Minnesota Sues Noem Over ICE Tactics After Fatal Shooting (2)

Minnesota officials are suing over the “unprecedented surge” of US immigration authorities in the state, taking the Trump administration to court days after a federal agent shot and killed a Minneapolis woman.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, the state accused the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem of deploying thousands of officers in Minneapolis and Saint Paul out of a “desire to punish political opponents and score partisan points.”

The state is arguing that the deployment unconstitutionally violates its sovereignty and is retaliation against its Democratic-elected leadership. Minnesota officials allege the administration’s policies — such as having officers wear masks — violate state laws and that agents are illegally using excessive force and making warrantless arrests of people they suspect aren’t authorized to be in the US.

“Thousands of armed and masked DHS agents have stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids and carry out dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests in sensitive public places, including schools and hospitals — all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement,” state officials wrote in the complaint.

Protests have erupted across the country after Renée Nicole Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7 as she was driving her car. Minnesota officials have denounced the shooting as unjustified, pointing to video footage of the confrontation, while the administration has defended the officer.

“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “That’s what the Trump administration is doing; we have the Constitution on our side on this, and we look forward to proving that in court.”

Noem signaled Sunday that hundreds more federal agents were being deployed to Minnesota “to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely.”

She renewed warnings by senior administration officials that people who try to hamper federal law enforcement risk arrest and criminal prosecution.

The Trump administration is facing allegations similar to Monday’s suit by civilian protesters who have a court hearing Tuesday. Officials in Illinois and Chicago filed their own suit Monday, saying the “menacing, violent, and unlawful incursion” of immigration agents into the area is an illegal attempt to get them to comply with President Donald Trump’s ideological goals.

Separately, a group of Democratic lawmakers are challenging the Trump administration over a policy barring them from visiting immigration detention facilities without advanced notice. They asked a federal judge in Washington, DC, Monday to schedule an emergency hearing, saying that three members of Congress were denied access to an ICE facility near Minneapolis over the weekend.

“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” they wrote.

The case is Minnesota v. Noem, 26-cv-190, US District Court, District of Minnesota (Minneapolis).

(Updates with DHS spokesperson’s statement in sixth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Anthony Aarons

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