Legal battles over immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota intensify

MINNEAPOLIS– While confrontations with federal agents over their massive immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota showed no signs of stopping Wednesday, legal battles over that push and the local response were also intensifying.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday subpoenaed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office and five other state officials to appear before the grand jury as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or interfered with law enforcement during a massive immigration operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul zone, said a person familiar with the matter.

The subpoenas, which seek records, were also sent to the offices of Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, the person said.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The subpoenas came a day after the government urged a judge to reject efforts to end the wave of immigration enforcement that has rocked Minneapolis and St. Paul for weeks.

The Justice Department called the state’s lawsuit filed shortly after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration agent “legally frivolous.” Ellison said the government was violating free speech and other constitutional rights.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, is expected to travel to Minneapolis on Thursday for a roundtable discussion with local leaders and community members, according to sources familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip had not yet been officially announced.

The subpoenas are linked to an investigation into whether Minnesota officials obstructed enforcement of federal immigration laws through public statements they made, two people familiar with the matter said Friday. They then said it was a potential violation of a conspiracy law.

In a subpoena issued by Frey’s office, the long list of required documents includes “any record purporting to show a refusal to assist immigration officials.”

Frey said, “We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used for political purposes or to suppress local voices they disagree with. »

The governor’s office referred reporters to a statement made earlier Tuesday in which Walz said the Trump administration was not seeking justice, but was only creating distractions.

Greg Bovino of the U.S. Border Patrol, which commanded the Trump administration’s big-city immigration crackdown, said more than 10,000 people in the United States have been arrested illegally in Minnesota over the past year, including 3,000 “among the most dangerous offenders” in the past six weeks during Operation Metro Surge.

Julia Decker, policy director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, expressed frustration that advocates have no way of knowing whether arrest figures and descriptions of people in government custody are accurate.

Good, 37, was killed Jan. 7 while moving her vehicle, which was blocking a Minneapolis street where ICE agents were operating. Trump administration officials say Officer Jonathan Ross shot him in self-defense, although videos of the encounter show the Honda Pilot slowly turning away from him.

Since then, the public has repeatedly clashed with agents, whistling and shouting insults at ICE and the Border Patrol. They in turn used tear gas and chemical irritants against the demonstrators. Bystanders recorded video of police using a battering ram to enter a house, smashing vehicle windows and dragging people out of cars.

Bovino defended his “troops” and said their actions were “legal, ethical and moral.”

A Minnesota church targeted by an anti-ICE protest Sunday denounced it as illegal, while one of the protest leaders called for the resignation of a church leader who works in a local ICE office. About three dozen people entered St. Paul’s Cities Church, some walking up to the pulpit.

“Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus – or any other act of worship – is not protected by either the Christian Scriptures or the laws of this nation,” St. Paul’s Cities Church said Tuesday in a statement shared by its pastor, Jonathan Parnell.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the protesters “agitators” in an article on X and said “arrests are coming.”

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a local lawyer and activist, called on another pastor who works at ICE to resign from the church, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.” ___

Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Sarah Raza, Jack Brook and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Ali Swenson in Washington contributed.