Minnesota sues Trump administration over immigration crackdown

The mayor of Minneapolis says Donald Trump is targeting Minnesota for his immigration crackdown because of its Democratic leadership. Photo / Getty Images

The US state of Minnesota sued the Trump administration on Monday over the immigration crackdown that saw a woman protester fatally shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis last week.

Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison, who announced the lawsuit, said the Department of Homeland Security’s surge of immigration officers into the Democratic-led northern state in recent days has “made us less safe”.

“Thousands of poorly trained, aggressive and armed agents of the state, of the federal government, have rolled into our communities,” Ellison said at a press conference.

“The obvious targeting of Minnesota for our diversity, for our democracy and our differences of opinion with the federal government, is a violation of the constitution and federal law,” he said. “This is, in essence, a federal invasion.”

Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, where 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Wednesday, said Republican President Donald Trump was targeting Minnesota for his immigration crackdown because of its Democratic leadership.

“If the goal were simply to look for people who are undocumented, Minneapolis and Saint Paul would not be the place you would go,” Frey said.

“There are countless more people who are undocumented in Florida and Texas and Utah,” the mayor said, but those states, he noted, are Republican-controlled.

Illinois, another Democratic-ruled state targeted by the Trump administration for its immigration crackdown, filed a similar suit against the federal government on Monday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in television interviews on Sunday, defended the actions of the ICE officer who shot and killed Good, an American citizen.

Noem said the officer acted in self-defence when Good drove her car at him, a narrative strongly disputed by local officials who point to footage from the scene showing Good’s vehicle turning away from the agent.

Noem also said that hundreds more federal agents were heading to Minneapolis, where there have been daily protests and vigils mourning Good’s death.

-Agence France-Presse