What we're covering
• Trump doubles down: Around 1,000 more US Customs and Border Protection agents are expected to deploy to Minneapolis, according to two federal law enforcement sources. This comes as tensions between federal and local law enforcement flared after the fatal, ICE-involved shooting last week of mother of three Renee Nicole Good sparked protests nationwide.
• Locals sue: Democratic-led Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul are suing the Trump administration, arguing the widespread immigration operation is “a federal invasion of the Twin Cities.”
• Operation in Minneapolis area: President Donald Trump first ramped up immigration enforcement in the Minneapolis area in December to target undocumented Somali immigrants. Like similar, controversial operations in other states, it also has led to the arrests of immigrants from other nations, many without criminal records.
Legal actions are “political diatribes masquerading as lawsuits,” analyst says
While they may contain strong claims, the lawsuits filed by Illinois and Minnesota are “really political diatribes masquerading as lawsuits,” CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.
“If you look at what both states are asking the courts to do, it’s to kick ICE out of those states and cities and to bar ICE from carrying on federal law enforcement in Illinois and Minnesota,” he told Kate Bolduan on CNN News Central Tuesday morning.
But “there is zero precedent for that,” Honig said. “There is no way a judge can say, ‘You, federal law enforcement agency: You are not allowed to execute federal law in a certain state or city.’”
The most that Illinois and Minnesota could get out of their efforts – if they get sympathetic judges – “is a judge who’s going to ask questions of ICE, who’s going to hold hearings, who’s going to demand questions about how they’re training, how they’re carrying out their policy,” Honig said.
“But I don’t give them much of a chance of achieving the legal thing that they’re asking for in the courts.”
Chicago wants new lawsuit to be heard by same judge who restricted agents’ response to protesters
In its new lawsuit seeking an order to effectively shut down enhanced Customs and Border Protection activity in Illinois, the state is asking for the case to be heard by a familiar face.
The plaintiffs say the new case should be heard by Illinois federal judge Sara Ellis – an Obama appointee – who was previously assigned to a case challenging immigration agents’ response to protesters and journalists in the Chicago area last year.
In that case, Ellis ordered agents to avoid using pepper balls and tear gas unless directly engaged by protesters and only after giving a clear verbal warning.
Ellis expressed frustration with Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino – the leader of Operation Midway Blitz – in her order, saying he “admitted in his deposition that he lied multiple times about the events that occurred in Little Village that prompted him to throw tear gas at protesters.”
That case is still technically pending, but the plaintiffs have asked for it to be dismissed because Operation Midway Blitz ended in November.
Cases are typically assigned to judges within a federal district at random, but Illinois argues their new lawsuit is “related” to the previous suit on protesters, giving Ellis authority to take it. Ellis has not yet decided whether the case should be moved to her court.
Minnesota says in lawsuit immigration agents have used “unlawful tactics.” What are the state's examples?
Minnesota’s new lawsuit against the Trump administration claims Operation Metro Surge is an unconstitutional retaliation against the state for political reasons, but it also says federal agents have used “unlawful tactics” that “undermine public trust in state and local law enforcement.”
Here are some of the cited examples:
- Arrest and chokehold of Somali American: One week after the operation was first announced in December, video showed a 20-year-old Somali American man being forced into a Minneapolis building and restrained as he tried to prove he is a US citizen. One agent put the man – identified as Mubashir – into a chokehold while he was on his knees. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agents had “reasonable suspicion” after Mubashir “fled from law enforcement.”
- Use of pepper spray and force at protest outside school: Hours after Renee Good was killed by a Border Patrol officer during a confrontation, Border Patrol and protesters clash at Minneapolis’ Roosevelt High School, resulting in people being tackled and hit with pepper spray. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino said protesters were “assaulting agents.” Classes for the public school district were cancelled for the rest of the week.
- Border Patrol agent cites accent in stop: In an edited video posted to social media, a man who identifies himself as an Uber driver says an agent demanded to whether he is a citizen. When he asks another agent with a Border Patrol uniform why he is under suspicion, the agent responds, “I could hear you don’t have the same accent as me. That’s why I’m asking.”
- Agents fire on undocumented man in SUV: The chaotic attempt to arrest a man later identified as an undocumented immigrant from Cuba ends with an agent firing two shots at the vehicle. DHS says the man had rammed his car into an ICE vehicle and hit the officer who opened fire, resulting in the “defensive shots fired.” The suspect was not injured.
