(Adnkronos) – Minnesota and Illinois are suing the Trump administration over the deployment of federal anti-immigrant agents in the Minneapolis and Chicago regions, calling it a violation of the Constitution and states’ rights. In its appeal, Illinois asked a federal judge to prevent the US Customs and Border Protection “from conducting anti-migrant operations” in the state without “specific congressional authorization.”
Meanwhile, Minnesota is asking to prevent the federal government from “implementing the unprecedented increase” of federal agents in Minneapolis, where the Trump administration has announced the arrival of another thousand agents to add to the two thousand already deployed. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called the two lawsuits “baseless.” “It’s surprising how the left can miraculously rediscover the Tenth Amendment when it doesn’t want federal agents to enforce federal laws,” she added, referring to the article of the Constitution that protects states’ rights.
The opening of the new legal front comes as tension continues to rise in Minneapolis after the death last week of Renee Good, killed by an ICE agent as she tried to drive away in her car. Federal authorities, who immediately after the events accused the mother of three of having committed an act of domestic terrorism and of having run over the agent who then allegedly shot in self-defense, have excluded state authorities from the investigation. State authorities dispute the federal accounts as propaganda, claiming they are also contradicted by shooting videos.
According to the New York Times, FBI investigators are focusing on possible links between Good, whom family and friends describe as a peaceful person and videos show smiling at the agent who then shot her, and groups protesting Donald Trump’s anti-migrant policies. This investigative line is consistent with what Trump said last Sunday, when, without providing evidence, he called Good and his wife “two professional agitators,” adding that investigators “will find who is funding these protest actions.”
The Department of Justice therefore intends to investigate the growing movements in American cities of activists who are monitoring, recording, and peacefully trying to obstruct anti-migrant raids, using their whistles to warn of ICE’s presence. This results in an attempt to criminalize forms of political protest traditionally protected by the First Amendment. Federal rulings have in the past protected citizens’ right to observe and record police actions in public places.
