Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Joseph Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her held a joint new conference this afternoon to announce they are suing the federal government to force Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to leave the state after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37 year old mother of three, on January 7.
Attorney General Keith Ellison, the first to speak, said:
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota and it must stop. DHS agents have sown chaos and terror across the metropolitan area and in cities across the state of Minnesota. Schools have gone into lockdown, entire districts have had to cancel school for tens of thousands of students to assure safety, and offer online education because of the students and the parents’ fear of coming into the school. Local businesses are struggling. Revenues are down, and some retail stores, restaurants and day cares have actually closed because people are afraid to go out and do their shopping, whether they are immigrants, or whether they are citizens of many generations. This surge has made us less safe. Thousands of poorly trained, aggressive and armed agents … of the federal government, have rolled into our communities, overwhelmed our local police departments, and law enforcement agencies should be focused on our public safety, but instead many are dealing with the aftermath of DHS agents’ chaos and violence.”
Ellison pointed out that Minnesota’s non-citizen immigrant population comprises just 1.5% of its population, lower than Utah, Texas and Florida, yet none of those states have thousands of ICE agents swarming the streets, threatening, detaining and harming people.
Chaos, upheaval and violence continue
Today ICE agents in Minneapolis followed and then rear-ended the car of a U.S. citizen who looks Latino just blocks away from where an ICE agent killed Renee Good, causing an accident. The agents then got out of their car and started questioning the driver of the car, demanding he show ID. The driver told them he was an American citizen and refused to show the agents his identification until Minneapolis police arrived. A crowd appeared, blowing whistles and honking horns. ICE agents then sprayed the crows with tear gas and shot them with pepper balls.
The City of Chicago and state of Illinois filed similar lawsuits today alleging ICE is engaging in unlawful activities and violating people’s rights in those jurisdictions as well, and cited ICE’s cruel actions and flagrant abuses of power.
This gestapo is making people sick. I’m not even in Minnesota, I’m a Caucasian, and I’m terrified for everyone. They’re going to start a civil war, I fear. More innocent people will be killed. And J.D. Couch Fuck McGee said that ICE is going to start going door to door, demanding papers. This is not the way I want to live.