Around 1,000 more immigration agents headed to Minneapolis
Around 1,000 more US Customs and Border Protection agents are expected to deploy to Minneapolis in the wake of last week’s shooting involving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that left a mother of three dead, according to two federal law enforcement sources.
The agents started deploying Friday and continued over the weekend, one of the sources said, coming on top of the deployment of about 2,000 federal agents to the area that CNN reported early last week.
CBP Commander Gregory Bovino has already been on the ground with hundreds of agents and has been conducting targeted operations, including door knocks, one of the sources said. Documents provided to those who receive door knocks are either administrative warrants – signed by an immigration officer but without the same legal weight as a judicial warrant – or copies of their final orders of removal.
Minnesota attorney general says ICE "doing far more than" immigration enforcement
Minnesota’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking a federal judge to end Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, is not intended to cripple the ability of ICE to carry out its duties, Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday.
“Quite honestly, we need ICE to just do what ICE is supposed to do, which is immigration enforcement,” Ellison told CNN’s Laura Coates last night. “They’re doing far more than that … by harassing people, by using excessive force on a routine basis.”
Administration officials initially cited investigations of fraud connected to billions of dollars of federal funds centered on the area’s Somali community in announcing the surge, but Ellison argues the issues aren’t connected.
“What we need is accountants, you know. We don’t need armed paramiltaries harassing students at Roosevelt High School,” he said. “We don’t need them going to grocery stores, Target stores, and throwing people to the ground.”
Tensions escalate in Minneapolis after ICE shooting left a woman dead
Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was killed when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot into her vehicle during an encounter last week.
Good crossed paths with a 10-year ICE officer and Iraq War veteran named Jonathan Ross, who was dragged about 100 yards six months prior by a driver during an immigration operation in a Minneapolis suburb.
Good and Ross — whose brief confrontation ended with him firing his weapon at least three times as she attempted to drive away — are now at the center of furious debate over President Donald Trump’s administration’s building immigration crackdown, each side angrily assigning blame to the other.
Videos of the incident are still emerging, and there’s more to be learned.
Federal officials, including Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, quickly accused Good of trying to use her vehicle to kill or harm ICE agents. She called it an “act of domestic terrorism.”
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and state officials pushed back, blasting the actions of the officers. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the shooting “totally predictable” and “totally avoidable.”
Minnesota and Twin Cities file lawsuit against Trump administration over immigration operations
The state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities are suing the Trump administration, arguing the widespread federal immigration operation in the state is “a federal invasion of the Twin Cities,” according to a lawsuit filed yesterday.
The suit is seeking a court order halting the operations, arguing the federal government is unlawfully commandeering state resources and violating Minnesota law and city ordinances.
The lawsuit also claims Operation Metro Surge is not a legitimate law enforcement action, but rather a retaliation effort against Democratic-led Minnesota, citing the president’s disparaging comments toward local officials.
It is the latest development in the monthslong spat between Minnesota officials and the federal government after President Donald Trump first ramped up immigration enforcement in the Minneapolis area in December.
More on the immigration operation: The federal government initially launched Operation Metro Surge, an immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, to target undocumented Somali immigrants but it has also led to the arrests of immigrants from other nations.
“DHS law enforcement have made over 2,000 arrests since Operation Metro Surge began,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Monday.
Thousands nationwide protested against ICE over the weekend after killing of Renee Good
Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week spilled into the streets of cities across the US over the weekend, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.
In Minneapolis, snow flurries drifted down as thousands of people gathered in parks, along residential streets and outside federal buildings, chanting Good’s name, whose death has become a focal point of national outrage over federal authorities’ tactics in US cities while carrying out President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Similar protests unfolded across the US — from Los Angeles and New York to Washington, DC, El Paso and Boston. More than 1,000 demonstrations were planned across the country this weekend by the “ICE out for good” national coalition of advocacy groups.
“The response to ICE’s horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good is loud, peaceful, and inescapable,” coalition member group Indivisible said in a Saturday Facebook post accompanied by images of protests in multiple cities.
Protesters continued to take to the streets Sunday, demanding federal immigration officers be removed from their communities following the killing of Minneapolis woman Renee Good.
