Mubashir, a 20-year-old Somali American citizen, said he was taking his lunch break in Minneapolis when a federal agent abruptly tackled him.

“I told him, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen, what is going on?’ He didn’t seem to care,” Mubashir, who declined to share his last name for safety reasons, recalled during a Wednesday press conference alongside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

“What you very clearly saw in that video was Mubashir, an American citizen, someone who has been here nearly his entire life, tackled, handcuffed, taken into custody … for simply walking down the street and looking like he’s Somali,” Frey said during Wednesday’s briefing.

Mubashir, 20, speaks out about his experience getting violently arrested by federal agents.

City of Minneapolis

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, claimed that an agent confronted Mubashir because he fled from them, something he denied.

“I didn’t even see him first. All I did was turn around. When I seen a black-topped car pull up, I just turned around to go back inside the office,” Mubashir said. “I could seen him behind me just running towards me. He pushes me inside the restaurant. I thought it was a random person assaulting me or kidnapping me.”

Mubashir said the agent didn’t tell him to stop or say that he was with ICE.

“Having reasonable suspicion — as protected under the U.S. Constitution —officers gave chase and caught up with the individual, who violently resisted officers and refused to answer questions,” McLaughlin claimed. “A large crowd of agitators descended and began to threaten the officers. For their safety, they temporarily detained the individual to safely finish asking their questions. Once officers finished their questioning, he was promptly released.”

McLaughlin also suggested that allegations that DHS engages in racial profiling are “categorically FALSE.”

Mubashir says he repeatedly offered the federal agents multiple ways to verify his citizenship, including sharing a photo of his passport and providing his name and date of birth, but they declined to consider them.

Instead, they asked to photograph and scan his face, which he refused to do. They also attempted to take his fingerprints, but were unable to do so because their devices were malfunctioning, he said.

Eventually, the agents drove him to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling.

Upon arrival at the facility, Mubashir says he was denied both water and medical care. The agents put his feet in shackles and detained him before they finally verified his citizenship and released him to his parents, he said.

“What happened to me cannot stay quiet,” Mubashir said. “What happened to me was unjust, uncalled for.”

Mubashir said he spoke out to raise awareness of DHS’s abuses and questioned how agents were treating people when there were no cameras to capture their actions.

A growing number of U.S. citizens have reported being detained by federal agents as the administration has ramped up its crackdown. Susan Tincher, a 55-year-old U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, says she was also arrested Tuesday after she confronted and observed ICE agents apprehending her neighbors. According to an October ProPublica report, immigration agents have held more than 170 U.S. citizens this past year, including multiple who reported being subject to violence during their arrests.