MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota and its two largest cities sued the Trump administration Monday to try to stop an immigration enforcement surge that has led to the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by a federal officer and evoked outrage and protests the country.
The state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, said the Department of Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to halt the enforcement action or limit the operation.
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference. “These poorly trained, aggressive and armed agents of the federal state have terrorized Minnesota with widespread unlawful conduct.”
Homeland Security is pledging to put more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota and says it has made more than 2,000 arrests since December. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has called the surge its largest enforcement operation ever.
The lawsuit accuses the Republican Trump administration of violating free speech rights by targeting Democratic-friendly Minnesota over politics.
Hours earlier, federal officers fired tear gas to break up a crowd of whistle-blowing bystanders in Minneapolis who showed up to see the aftermath of a car crash involving immigration agents, just a few blocks from where Renee Good was fatally shot.
A crowd emerged to witness a man being questioned by agents who had rear-ended his car. Agents used tear gas to try to break up the group, then drove off as people screamed, “cowards!”
It was another tense scene following the death of Good on Jan. 7 and a weekend of more immigration enforcement sweeps in the Minneapolis area. There were dozens of protests or vigils across the U.S. to honor Good and passionately criticize the Trump administration’s tactics.
Gov. Tim Walz and his wife Gwen visited the memorial to Good, 37, on the street where she was shot in the head and killed while driving her SUV.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot her, saying Good and her vehicle presented a threat. But that explanation has been widely panned by Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Christian Molina, a U.S. citizen who lives in Coon Rapids, said he was driving to a mechanic Monday when agents in another vehicle followed him, even turning on a siren.
Molina said his rear bumper was hit as he turned a corner. He refused to produce identification for the agents, saying he would wait for local police.
“I’m glad they didn’t shoot me or something,” Molina told reporters.
Standing near the mangled fender, he wondered aloud: “Who’s going to pay for my car?”
Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, federal authorities filed charges against a Venezuelan national who was one of two people shot there by U.S. Border Patrol on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department said the man used his pickup truck to strike a Border Patrol vehicle and escape the scene with a woman.
They were shot and eventually arrested. Their wounds were not life-threatening. The FBI said there was no video of the incident, unlike the Good shooting.
Santana and Vancleave write for the Associated Press.
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