Tag: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The Trump administration is revoking the Temporary Protected Status of roughly 2,500 Somali immigrants, who are now set to lose their legal status and work permits on March 17.

The move comes months after Mr. Trump called Somali immigrants living in the United States “garbage” said he wanted them to leave. His administration have cited a massive fraud scandal implicating members of the Somali community to deploy thousands of federal immigration agents to Minneapolis area. 

Days after 2,000 federal agents descended in Minnesota, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen who was behind the wheel of her car. While Mr. Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal officials have tried to paint Good as an aggressor who was attempting to harm the agent, expert analysis of the video evidence has discredited that narrative. 

On Monday, the state of Minnesota, along with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, announced a lawsuit against Noem and other federal officials in an effort to stop the surge of ICE agents from coming to Minnesota.

The suit maintains that the surge is a violation of the 10th Amendment, which states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Here is the latest on the ICE surge in Minnesota

• Several career prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced their resignation this week after learning there would be no civil rights probe into the fatal shooting of Renee Good.
• Protesters and federal agents clashed again Monday evening at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. WCCO saw at least three people detained as federal agents used chemicals and flashbangs after warning people to clear the street and stop blocking traffic.
• Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office has received a “substantial” number of submissions to the evidence portal her office launched last week after the FBI took sole authority of Good’s shooting.
• Students in the Twin Cities, including in Maple Grove, Minneapolis and Roseville, held walkouts on Monday to protest ongoing ICE operations.
• The Trump administration secretly reimposed a policy limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities a day after the fatal ICE shooting, attorneys for several congressional Democrats said Monday in asking a federal judge to intervene.  
• Families of Minnesotans killed by law enforcement offered their support to Good’s family, saying “you have a group of people out here that are willing to be here and to support you.”

For 24 years, Eric O’Denius worked as a deportation officer, identifying foreign nationals in the country in violation of law.

He was based out of St. Paul, but he’s well-traveled, having been to 23 countries and all over the U.S., and received commendation from the British government for work with missing and vulnerable nationals.

“I think I’m the first deportation officer with a human rights award,” O’Denius said.

Reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement going door to door have circulated, and so too have videos alleging profiling based on race and ICE’s apparent aggressive tactics.

While he said he cannot comment on specific videos until a court has had a chance to evaluate evidence, in his experience, O’Denius said federal officers seem to be held to a higher standard in Minnesota than other parts of the country when it comes to questionable conduct.

“Knowing these attorneys, as I have, going back to 1997… if somebody strays, it is very possible they will have to answer for it in federal court,” O’Denius said.

On Thursday, two Target employees were arrested by ICE agents on the job.

A Richfield, Minnesota, lawmaker said they were citizens and released, but injured while in custody.

“The arresting of a U.S. citizen is always my biggest concern, because that is the, as they say, the one sin you really need to be careful about. If you can’t properly differentiate between a U.S. citizen and a foreign national, you need to be in a different position,” O’Denius said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appeared on WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy, alongside Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, and called into question claims federal immigration enforcement agencies have made in the wake of the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer.

“The story that’s coming out of this from the federal government is that this ICE agent was hit and run over by a car,” Frey said.

On Wednesday, President Trump responded to the shooting by claiming that Good “ran over” the ICE officer who shot her, later identified as Jonathan Ross. On Friday, new video was released and shared by Vice President JD Vance, showing the interaction from the point of view of Ross, who was recording the incident from his cell phone.

“If he was hit and run over by a car, how the hell is he still holding on to his cell phone afterwards?” Frey asked. “I mean, I’ve dropped my cell phone numerous times by barely getting brushed, yet he can get hit by a car, and he’s still hanging on, hanging on to it?”

Frey said that he has seen no indication of ICE actions equivocating or altering course since Good’s killing.

“You would hope that, especially following some form of awful and horrific event like that, that they would take a step back, take a pause, and then, even better, leave. We have not seen that,” he said.

Frey and O’Hara both said they are concerned ICE’s continued crackdown could result in further violence.

“That’s what keeps me up at night, and I want to point out the juxtaposition, the difference between how our Minneapolis police officers are conducting themselves — short on numbers, they are incredibly tired — and they’re still doing an exceptional job, and how different that is from the way that these ICE agents and federal agencies are conducting themselves,” Frey said.

