MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration is urging a judge to reject efforts by Minnesota and its largest city to stem a surge in immigration enforcement that has plagued Minneapolis and St. Paul for weeks.
The Justice Department says a lawsuit filed shortly after Renee Goode was fatally shot by immigration officials is “legally frivolous.” Lawyers argue that the Department of Homeland Security is enforcing immigration laws within its legal authority.
The government said in a court filing on Monday that Operation Metro Surge arrested more than 3,000 illegal immigrants and made the state safer.
“In short, Minnesota wants to have veto power over federal enforcement,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the government’s unprecedented sweeps violated free speech and other constitutional rights. He called armed officers poorly trained and said the “invasion” must stop.
The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 12, seeks an order stopping or limiting enforcement actions. More filings are expected, and it’s unclear when U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez will issue a decision.
Ilan Wurman, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Minnesota Law School, doubts the state’s argument will succeed.
“There is no doubt that federal law trumps state law, and immigration enforcement falls within the purview of the federal government, and the president can, within statutory limits, allocate more federal law enforcement resources to states that are less cooperative than other states in the field of law enforcement,” Warman told The Associated Press.
Julia Decker, policy director at the Minnesota Immigration Law Center, expressed frustration that advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of detainees are accurate. During the surge in Minnesota, U.S. citizens were dragged from their homes and vehicles.
“We’re talking about real people and we may not know what happened to them,” Decker said.
Menendez said in a separate lawsuit Friday that federal officers cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who do not obstruct authorities.
Goode, 37, was killed on Jan. 7 while moving a vehicle that blocked a Minneapolis street where immigration and client law enforcement officers were operating. Trump administration officials said the officer, Jonathan Ross, shot her in self-defense, although video of the encounter shows the Honda pilot slowly turning away from him.
Since then, members of the public have repeatedly clashed with police, blowing whistles and shouting insults at ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents. In turn, they used tear gas and chemical irritants against protesters. Bystanders recorded video of police using a battering ram to enter homes, smash car windows and drag people out of their cars.
President Donald Trump last week threatened to invoke the 1807 law and send troops to Minnesota, but he has backed off, at least in public remarks.
