On Tuesday, federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to several Minnesota officials, marking a significant step in an ongoing investigation. The focus is on whether these officials obstructed or impeded law enforcement during a broad immigration operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
The subpoenas, which demand access to certain records, were directed to the offices of Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, along with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and officials from Ramsey and Hennepin counties. This information was provided by an individual who requested anonymity, as they were not permitted to discuss the investigation publicly.
This legal action is linked to a deeper inquiry into whether Minnesota officials hindered federal immigration enforcement through their public statements. According to two individuals familiar with the investigation, the focus is on a potential breach of a conspiracy statute.
Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, both Democrats, have criticized the investigation, labeling it as a bullying tactic designed to suppress political dissent. Mayor Frey’s office disclosed the contents of a subpoena, which calls for an extensive list of documents to be presented to a grand jury on February 3. The subpoena seeks “any records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials.”
Mayor: Subpoenas are to stoke fear
“We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with,” Mayor Frey asserted, highlighting concerns about the potential misuse of federal powers to stifle local political expression.
“We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with,” Frey said.
Her, a Hmong immigrant and a Democrat, also acknowledged a subpoena, saying she’s “unfazed by these tactics.” The governor’s office referred reporters to a statement earlier Tuesday in which Walz said the Trump administration was not seeking justice, only creating distractions.
The subpoenas came a day after the government urged a judge to reject efforts to stop the immigration enforcement surge that has roiled Minneapolis and St. Paul for weeks.
The Justice Department called the state’s lawsuit, filed soon after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration officer, “legally frivolous.”
“Put simply, Minnesota wants a veto over federal law enforcement,” government attorneys wrote.
Ellison said the government is violating free speech and other constitutional rights. He described the armed officers as poorly trained and said the “invasion” must cease. It’s not known when U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez will make a decision.
Ilan Wurman, who teaches constitutional law at University of Minnesota Law School, doubts the state’s arguments will be successful. He said immigration enforcement is clearly a matter of federal control.
Hard to track arrests
Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the Trump administration’s big-city immigration crackdown, said more than 10,000 people in the U.S. illegally have been arrested in Minnesota in the past year, including 3,000 “of some of the most dangerous offenders” in the last six weeks during Operation Metro Surge.
He highlighted the capture of three people with criminal records from Laos, Guatemala and Honduras.
“These are not technical violations. As I mentioned, these are individuals responsible for serious harm,” Bovino said at a news conference.
Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, expressed frustration that advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are accurate.
“These are real people we’re talking about, that we potentially have no idea what is happening to them,” Decker said.
Bovino defends his ‘troops’ as ethical
Good, 37, was killed on Jan. 7 as she was moving her vehicle, which had been blocking a Minneapolis street where ICE officers were operating. Trump administration officials say the officer, Jonathan Ross, shot her in self-defense, although videos of the encounter show the Honda Pilot slowly turning away from him.
Since then, the public has repeatedly confronted officers, blowing whistles and yelling insults at ICE and Border Patrol. They, in turn, have used tear gas and chemical irritants against protesters. Bystanders have recorded video of officers using a battering ram to get into a house as well as smashing vehicle windows and dragging people out of cars.
Bovino defended his “troops” and said their actions are “legal, ethical and moral.”
“What we see when folks get swept up, as you say, oftentimes it’s as agitators, as rioters, and now I call them anarchists,” he told reporters, not “ordinary citizens, Ma, Pa America.”
Police in the region, meanwhile, said off-duty law enforcement officers have been racially profiled by federal officers and stopped without cause. Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley said he has received complaints from residents who are U.S. citizens, including his own officers.
Pastor says protesters invaded church
A Minnesota church targeted by an anti-ICE protest Sunday decried it as unlawful, while one of the protest leaders called for the resignation of a church leader who works at a local ICE office. About three dozen people entered Cities Church in St. Paul, some walking right up to the pulpit.
“Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus – or any other act of worship – is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation,” Cities Church in St. Paul said Tuesday in a statement shared by its pastor, Jonathan Parnell.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and local activist, called for another pastor who works at ICE to resign from the church, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.” ___
Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Sarah Raza, Jack Brook and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed.
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