Minnesota and Illinois filed separate federal lawsuits Monday challenging the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operations, alleging constitutional violations and claiming federal agents have terrorized communities across both states.
Minnesota’s lawsuit, filed jointly with the municipalities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, targets “Operation Metro Surge,” which has deployed thousands of Department of Homeland Security agents to the Twin Cities. “This operation is driven by nothing more than the Trump Administration’s desire to punish political opponents,” the Minnesota complaint states, noting the state has a lower undocumented population than the national average. “Defendants’ actions appear designed to provoke community outrage, sow fear, and inflict emotional distress, and they are interfering with the ability of state and local officials to protect and care for their residents.”
The complaint cites the fatal January 7 shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by an ICE agent, a case that has become a flashpoint in the debate over immigration enforcement.
Good, 37, was described in the complaint as a legal observer monitoring the enforcement operation when she was killed. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) characterized her as a “domestic terrorist” following the shooting. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a civil rights organization, condemned her killing as “a horrific abuse of power and act of aggression against an American citizen exercising her First Amendment freedoms.” The organization called DHS’s characterization “a shameful and cowardly effort to deflect its own responsibility for this indefensible killing,” noting that available video footage did not appear to show Good posing a threat justifying deadly force.
The government’s abrupt classification of Good as a terrorist has provoked concern about the state of due process in the country. A day after the shooting, US Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said on the House floor: “Renee Nicole Good didn’t get…due process because the agent was the judge, jury, and executioner in the middle of a residential neighborhood. There was no process or due process before the administration that runs our Nation labeled her as a domestic terrorist just minutes after this happened.”
The Illinois lawsuit, jointly filed with the city of Chicago, challenges “Operation Midway Blitz,” accusing Border Patrol agents of conducting military-style raids, deploying tear gas 49 times across the Chicago area, and making warrantless arrests. The complaint documents two shootings by federal agents, including one fatality.
Both lawsuits invoke the Tenth Amendment, arguing the operations infringe on state sovereignty and police powers. They also cite violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The suits name DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal officials as defendants. Both complaints characterize the enforcement surge as retaliation against Democratic-led “sanctuary” jurisdictions that refuse to assist with federal immigration enforcement.
