Ellison says Minnesota suing feds to end ICE ‘invasion’
Here’s the latest Monday around the increased federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota and the killing of 37-year-old Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis last week by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. ICE operationsTwin Cities schools reopen with security measures’Do’s and don’ts’If you monitor ICE agents, immigration actions in Minnesota7:00 p.m. | ICE officers force entry into Minneapolis homeFederal immigration agents broke down the front door of a north Minneapolis home Sunday and arrested a man inside without a warrant signed by a federal judge, according to attorneys and witnesses.The raid happened around midmorning on Russell Avenue, near the city limits with Brooklyn Center. Video recorded by witnesses shows masked, heavily armed agents using a battering ram to force entry as neighbors gathered outside to protest and document the scene.Agents were after 38-year-old Garrison Gibson, a Liberian citizen. Gibson’s wife and her 9-year-old daughter were also inside the home. Footage posted by the activist group OccupyMN shows the woman repeatedly asking agents to show a warrant and to lower their weapons because children were present. Agents only produced an administrative warrant signed by an immigration officer, not a judicial warrant signed by a federal judge, which is required to enter a private home.MPR News reporter Matt Sepic talks about an ICE arrest without a warrantGibson’s attorney, Marc Prokosch, told MPR News his client was ordered removed from the U.S. in 2009, possibly because of a minor drug conviction that was later expunged.Minnesota court records show that Gibson has no serious criminal convictions in the state, only misdemeanor driving offenses that are more than a decade old. Prokosch said Gibson had been on an order of supervision since 2021, had a work permit and had consistently checked in with immigration authorities.A federal judge later ordered immigration officials not to move Gibson out of Minnesota while the court reviews his detention.The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Gibson is a “criminal illegal alien” with a felony record. His attorney disputes that characterization.— Matt Sepic, MPR News6:45 p.m. | Photojournalist’s notebook: A day following federal agentsThe man, who gave his initials as M.A out of fear for his safety, said he is a U.S. citizen and was briefly put into the back of a CBP vehicle before being released. Observers blew whistles and taunted the agents from the sidewalk while another man, who was filming with his phone, shouted advice in Somali and English to the man being questioned.After barely five minutes, the agents got back in their vehicles and started driving north on Chicago Avenue. Photojournalist Evan Frost and I sprinted back to our car and quickly turned to follow. M.A., a U.S. citizen who was born in Somalia, but did not want to share his full name for fear of his safety, is put in the back of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle after being stopped in Minneapolis on Monday. He was released from the scene shortly later. Ben Hovland | MPR NewsWe trailed the convoy of three CBP vehicles from south Minneapolis, through downtown and into the northern suburbs of Robbinsdale and Brooklyn Park.News of the CBP convoy quickly spread on the rapid response chats, their movements reported by observers who were following behind in their own vehicles. Soon, a caravan of media, observers and protesters were trailing the agents. At a Tesla Supercharger station off Bottineau Boulevard in Robbinsdale, CBP agents walked door-to-door, knocking on windows and asking drivers if they were citizens. Green card holder Joel Keleekai watched nervously as an agent held his ID up to cell phone as he checked his information.Joel Keleekai, a green card holder, waits as U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents check his immigration status while charging his electric vehicle in Robbinsdale on Monday.Ben Hovland | MPR NewsAs the caravan of press and protesters grew, the CBP cars drove aggressively, snaking their way through strip mall parking lots and pulling quick U-turns in the middle of busy streets. As a tactic, the CBP used a trailing vehicle to bottle up a narrow street while the two leading cars traveled ahead, leaving the followers trapped behind the third vehicle. Eventually, after two and a half hours of trailing the agents, our car lost sight of the convoy as it made a quick turn onto Brooklyn Boulevard.U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers check the immigration status of Joel Keleekai at a Tesla Supercharger station in Robbinsdale on Monday.Ben Hovland | MPR News— Ben Hovland, MPR News5:45 p.m. | Students walk out in Roseville, Maple Grove; St. Paul schools weigh virtual optionsHundreds of Twin Cities high school students walked out of school Monday to protest federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, and some school leaders in the region are increasingly concerned about rising absenteeism with families fearing being caught up