Officials in Minnesota and Illinois filed a pair of lawsuits Monday against the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to end a surge of immigration agents sent to Minneapolis and Chicago.
The massive deployment of federal officers to both cities has roiled the Midwest in recent weeks, following a series of high-profile and violent incidents involving immigration agents. The lawsuits come just days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis.
“This has to stop,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a press conference Monday announcing the state’s lawsuit. “We allege that the obvious targeting of Minnesota for our diversity, for our democracy and our differences of opinion with the federal government is a violation of the Constitution and of federal law.”
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities,” Ellison continued, arguing that DHS’ presence in Minnesota has “done our state serious harm.”
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Illinois also announced Monday evening that it had filed a similar lawsuit, along with the city of Chicago, against the Trump administration and DHS for its “organized bombardment” that has created “a climate of fear” for residents of the Windy City.
In the more than 100-page lawsuit, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the administration’s deployment of federal law enforcement to the state “is intended to coerce Plaintiffs to abandon their policies, which value and respect the State’s immigrants, and devote their resources to further the immigration policies of the current administration. Illinois and Chicago have refused to do so.”
Since the start of what the administration has dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” last fall, federal immigration officials in the state have arrested more than 3,000 individuals, many lacking a criminal record.
“Border Patrol’s incursion into Illinois and its unlawful, unauthorized, violent, and arbitrary conduct is intended to intimidate and frighten Plaintiffs’ residents by disregarding their privacy, ignoring the security of their homes and property, and threatening their freedom and physical well-being,” the lawsuit stated.
Both Illinois’ and Minnesota’s lawsuits claim that the federal deployments violated state sovereignty under the Constitution’s 10th Amendment.
DHS has reportedly dispatched 2,000 federal agents to Minnesota, one of the largest mobilizations in DHS history.
The state has attracted scrutiny from the Trump administration following a welfare fraud scandal in which more than 50 individuals, many of them Somali nationals, are accused of stealing $1 billion in taxpayer funds distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic for social programs.
President Donald Trump has latched onto the scandal, calling Somalis “garbage” and increasing attacks against the state’s lone Somali lawmaker, Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Minnesota officials, however, said the deployment of federal officers, called “Operation Metro Surge” by the administration, has done nothing to stop similar cases of fraud and instead inflamed tensions and created fear.
“We work with the federal government all the time, and if the federal government wants to help us with forensic accountants, we’re open to that conversation, but these ICE agents, who are engaging in the behavior they are engaged in, are not helping public safety at all,” Ellison said in response to the fraud allegations.
The attorney general said since DHS began its presence in the state, local law enforcement has responded to at least 20 reports detailing controversial and potentially illegal tactics, including the use of unmarked vehicles and masked agents apprehending people off the street.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Monday’s lawsuit is necessary considering the extreme tactics being utilized by DHS.
“The scale is widely disproportionate and has nothing to do with keeping people safe,” Frey said at the press conference.
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