Minnesota sued Trump administration

(Star Tribune) — Minnesota and Twin Cities officials are pushing back on what they are calling a “federal invasion” of immigration enforcement officers that have been sent to the North Star State.

On Monday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, on behalf of the state of Minnesota and alongside the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its officials, requesting the court to end the surge of immigration agents in the state and declare it unconstitutional. They also asked for a temporary restraining order.

As Minnesota streets have been flooded with officers from the DHS and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection arms in recent days, confrontations with protesters have escalated.

Tensions between locals and federal authorities reached a breaking point when ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good during a brief encounter.

“As much as they like to believe it, DHS is not above the law,” Ellison said, during a Monday afternoon news conference.

He said the surge of immigration officials is “motivated by a desire to retaliate against Trump’s perceived political opponents.”

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said more immigration and customs enforcement officers would arrive on Monday to help the agency continue operations in Minnesota.

Minnesota sued Trump administration

They are being deployed “to allow our ICE and Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely” as protesters and observers continue to demonstrate, she said. With already 2,000 officers reportedly on the ground, the operation in Minnesota is Homeland Security’s largest ever.

State and city leaders have echoed activists’ demands for the agency to leave.

Thousands marched in south Minneapolis on Saturday to protest the ongoing immigration operation in Minnesota. But reports of ICE agents and Border Patrol officers arresting suspects in their homes, vehicles and other public settings continued throughout the weekend.

In a series of social media posts Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security reiterated its stance that Ross acted in self-defense and that federal authorities were “not allowing unjust behavior and assaults against them to stop them.” On Saturday, the agency shared a new video of the minutes before Good’s shooting.

The 40-second encounter between Ross and Good that ended in Good’s death has once again thrust Minneapolis into the global spotlight as activists and politicians, including President Donald Trump, have weighed in on the use of force, with conflicting interpretations of what happened.

Several federal officials have said Ross acted in self-defense. Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have pushed back on that narrative. Frey said the shooting was an instance of a federal agent “recklessly using power.”

DHS says the “Operation Metro Surge” crackdown in the state has resulted in more than 1,500 arrests since December, though the agency has not released all the names of those detained.