Minnesota Files Lawsuit Over 'Federal Invasion'

The State of Minnesota and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are suing the federal government to stop an enforcement surge by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer. The state and cities filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday, along with a request for a temporary restraining order to halt the enforcement action or limit the operation, the AP reports.

• The Department of Homeland Security says that it's surging more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, and that it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the city since the push began last month. ICE has called the Minnesota surge its largest enforcement operation ever.
• The lawsuit alleges that Operation Metro Surge violates federal law because it's arbitrary and capricious, since it says other states aren't seeing commensurate crackdowns. And while the Trump administration maintains it's about fighting fraud, the lawsuit contends ICE agents have no expertise in combatting fraud in government programs.

• The lawsuit argues the federal government is really targeting Minnesota over politics, which it calls a violation of the First Amendment.
• Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday that the ICE surge is a "federal invasion of the Twin Cities. This has to stop," MPR News reports. He said ICE agents are "terrorizing Minnesota with widespread unlawful conduct." Ellison said that while ICE has a "statutory responsibility to do a certain job," the state's argument is that the agents "are exceeding that dramatically in unconstitutional ways. They have to operate within the law and the Constitution."
• Earlier Monday, 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 last week. A crowd emerged to witness a man being questioned by agents who had rear-ended his car, the AP reports. 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 US to honor Good and denounce 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.