Minnesota sues to block Trump’s immigration crackdown enforcement intensifies : NPR
Federal immigration agents get into a car as they prepare to deploy tear gas during a protest Monday in Minneapolis.
John Locher/AP
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John Locher/AP
MINNEAPOLIS – State officials are suing the Trump administration over the widespread immigration operation taking place in the Minneapolis area.
The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, comes days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Macklin Good, 37, in her car as she blocked the road.
State Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference that federal agents stopped peaceful bystanders, arrested U.S. citizens and fired chemical irritants at protesters and others exercising their First Amendment rights, including outside a local high school. The lawsuit calls on the Trump administration to end the state’s immigration crackdown.
“Thousands of armed, masked DHS agents stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids and make dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests at sensitive public locations, including schools and hospitals, all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement,” the lawsuit states. The complaint also alleges that immigration officers engaged in racial profiling.
In a statement, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin accused Ellison of “prioritizing politics over public safety” and called allegations of racial profiling false, saying, “Law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests, as protected by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and uphold the law, no matter who your mayor, governor or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said. “That’s what the Trump administration is doing; we have the Constitution on our side on this, and we look forward to proving it in court.”
There are more than 2,000 federal immigration agents in Minnesota, and that number is expected to grow.
On Monday, an NPR reporter witnessed several instances where immigration agents visited Minneapolis and questioned people about their immigration status. Some took place in big box store parking lots.
“Do you have a green card? Do you have it with you?”
Those were some of the questions federal immigration agents asked Joel Keleekai as he charged his Tesla in a parking lot.
It’s unclear why Border Patrol agents chose to question Keleekai and other drivers who were also charging their vehicles. All were people of color. All were able to prove they were legally in the United States after submitting documents.
Keleekai, who is a permanent resident of the United States, told NPR he knew this could happen given the number of immigration agents in the state and the amount of time he spends driving each day.
“We don’t want this to escalate. As you see, ICE is going around and people are getting killed,” he said. “We just have to do our best here to make sure we live to see tomorrow.”
In a statement, DHS’s McLaughlin said: “ICE does not arrest people at random or conduct operations without specific objectives. Federal law enforcement also does not execute operations without following proper procedure, such as obtaining warrants when necessary. »
These tactics are very unusual. In the past, immigration enforcement agencies focused on targeted operations. But the Trump administration appears to have changed tactics and, in Minnesota, has become even more aggressive in its crackdown on immigration.
Vice President JD Vance said at a press conference Recently, immigration agents have also been going door to door trying to track down undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration’s efforts are drawing strong reactions from local public officials and Minneapolis residents.
Residents organize into group chats and follow immigration agents, honking their horns and making noise, alerting neighbors of the ICE presence and migrants of their rights.
In another incident witnessed by an NPR reporter, a man on his way to work was briefly detained and questioned about his legal status.
The man asked NPR to identify him by his initials MA because he fears for his safety if he speaks to the media. He said he was born in Somalia, but was a U.S. citizen. He was released by immigration officials.
“I know my rights here – I’m a U.S. citizen, I’m legal here, I’ve been here over 25 years,” MA said.
Federal immigration agents are questioning a man Monday in Minneapolis. The man asked NPR to identify him by his initials, MA, because he fears for his safety if he speaks to the media. A passerby films the incident on his cell phone. After questioning, the Somali-born American citizen was later released by immigration officials.
Ben Hovland/MPR News
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Ben Hovland/MPR News
Things seemed chaotic Monday in the Minneapolis area. Immigration officers could be seen in many locations driving around in unmarked vehicles.
A particularly tense exchange occurred Monday afternoon in south Minneapolis. Immigration officers in a vehicle crashed into the back of a resident’s car.
An NPR reporter was on scene shortly after the incident and saw damage to the left rear side of the car.
The driver, Christian Molina, told NPR that he and his wife Lorena, both U.S. citizens, were driving separate cars on their way to drop one off at a mechanic when he saw immigration agents interacting with another person.
Molina said he looked at them before they started chasing him.
“They have no reason to arrest me, they are not police,” Molina said in Spanish.
After federal agents rushed his vehicle, Molina said the agents kept asking him questions about his immigration status. He refused to give them identification; Molina told federal agents he would only give up his driver’s license if Minneapolis police officers showed up.
Molina said federal agents left after checking his license plate and confirming his identity.
Lorena, the woman, said she was scared.
“I felt like I needed to talk to the police and say, ‘Hey, please ignore what he says, let him live!'” she said.
Christian Molina said he is not afraid of immigration agents.
“They are abusing their power,” Molina said.
Illinois and the city of Chicago also filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration over its immigration enforcement actions. Chicago officials and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
“The Trump administration has repeatedly violated the law and undermined public trust,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a press release about the lawsuit. “These actions were not only illegal; they were cruel, inflicting needless fear and harm on our communities. »
That lawsuit alleges that federal immigration agents question residents about their citizenship status without reason to believe they are in the United States illegally, that they “make civil arrests without warrants and without probable cause, and that they deploy tear gas and other harmful chemicals without warning against people who do not resist,” the city’s press release states.
