A federal judge has barred federal agents in Minneapolis from arresting peaceful protesters or stopping drivers who are not obstructing enforcement operations, following more than a week of tense confrontations over the Department of Homeland Security’s expanded immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
In an 83-page ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez ordered that federal agents involved in Operation Metro Surge cannot detain or use nonlethal munitions against demonstrators “who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” The agents also cannot stop or detain people in vehicles that are following them, Menendez ruled.
The lawsuit was brought in December by six Minneapolis residents who alleged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents violated their constitutional rights while they observed federal immigration enforcement activities. Several DHS officials, including Secretary Kristi Noem, are named as defendants.
In her order, Menendez wrote that the plaintiffs had established “an ongoing persistent pattern of Defendants’ chilling conduct.”
“The dozens of declarations by similarly situated nonparties detail similar, if not more egregious, injuries to rights suffered at the hands of federal law enforcement officers for engaging in protected activity,” Menendez added.
Minnesota has seen sustained protests since Jan. 7, when an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis resident. The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as an agitator and “domestic terrorist,” and has claimed, without providing evidence, that protesters are “rioting” against federal law enforcement, assaulting officers and hindering their work. As tensions have skyrocketed, the federal crackdown in Minneapolis has intensified, prompting local officials to call for federal authorities to leave the state.
In a statement on Menendez’s ruling, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the First Amendment “protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting.”
“DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters,” McLaughlin said.
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