MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Minnesota’s attorney general has joined the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, seeking to remove federal immigration agents from the state following the fatal shooting of Renee Good.
According to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, the lawsuit cites the “unlawful deployment of thousands of armed, masked, and poorly trained federal agents” who have been “targeting … Minnesota for its diversity” and “violat[ing] … the Constitution.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told NBC News that the scale of the deployment is “wildly disproportionate,” saying that in some cases there were as many as “50 agents arresting one person.”
Frey added that the federal presence has had a chilling effect across the city, saying that “schools have closed. People are afraid to go to work, shop, or seek medical care.”
Referring to reports of “warrantless arrests” and the “detention of U.S. citizens based on race and accent,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said the surge amounts to a “federal invasion of the Twin Cities and the State of Minnesota.”
Because “this surge has made [them] less safe,” the lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order alleging violations of the First and Tenth Amendments, the Equal Sovereignty Principle, and the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
The restraining order is intended “to curb U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities,” according to the Pioneer Press, as interactions between federal agents and the public continue to escalate.
More than 2,000 people have been arrested since December, the paper reported, with many of those “stopped, questioned, or detained appear[ing] to have no serious criminal history.”
NBC News reported that St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her told reporters she is carrying her passport and identification at all times, saying that she “do[esn’t] know when [she’s] going to be detained.”
According to the Pioneer Press, protesters and members of the public “have demanded accountability” for what they describe as “heavy-handed or blatantly illegal tactics,” including the fatal shooting of Good.
The paper reported that Good was “shot in the face while attempting to drive away.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem disputed that account, NBC News reported, describing Good as a terrorist who “weaponized” her vehicle against an ICE officer who fatally shot her in self-defense.
NBC News noted that local and state officials have rejected that characterization, saying Good, 37, was only trying to leave the scene.
As outlined in the Pioneer Press, the shooting and the lawsuit follow weeks of heightened federal agent activity around the Twin Cities, which intensified with a planned 30-day surge of ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Ellison said Minnesota’s undocumented immigrant population stands at 1.5%, far below that of Republican-led states such as Florida, Utah and Texas, yet those states have not experienced similar surges in immigration enforcement, according to the Pioneer Press.
Frey added that “if the goal were simply to look for people who were undocumented, Minnesota and Minneapolis is not where you would go.”
The Minnesota House GOP speaker criticized the lawsuit as “a waste of resources,” arguing that state leaders should work with the federal government to target and arrest criminal undocumented immigrants rather than “wasting state resources on a lawsuit that seeks to override the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration law,” according to the Pioneer Press.
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy took the opposite view, telling the Pioneer Press that she “strongly support[s] the action” to get federal agents out of the state.
Murphy cited “countless violations of civil liberties and a dangerous disruption of daily life,” concluding, “no one is safer because of this, and our neighbor Renee Good is dead … ICE can’t leave our state soon enough.”
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