renee Macklin Good on Jan. 7, not far from where Pretti was later killed.<\/p>\n

Since then, they have gathered footage of top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino<\/u><\/a> throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd, immigration agents slipping and falling on ice and an agent pepper spraying a man inches from his face while other agents pin him to the ground.<\/p>\n

While some of their clips have gone viral, the boys aren\u2019t looking for clicks on their own social media channels. Instead, they upload all of their footage to a publicly accessible Google Drive folder for anyone to use.<\/p>\n

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Ben Luhmann records U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino as federal immigration enforcement agents detain two men outside a Home Depot at 2201 Oakton St. in Evanston, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sam Luhmann records U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino as federal immigration enforcement agents detain two men outside a Home Depot at 2201 Oakton St. in Evanston, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ben Luhmann documented U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino throwing a tear gas canister during a protest in Minneapolis, Jan. 21, 2026. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Ben Luhmann documented U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino throwing a tear gas canister during a protest in Minneapolis, Jan. 21, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ben Luhmann documented federal immigration enforcement agents spraying protesters and observers with chemical agents in Minneapolis, Jan. 21, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ben Luhmann documented federal immigration enforcement agents spraying protesters and observers with chemical agents in Minneapolis, Jan. 21, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Brothers Sam and Ben Luhmann at home on Feb. 24, 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018It was just basic morals\u2019<\/h3>\n

The brothers, who were born in Minneapolis and are now home-schooled, said it was an easy decision to throw themselves into the thick of a situation that has left immigrant communities traumatized and scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just basic morals,\u201d Sam said. \u201cIt was so obviously not OK and not right \u2014 the conditions in these detention facilities, the way people were being taken on the streets and torn apart from their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

They remain gutted by federal agents\u2019 actions last fall in the Chicago area, including the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas Gonzales<\/u><\/a> at a traffic stop, and the subsequent shooting of Marimar Martinez<\/u><\/a> which left her with five bullet wounds.<\/p>\n

The boys may have different interests \u2014 Ben is drawn to music production while Sam likes to go fishing surrounded by nature \u2014 but their parents, Audrey and Andrew Luhmann, describe them as a \u201cyin and yang\u201d pair. They say Sam\u2019s commitment to integrity and rule-following coupled with Ben\u2019s innate loyalty and desire to help people make them ideal rapid responders to observe and record ICE. <\/p>\n

But they also worry about their sons\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Sam and Ben were pulled over by masked federal agents in Elgin, pressed against their car and questioned, they said.<\/p>\n

I told one of the agents, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m legally allowed to record you guys. Can you please give me my phone back? And his exact words were, \u2018Shut up,\u2019\u201d Sam remembered. \u201cSo I was scared, like they could have done anything in those moments, and no one would have known what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

They eventually got their phones back, were given a warning and were told to stop following the agents. The brothers say they\u2019re aware that their racial identity offers them a certain level of privilege and protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they see white people doing this, they know that they can\u2019t illegally disappear them,\u201d Sam said. \u201cThey\u2019ll still detain white bystanders, but they won\u2019t actually \u2026 abuse them as much as they will a brown person in their detention facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the federal government\u2019s focus shifted from Chicago to Minneapolis, the brothers figured they could use what they learned to help others in Minneapolis document ICE activity.<\/p>\n

But the show of force in Minnesota is nothing like what they saw in their home state, they say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people realize how much of an insane step up Minneapolis was, how much more violence and aggression and how many more agents doing completely illegal things was becoming so normal for this operation,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Chicago almost needs to be shaken awake\u2019<\/h3>\n

The brothers have been patrolling nearly every day since they arrived, couch surfing at the homes of relatives and family friends or staying in Airbnb rentals. They\u2019re still doing schoolwork, but it\u2019s been harder to keep up with, they said.<\/p>\n

It helps that their mom is a teacher who values the experience they\u2019re getting in Minneapolis as much as a formal education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, without meaning to, have made this be like a life test,\u201d Audrey said. \u201cI\u2019m the parent and the teacher. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, they just passed their final that I didn\u2019t plan on giving them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the large-scale invasion of Minneapolis, the brothers found a robust system of community organizing, mutual aid and residents patrolling the streets in a city that is no stranger to high-profile killings at the hands of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 \u201cshook these people awake,\u201d Ben said, sparking a wave of large-scale conversations around race, policing and how to support communities of color.<\/p>\n

The brothers, in middle school at the time, remember seeing the news as their mom changed their homeschool curriculum to focus more on Black history.<\/p>\n

\u201cEleven or 12-year-old Ben was seeing how big the protests were in Minneapolis, not the riots, but the regular peaceful protests, and I wanted to be there so bad,\u201d Ben said. \u201cI wanted to know what it was like, to be somewhere where it felt important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2026 and Ben and Sam have gotten their wish. And they said Chicago organizers can learn from what\u2019s happening in Minneapolis, if and when, more agents return.<\/p>\n

\u201cChicago almost needs to be shaken awake,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n

The boys said their experiences contradict the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s claims that they\u2019re arresting the \u201cworst of the worst.\u201d Ben recalled the screams of a child he estimated to be between five and eight years old after his dad was detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had just taken this kid\u2019s dad in front of him with [weapons] pointed at every window in the house,\u201d he said. \u201c[He] was just screaming over and over for his dad and screaming at the ICE agents, just crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Brothers Sam (left, in blue hat) and Ben Luhmann (right, in grey sweatshirt) are pushed by federal immigration enforcement agents and Illinois State Police troopers during a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Where are your boys?\u2019<\/h3>\n

The brothers debrief each day with their parents. Some calls are emotional, the boys shaken up by what they have seen, telling their parents: \u201cI don\u2019t know how we actually fight against this,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being overwhelmed when they said that, just thinking \u2018What do we do?\u2019\u201d Audrey said. \u201cMy very next thought was, \u2018The world has to know. This has to be shouted so loudly \u2014 that Chicago was terrible and this is worse.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben echoed his mother. \u201cI just \u2026think of Alex Pretti, who was trying to pull a woman back who had just been pepper sprayed in the face,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve done that, we\u2019ve both done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the day Pretti was killed, Audrey\u2019s phone pinged with a text from a friend in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are your boys?\u201d her friend asked.<\/p>\n

Audrey checked the location of the boys\u2019 phones. They were near 26th Avenue and Nicollet Street, she told her friend.<\/p>\n

Audrey then scanned the internet and found reports of a shooting near that intersection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like that moment where you feel a shock go down your spine,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that moment, my whole body started to shake because I looked at the intersection again, they were in the exact same spot. They weren\u2019t moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boys were safe, she soon learned, but it was yet another reminder that her kids were putting themselves in harm\u2019s way every day.<\/p>\n

Still, the brothers are adamant that amid all the pain, they\u2019ve also found moments of joy. The way they see it, they\u2019re helping neighbors and they\u2019re heartened by watching others do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that level of empathy and that level of care is like the peak of humanity, and the peak of who we could be as a people,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Last Saturday, 17-year-old Ben Luhmann was behind the wheel with his 16-year-old brother Sam in the passenger seat, like they had been countless times before. As they drove through frigid Minneapolis to yet another scene where federal immigration agents had taken over the streets, their phones went off, alerting them of pepper spray being deployed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-usa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}