Augsburg University — along with several Minnesota leaders and local media outlets — is offering a dramatically different account than the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about what transpired during the weekend arrest of a “criminal illegal alien” and “registered sex offender” by ICE agents in a campus parking lot.
Alpha News spoke exclusively with an Augsburg Department of Public Safety officer who was on scene and witnessed firsthand what took place — saying it was Augsburg staff, not the ICE agents, who escalated the situation.
NEW: DHS says the person arrested by ICE agents at Augsburg University over the weekend is Jesus Saucedo-Portillo.
DHS says he’s a registered sex offender and that a university administrator and campus security attempted to obstruct the arrest. pic.twitter.com/NrLxveZxiu
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) December 9, 2025
Augsburg’s statement
In a statement posted on its website, Augsburg said the campus was “deeply shaken” by what it described as aggressive tactics by ICE agents.
The university wrote: “Without producing a warrant, an armed, masked group of ICE agents targeted an undergraduate student and confronted members of our community directly outside a residence hall. They aimed weapons at witnesses that included staff and students while many more students watched from their windows. These tactics, with the implicit threat of violence, are unacceptable, dangerous, and profoundly disturbing.”
DHS’ statement
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrested individual was Jesus Saucedo-Portillo, calling him “a criminal illegal alien,” a registered sex offender, and someone with a prior DWI arrest.
In its official statement, DHS said: “A university Administrator and campus security attempted to obstruct the arrest. Our officers told the school Administrator and campus security that ICE had a warrant for the illegal alien’s arrest. The school Administrator told ICE officers they were violating university policies. Our officers informed them that federal law supersedes any University policy and that if campus security would not stop blocking the law enforcement vehicle from exiting, they would be obstructing justice,” the statement read.
“The school administrator continued her efforts to block the vehicle from leaving and ordered campus security to stand in front of the vehicle. Our officers followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to clear the area and successfully arrested this criminal illegal alien,” the statement concluded.
What the security officer says ‘really happened’
According to the Augsburg Department of Public Safety officer who was present and spoke to Alpha News on the condition of anonymity, ICE apprehended Saucedo-Portillo in an outdoor campus parking lot.
He said security responded immediately because dispatch had been watching the ICE vehicles enter on surveillance cameras, and that two ICE officers already had Saucedo-Portillo in handcuffs when a school administrator — identified by the officer as Director of Residence Life Leah Hoover — arrived with campus security.
“She wasn’t going to let them put the person into the car,” the security officer said of Hoover. “There was a refusal to do that. She said, ‘We’re not getting out of the way. We’re not going to cooperate.’”
The officer said the agents “showed identification badges that showed that they were federal officers,” but Hoover immediately began demanding a warrant and insisting they could not take the student, he said.
He said Hoover instructed campus security to block ICE — something he said directly violates policy.
“Our job is never to fight law enforcement, ever,” he said. “They were being directed by someone who didn’t have the right to direct them to do that.”
Second ICE unit arrives
He says that’s when a second ICE vehicle arrived and a supervisor approached Hoover with documents.
“He had a folder and some paperwork that he brought over. It was an ICE warrant,” the officer recalled.
However, Hoover still refused to allow the agents to leave with Saucedo-Portillo, according to the officer.
The officer said the situation was also escalating because a “masked man” who arrived with Hoover was shouting profanities at the ICE officers throughout the encounter.
At the time, the security officer said he didn’t know who the man was but immediately sensed he would escalate the situation.
“Who is this guy? He’s gonna be a problem. Do I have to get rid of him?” he said he asked Hoover, who reportedly replied: “Oh, it’s fine. That’s my husband.”
“He’s not staff, he’s not a student,” the officer said. “But for some reason, he came with and was just a complete agitator.”
The officer said Hoover’s husband shouted profanities at the ICE officers, calling them “Nazis” and “fascists.”
Meanwhile, he said Hoover continued standing in front of the ICE vehicle and directing campus security not to move.
The security officer said ICE repeatedly ordered everyone to back up so the agents could leave, but Hoover and her husband refused. He said that resistance is what triggered the arrival of a third ICE team.
Third ICE unit arrives
“And then the third round of people came, and that’s when they came out with their guns and they were pushed out of the way then. They weren’t asking anymore,” the officer said.
The officer said ICE was left with no choice but to push through with weapons drawn to complete the arrest.
“They should have been allowed to leave, and they had the right to leave,” he said, adding that he was ashamed of how Augsburg staff handled the situation. “It’s not professional, and … part of me was embarrassed to be there. To see stuff like that.”
He stated that the campus atmosphere afterward — treating the confrontation as heroic — made it worse.
“Once everybody left … there was this feeling around campus that admin and security, we were heroes. We stood up to the feds, we protected this student. But, in my mind, we didn’t protect anyone. We endangered people by allowing this to escalate.”
Alpha News reached out to Augsburg University and to Hoover for comment. The university informed Alpha News that Hoover is on vacation until next week and could not be reached. According to Hoover’s LinkedIn page, she has been the director of residence life at Augsburg since March 2023.
Augsburg’s director of public relations and internal communication did not respond to Alpha News’ repeated inquires.
The post EXCLUSIVE: University admin, not ICE, escalated arrest of illegal alien, says Augsburg security officer appeared first on Alpha News MN.