Federal officers in Minneapolis used teargas and eye irritant against activists on Tuesday as the Department of Homeland Security announced it was carrying out “its largest operation in DHS history”, deploying hundreds of border agents on top of the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents already in the city.
A DHS official told CBS News that there were currently 800 Customs and Border Protection agents and 2,000 ICE officials in the Minneapolis area as tensions have risen in recent days.
“This is the largest DHS operation in history,” the official told the news outlet.
The surge comes on the same day several federal prosecutors in the state and in Washington resigned in protest over the justice department’s decision not to hold a civil rights investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis.
The government’s immigration crackdown is next headed to a federal court where Minnesota and two mayors are asking a judge to immediately suspend the operation. No hearing has been set on the request.
Gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where Good was fatally shot in the head by an immigration agent last week. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help while agents in an unmarked Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove away.
It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they are watching.
“Who doesn’t have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.
A person washes out his eyes after teargas was deployed by federal agents. Photograph: Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.
“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.
Separately, a judge heard arguments and said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents’ activities. Government attorneys argued that officers were acting within their authority and must protect themselves.
In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting against the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.
With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St Paul, sued Donald Trump’s administration on Monday to halt or limit the surge.
The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security is violating the first amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” Keith Ellison, the state attorney general, said.
Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said: “What we are seeing is thousands – plural – thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life.”
Dozens of protests or vigils have taken place across the US to honor Good since the 37-year-old mother of three was killed.
Agents arrest a protester on Tuesday. Photograph: Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Homeland security claims it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.
“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law – no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Two Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts announced on Tuesday they were sponsoring a bill to make it easier for people to sue and overcome immunity protections for federal officers who are accused of violating civil rights. The bill stands little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress.
In Wisconsin, the lieutenant governor, Sara Rodriguez, is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term as governor.
“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington DC,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”