in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.Some 500 students walked out of Roseville High School Monday with about 300 leaving classes at Maple Grove High School. At each walkout students spoke of being worried for the safety of their classmates, friends, teachers and families. “We’re supporting the cause and trying to fight for just ICE out of Minnesota and for our city to be safe again,” said Julia Engholm, a sophomore at Roseville High who joined the march.The Roseville school district on Monday said that it would pause field trips for the entire month of January.The scene was similar At Maple Grove, where students protesting wore black and called for an end to the ICE operations. “My church has been getting threats because it was associated with Renee Good,” said Maple Grove High senior Ria de Looze, who helped organize the walkout. “I know a lot of my friends who might not necessarily even be immigrants, are feeling fear just on like the possibility of being racially profiled. It happened this September with Annunciation with gun violence that hit really close to home, and it’s happening again in Minnesota.”Later in the day Monday, St. Paul Public Schools said leaders are talking about virtual learning options for students afraid of coming to school because of the ICE operations and the students could request a transfer to attend the district’s online school. Stacie Stanley, the district superintendent, said in a posted video that agents won’t be allowed into a school without “signed judicial warrant.” While no federal agents have tried to enter school buildings, she said there has been activity around the schools.She urged parents to call their schools if they feel they need to make arrangements.— Elizabeth Shockman and Kyra Miles, MPR NewsICE presence in St. CloudICE raids are also taking place outside of the Twin Cities, including St Cloud. Liz Dwyer of Clearwater says she counted more than 100 ICE agents early this afternoon outside Star Market— a halal grocery store.Dwyer says agents deployed chemical irritants, and she witnessed two bystanders being arrested. “One was a white woman with pink hair who had clearly been sprayed in the face with pepper spray, and I saw them just like, pick her up all four arms and legs and just toss her into a white unmarked van. And then a little while later, I saw like an African American man, not a Somali man, who was just like, hanging out by a car with a bunch of other people, and this ice agent just like, turned and looked at him and started hitting him with something,” she said.Dwyer said the St Cloud police helped de-escalate the situation when they arrived.— Emily Bright, MPR News3:30 p.m. | Ellison says Minnesota suing feds to end ICE surgeMinnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says he’s filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “to end the unprecedented surge of DHS agents into the state and declare it unconstitutional and unlawful.”In a statement, Ellison said he’s also seeking a temporary restraining order, citing the immediate harm the state and cities are facing.The state of Illinois on Monday filed a similar lawsuit.Speaking to reporters Monday, Ellison said the ICE surge is essentially a “federal invasion of the Twin Cities. This has to stop.”St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her speaks at a press conference in Minneapolis Monday to announce a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “They are targeting us based on what we look and sound like. Our residents are scared,” Her said.Josh Sauvageau | MPR NewsHe described ICE agents as “terrorizing Minnesota with widespread unlawful conduct,” adding that “many of the people DHS is arresting in Minnesota don’t have a criminal record.”ICE does have a “statutory responsibility to do a certain job,” Ellison said. “Our argument is they are exceeding that dramatically in unconstitutional ways. They have to operate within the law and the Constitution.”Minnesota, he added, is being targeted by the federal government because of politics and that the state is “being persecuted because of our political views.”He spoke to reporters alongside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. Those cities are also part of the lawsuit against the federal government.Her said federal agents are “racially profiling residents, creating chaos. This cannot happen in our country. It cannot happen in our state and it cannot happen in St. Paul. They are targeting us based on what we look and sound like. Our residents are scared.”In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the federal surge was constitutional. “Keith Ellison made it abundantly clear today he is prioritizing politics over public safety,” the statement read in part. “It really is astounding that the Left can miraculously rediscover the Tenth Amendment when they don’t want federal law enforcement officers to enforce federal law — which is a clear federal responsibility under Article I, Article II and the Supremacy Clause — and then go right back to federalizing every state responsibility possible when they get back in power. Spare us.”2:30 p.m. | Roseville schools pause student field trips, citing ICE concernsThe Roseville Area Schools system says it will pause school field trips during January. The district on Monday said “federal enforcement activity across the Twin Cities metro area has created unpredictable and rapidly changing conditions in several areas.”The district didn’t provide details on the kind or number of field trips that are being paused.