Federal Lawsuit Targets What Minnesota Calls Unconstitutional ICE Actions

MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) -- Attorney General Keith Ellison, along with Minneapolis and Saint Paul, has filed a federal lawsuit to block what they call an unconstitutional surge of ICE agents into Minnesota.

Ellison says he believes President Donald Trump is targeting Minnesota because of our diversity, democracy, and differences of opinion from the federal government.

“Minnesota’s non-citizen immigrant population is 1.5%, which is half the national average. Our state’s average is lower than Utah, Texas, and Florida’s, but none of those states have thousands of federal agents swarming their streets or harming their people.”

Ellison says the Trump Administration’s claim for this operation is fighting fraud, despite ICE agents not being trained to investigate it.

“No, not the 43 fraud convictions the president has, or the $43 million fraudsters the president has pardoned. But instead, saying that ICE is here to look for fraud, somehow.”

Ellison says he believes the real reason is targeting cities, people, and states that don’t agree with them politically.

Ellison says D-H-S agents have used excessive force, targeted schools, churches, and hospitals, and even shot and killed Renee Good on Wednesday. The state is asking for an immediate restraining order to halt the surge and prevent further harm.

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Minnesota Republican House leaders, Speaker Lisa Demuth and Floor Leader Harry Niska, say Ellison, Minneapolis, and St. Paul are “wasting state resources” instead of working with the feds to “target and arrest criminal illegal immigrants.”

Hamline University constitutional law expert David Schultz says the strongest argument in the lawsuit is that the U-S government is preventing the State of Minnesota from being able to perform its core functions:

"The state has some core responsibilities in order to be able to act as a state.  Its primary job is to act to protect the health, safety, welfare and the morals of its people."

The lawsuit also contends the federal government is giving Minnesota a choice: Either use state and local law enforcement to carry out federal immigration policies, or accept occupation by federal troops.  Schultz says U-S Supreme Court has ruled the federal government cannot use coercion to force states to take a particular action.