Woman dragged from car by ICE agents in Minnesota ID’d as LGBT and racial justice activist
By
Emily Crane
Published Jan. 14, 2026, 4:24 p.m. ET
204 Comments
The screaming woman who
was filmed being pulled from her car by ICE agents in Minneapolis has been identified as a tech guru and LGBT and racial justice activist who describes herself as a “friendly neighborhood deniable asset.”
Aliya Rahman, a software engineer with a lengthy background in coding, has backed policies for police-worn body cameras and also has prior ties to multiple different advocacy groups, including a decade-long history with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Rahman was thrown into the spotlight after viral footage showed federal agents breaking her car window and yanking her out on Tuesday after she apparently blocked ICE vehicles during a protest — less than a week after Renee Nicole Good
was fatally shot nearby.
Aliya Rahman has been identified as the woman pulled from her car by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Tuesday.Getty Images
The driver was caught on camera shouting that she was “disabled” and claimed she “was just trying to get to the doctor” as multiple masked federal agents cuffed her and escorted her away in chaotic scenes.
As details surrounding the incident continued to emerge, here’s what we know so far about the activist involved:
Rahman, 43, is a “community-focused security practitioner” in Minneapolis,
according to her LinkedIn.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Rahman is a “community-focused security practitioner” in Minneapolis.AFP via Getty Images
Her career history involves a slew of roles, including a full stack developer and engineering manager, at a host of tech-tied companies.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Rahman has been based in Minneapolis. Her most recent publicly listed address had her living in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
In her X profile, Rahman describes herself as “your friendly neighborhood deniable asset.”
She was previously a fellow at the New America’s Open Technology Institute where her first project zeroed in on police body cameras and how they could be built into policy.
Rahman’s career history included multiple tech-related positions, including a full stack developer and an engineering manager.Getty Images
“Her work is informed by a background in legislative, electoral, and community organizing for racial and criminal justice campaigns, 15 years of software development for the social justice movement, and a former life as an educator and researcher working in public education and workforce development,” her
bio on the institute’s website reads.
What is her history of activism?
Rahman, a US-born citizen, moved to a newly established Bangladesh with her family shortly after the nation’s liberation war against Pakistan ended in 1971. She told
Tech for Social Justice that she was guided by the “revolutionary energy” she observed during her tumultuous childhood.
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Rahman, a US-born citizen, moved to a newly established Bangladesh with her family shortly after the nation’s liberation war against Pakistan ended in 1971.REUTERS
“I got to see a country being put together. I grew up seeing garment workers, who were almost all women, protesting on the street,” she said in the profile.
By the time she was 6 years old, Rahman knew she was “definitely different” and later identified herself as “genderqueer” — in a country where homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment.
Rahman moved back to the US for college, having determined she “probably shouldn’t stay” in Bangladesh while she grappled with her queer identity.
Rahman labeled herself as “genderqueer” in Bangladesh, a country where homosexuality is punishable by imprisionment.REUTERS
She was just starting her junior year when the 9/11 Terror Attacks rocked the country. She told the initiative that two of her cousins were killed in the Twin Towers.
She cited the attacks as “a really important moment” that pushed her ” to dig deeply into US social movements and understanding what race means” in the US, comparatively to Bangladesh.
Rahman said that as she looked around Indiana, she saw that “brown folks are used against Black people.” As she dove into a relationship with a transgender man, she found that becoming “pretty involved in organizing” was borne out of “necessity.”
“Since college, Aliya had taken part-time positions with and volunteer roles for LGBT and racial justice organizations,” read her Tech for Social Justice profile.
Two of her cousins were killed in the 9/11 Terror Attacks.Getty Images
Rahman has bounced around between different advocacy and nonprofit groups, including Center for Community Change, Equality Ohio — an LGBT advocacy group — and Code for Progress.
She’s also supported the Black Lives Matter movement and
pro-Palestine causes, according to her social media.
Rahman served as the director of movement technology at Wellstone, a Minnesota-based nonprofit “that trains the community activists and political leaders that broadly make up the progressive Left,” according to the profile.
She boasted that she changed the advocacy group’s image from that of a “nice, white people-run organization” to “mostly queer, largely immigrant and overwhelmingly femme-identified or gender nonconforming.”
She’s also supported the Black Lives Matter movement and pro-Palestine causes, according to her social media.REUTERS
Educational background
She graduated from Purdue University in Indiana with a masters in science, her LinkedIn shows.
Rahman is also a certified cybersecurity professional with a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) license.
After wrapping up her undergraduate education, Rahman spent several years teaching at public high schools on a Native American reservation in Arizona before pivoting back to her advocacy work, according to the Tech for Social Justice profile.
She graduated from Purdue University in Indiana with a masters in science, her LinkedIn shows.Getty Images
Her recent run-in with ICE
The details on Rahman’s background came to light after she was yanked from her car after the feds accused her allegedly impeding an
immigration enforcement operation on a suburban street on Tuesday.
ICE agents could be seen trying to clear the streets of screaming protestors when they shouted for the woman to keep driving.
Eventually, one agent was filmed smashing the passenger side window as another agent appeared to unlock Rahman’s side.
After wrapping up her undergraduate education, Rahman spent several years teaching at public high schools on a Native American reservation in Arizona.REUTERS
As Rahman was being pulled from the car, protesters could be heard yelling “Stop,” “That’s so f—ked up” and “All you do is hurt.”
She was quickly cuffed and the hauled away.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Rahman was charged following the ordeal.
Rahman has had several, mainly minor, brushes with the law over a decade ago, according to public records.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Rahman was charged following the ordeal.REUTERS
She pled guilty to criminal trespassing and driving under the influence charges in separate Ohio incidents and was charged with driving without insurance in Illinois, public records show.
In the DUI charge, she was also found guilty of following too close, stopping improperly at a stop sign, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, according to the records.
The Post’s efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.
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