“The responsibility that police leadership has for the men and women of our department, as well as the larger community whenever something significant critical happens, is to take a look at the situation from an objective standpoint and say, ‘OK, are we contributing to the problem, or … are we employing practices or methods that are unjustifiably placing the men and women who work for us, as well as the community, unjustifiably at risk without actually having a public safety benefit?’” O’Hara added.

O’Hara also criticized the ICE agent for holding his cell phone and firearm at the same time.

“I think it’s very unsafe to be holding a cell phone, concentrating on the cell phone, while with one hand, your weapon is completely out of its holster, and quite frankly, able to be grabbed if it actually is a dangerous situation with multiple people on the scene,” O’Hara said. “At best, what we are seeing here are very, very questionable tactics.”

He added that shooting into a vehicle can pose danger not only to the people inside it, but also to other law enforcement and people from the community.

“We’re not supposed to be acting like it’s OK for cops to unnecessarily be placing themselves in the pathway of a car without trying to have an avenue of escape, to get out of the way,” O’Hara said.

Just hours after the shooting, Frey demanded federal forces withdraw from the city.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Good’s interaction with ICE agents as “an act of domestic terrorism,” a narrative which Frey called “bull***t.” 

“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” he said.

Frey has also repeatedly stated that state authorities should be included in the investigation into the fatal shooting. On Thursday, the Minnesota agency tasked with investigating the killing withdrew after the FBI removed its access to case materials, scene evidence and investigative interviews.

“The FBI seems to be hiding from the evidence so that they want anybody that might disagree with them out of the scenario entirely,” Frey said on Sunday.

Noem fired back during an interview with CNN, criticizing the mayor and others for not assisting ICE operations.

“We do work with locals when they work with us,” Noem said.

Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis and around the country on Saturday to protest Good’s killing, as well as the shooting of two people in Portland, Oregon.

Frey has stressed that most protests around the city in the last several days have been peaceful, but warned that those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested.

More than 2,000 federal agents arrived in Minnesota within the last week – the largest deployment of its kind under the Trump administration.

Leaders from Minneapolis Public Schools said on Friday morning that the district will offer families remote learning amid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city. 

Officials and families with the district spoke at a news conference around 10 a.m. in Hiawatha Park. Many of them discussed the intimidation and fear they’ve felt since ICE agents have shown up at schools. Others talked about organizing rides for kids of immigrant families because parents are afraid to leave the house, and ICE’s presence at Roosevelt High School where they said a teacher was tackled by federal agents.

“We have seen ICE agents in Roseville circling school property just waiting for families to pick up their children,” said Monica Byron, President of Education Minnesota. “Every moment ICE remains near our schools endangers children, educators and families.”

In St. Paul Friday morning, members of Education Minnesota talked about how ICE activity near schools has incited anxiety and fear. 

“Grown men use pepper spray on terrified high school students on school property,” said Catina Taylor, Minneapolis Federation of Educators. 

Chris Erickson said the presence of ICE has been felt beyond the Twin Cities. He says it’s changed how St. Cloud teachers approach each day. 

“The fear as they load their students onto the bus at the end of the day, not knowing whether that child will return to their family or to an empty house,” said Erickson, president of the St. Cloud Education Association. 

Miles from St. Paul, Minneapolis parents and teachers gathered at Hiawatha Park with a similar message.
They chanted and held signs and demanded accountability for the shooting of Renee Good. Members of the Minneapolis teachers’ union also talked about ICE activity at Roosevelt High School on Wednesday, in which federal agents came onto school property while trying to make an arrest. 

“While on school property they deployed chemical irritants and detained an educator and MFE member who was doing their job at dismissal,” said Natasha Dockter, Minneapolis Federation of Educators. 

Clara, who has kids in Minneapolis Schools, said her daughter has observed federal agents outside her elementary classroom. 

“Meanwhile many agents and vehicles were circling the perimeter of the school,” said Clara. 

Minneapolis educators talked about organizing networks of care and protection to give students of immigrant families rides to school and delivering groceries to those too scared to leave their home. 

“Let me be very clear. Immigration enforcement should never, under any circumstances, be on school grounds,” said Dockter. 

A statement from DHS on that incident at Roosevelt High says officers used targeted crowd control for the safety of law enforcement and the public. They also said no tear gas was deployed, which contradicts a witness account.