'Federal invasion': Minnesota, Illinois sue feds over ICE deployments
Minnesota and Illinois, two states targeted by the Trump administration for immigration enforcement, sued Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday, aiming to curb the agency’s crackdown after a woman was shot and killed by a federal agent last week.
Officials in Minnesota are seeking to stop Homeland Security agents from deploying to the state over the objections of Gov. Tim Walz and the mayors of the Twin Cities. Illinois attorneys are asking the court to bar federal agents from using the controversial tactics employed in their crackdown on the Chicago area .
The court filings come comes as hundreds more federal agents are being sent to Minnesota , the Trump administration said, as furor grows over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the deployments amounted to a "federal invasion."
"People are being racially profiled, harassed, terrorized, and assaulted. Schools have gone into lockdown. Businesses have been forced to close. Minnesota police are spending countless hours dealing with the chaos ICE is causing," Ellison said in a statement . "This federal invasion of the Twin Cities has to stop, so today I am suing DHS to bring it to an end."
Noem announced the surge in an interview on Fox News ' "Sunday Morning Futures."
"We're sending more officers today and tomorrow," Noem said Jan. 11. "They'll arrive, there'll be hundreds more in order to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely."
Homeland Security’s deployments to Minnesota come amid nationwide protests over the killing of Renee Nicole Good and more than a month after federal authorities began sending agents to the state as part of an operation targeting undocumented immigrants and fraud in social services programs.
Hearings have not yet been set in either case, according to federal court records in Minnesota and the Northern District of Illinois.
Minnesota AG blasts Noem over 'federal invasion'
Minnesota Attorney General Ellison sued Noem and other top DHS officials, including Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino .
State officials are asking the federal court in Minnesota to stop "the unprecedented surge of DHS agents into the state and declare it unconstitutional and unlawful."
Ellison said in a statement that he is asking the court to act immediately, saying the federal agents pose an immediate threat to Minnesota: "The unlawful deployment of thousands of armed, masked, and poorly trained federal agents is hurting Minnesota."
In addition to Good’s death, Minnesota officials say Homeland Security’s operation in the state has forced schools to go into lockdown, businesses to close and diverted police from regular duties.
Noem says the deployments are necessary to "root out this rampant fraud."
"For years, these corrupt, activist politicians have refused to protect Minnesotans," Noem said in a statement. "We will root out this rampant fraud, we will arrest the criminal illegal aliens hurting Americans with impunity, and we will hold those who aid and abetted this criminality accountable."
'Occupiers rather than officers,' Illinois AG says of feds
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in a statement called federal agents "occupiers."
"Border Patrol agents and ICE officers have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law," Raoul said. "They randomly, and often violently, question residents. Without warrants or probable cause, they brutally detain citizens and non-citizens alike."
The state’s 100-page lawsuit recounts the tactics federal agents used during Operation Midway Blitz , the Trump administration's crackdown on the Chicago area.
Illinois’ lawsuit cites the agency’s use of Black Hawk helicopters in storming a South Side apartment building, the fatal shooting by a federal agent of a Mexican immigrant and the use of tear gas near a children’s Halloween parade .
State officials are asking the court to limit the tactics agents can use, including making arrests without warrants, using chemical weapons and concealment of license plates.
Homeland Security’s activities in the Chicago area have slowed in recent weeks as agents have deployed to Minnesota. But Border Patrol Commander Bovino has vowed to return in force to the area.
"If you think we’re done with Chicago, you’d better check yourself before you wreck yourself," Bovino said in a statement .
Bovino is also named as a defendant in the Illinois lawsuit.
Good shooting caught on video
The Jan. 7 shooting, which was caught on video, immediately sparked backlash against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement and has deepened divisions between federal and state authorities. The federal government says the agent acted in self-defense ; Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others say he acted recklessly .
Footage shows multiple agents approach Good's SUV, which was stopped in the middle of the street. One officer tries to open the driver's side door as someone is heard yelling at her to get out of the car. Good briefly reverses before driving forward, then begins to turn right, away from the agents. As the vehicle moves forward, an officer standing near the front driver's side draws his gun and fires three times at close range.
Noem, in several interviews Jan. 11, defended the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross , and accused Good of "domestic terrorism." Video analysis by USA TODAY shows Good's vehicle appeared to be turning away from the officer who fired on her.
What to know about DHS’ deployment to Minnesota?
In the first week of January, the Department of Homeland Security announced a surge of 2,000 agents into Minneapolis and Saint Paul as part of the administration's deportation agenda and to investigate fraud. Federal officials describing the deployment called it the "largest immigration operation ever ."
One person was killed in a shooting involving a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, officials said. Minneapolis Gov. Tim Walz said on Jan. 7 that the shooting involved U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has surged agents into the Minneapolis area amid a broader federal crackdown on fraud in the state. Here, a member of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) restrains a protester trying to block vehicles from leaving the scene after a driver of a vehicle was shot.
The fraud investigations were launched after President Donald Trump seized on cases in Minneapolis, calling out Walz and going after the state's Somali community. Since 2022, federal prosecutors have charged more than 80 people in the schemes, many of them U.S. citizens of Somali descent.
Officials have not said how long the federal deployment would last.
The Department of Homeland Security said last week that it has arrested 1,500 undocumented immigrants since it launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.
Over the weekend, thousands of people turned out for protests in Minneapolis. Though most of them remained peaceful, occasional flare-ups saw federal agents deploy pepper spray and tear gas. Videos also show federal agents, including Border Patrol officers, making immigration-related arrests.
Contributing: Reuters
Christopher Cann is a national breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact him via email at ccann@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Federal invasion': Minnesota, Illinois sue feds over ICE deployments