— Elizabeth Shockman, MPR NewsFederal agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Prisons stand outside their vehicles during a stop at a Tesla Supercharger station in Robbinsdale on Monday.Ben Hovland | MPR News1:20 p.m. | Feds say more than 2,000 arrested in Minnesota surgeMore than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the federal immigration enforcement surge began in December, federal officials said in a statement Monday.The statement did not offer any details about the people arrested, including how many people were released after being arrested, charged with a crime or who face deportation.MPR News photojournalist Ben Hovland is out today documenting ICE and Border Patrol activity in the Twin Cities.He said agents went to a strip mall parking lot, pulled up to a charging bank for electric vehicles and began checking the status of people in the cars.Hovland did not describe the ethnicity of those charging their vehicles. But the chargers are commonly used by rideshare drivers, many of them members of the Somali community. Border Patrol was also seen last week questioning rideshare drivers in an airport lot.12:48 p.m. | Court orders release of Hopkins man detained by ICE A Hopkins man detained by ICE last week has been released.Bryam Escobar Martinez was arrested by ICE agents on Jan. 5 on his way to work and taken into custody.According to his attorney, Escobar Martinez came to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2017 without legal status but is married to a U.S. citizen since 2022, has two citizen children and no criminal record.This weekend, a federal court judge granted his petition for release. Escobar Martinez’s attorney, Jennifer Oltarsh, says he’s now home with his family. Oltarsh said an immigration judge previously dismissed his removal case while he pursued permanent residency.— Sarah Thamer, MPR News12:30 p.m. | Latino businesses in Minnesota feel the affect of increased ICE presenceLatino-owned businesses in the state are reporting less foot traffic in their stores because many of their customers are afraid to leave their homes amid ICE enforcement operations in the state.While those operations are focused largely in the Twin Cities, the effects are being felt across the state, including in Rochester.”Almost eight weeks in a row (we’ve seen) decreased selling because of this fear. People don’t want to go outside and buy stuff,” Wilber de la Rosa, who sells fresh tortillas, rotisserie chicken and tamales at his shop Tortillas La Mayzteca in Rochester, told MPR News. De la Rosa says he’s not alone in his community. Hispanic food trucks are shuttered. Hispanic groceries are opening late if they open at all. He says the fear has increased with agents spotted questioning and detaining people in parking lots, on Mayo Clinic’s campus, and near apartment buildings.De la Rosa is making food deliveries to people who are scared to venture out. He’s a U.S. citizen but says he’s still carrying documentation with him in case he is stopped by ICE.— Catharine Richert, MPR News in Rochester10:50 a.m. | Minneapolis school says it’s in lockout mode after ‘non-credible’ bomb threatAnthony Middle School in Minneapolis increased its security level Monday after receiving a bomb threat deemed “non-credible” by police. The school said it will “continue to operate in lockout for the remainder of the day” Monday, meaning all exterior doors are locked and monitored and unplanned visitors cannot enter the building. “We have learned that other school districts are also receiving similar threats,” Anthony Middle School Principal Mai Chang Vue said it a statement sent to families explaining the school upped its security level “out of an abundance of caution.”Vue said the school would keep in close contact with Minneapolis police.10:45 a.m. | Schools reopen, some student walkouts expectedThe Minneapolis, Fridley and Columbia Heights school districts welcomed students back to school buildings Monday morning after canceling classes last week due to safety concerns related to federal immigration enforcement throughout the state. The districts are offering extra security measures this week. In Minneapolis, district officials said students who wanted an online learning option would be able to do so through Feb. 12. In the Fridley school district, superintendent Brenda Lewis told staff and families extra security personnel and district observers would be stationed at school sites to monitor for federal immigration enforcement activity. Students are expected to walk out of classes today in some schools to protest ICE operations, including Roseville and Maple Grove high schools.— Elizabeth Shockman and Kyra Miles, MPR News
已发布: 2026-01-13 02:26:00
来源: www.mprnews.org
