Judge rules that immigration officers in Minneapolis cannot detain peaceful protesters: NPR

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal officers in the Minneapolis area involved in the largest recent U.S. immigration enforcement operation cannot detain or fire tear gas at peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including when those people are surveilling agents, a Minnesota judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez’s ruling addresses a case filed in December on behalf of six activists in Minnesota. The six are among thousands who have been monitoring the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents carrying out the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown in Minneapolis-St. Paul area since last month.

Federal agents and protesters have clashed repeatedly since the crackdown began. Confrontations escalated after an immigration agent shot Renee Goode in the head on January 7, as she was driving away from the scene of the incident in Minneapolis, an incident that was captured on video from multiple angles. Agents arrested or briefly detained several people in the Twin Cities.

The activists in the case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, which says government officials are violating the constitutional rights of Twin Cities residents.

After the ruling, US Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement saying her agency was taking “appropriate and constitutional actions to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”

She said people assaulted officers, vandalized their cars and federal property, and tried to prevent officers from doing their jobs.

“We remind the public that rioting is a serious matter, obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime, and assaulting law enforcement is a felony,” McLaughlin said.

The ACLU did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.

The provision prohibits officers from detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles when there is no reasonable suspicion that they are obstructing or interfering with officers.

Following customers safely “at an appropriate distance does not in itself create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” the ruling said.

Agents will not be allowed to arrest people without probable cause or reasonable suspicion that the person has committed a crime or is obstructing or interfering with officers’ activities, Menendez said.

Menendez is also presiding over a lawsuit filed Monday by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul seeking to suspend the crackdown, and some of the legal issues are similar. At a hearing Wednesday, she declined to grant the state’s request for an immediate temporary restraining order in this case.

Assistant State Attorney Brian Carter told her: “What we need more than anything else right now is a pause. The temperature needs to be lowered.”

Menendez said the issues raised by the state and cities in this case are “very important.” But she said it raises high-profile constitutional and other legal issues, and for some of those cases, there is little precedent on the matter. So I ordered both sides to submit more submissions next week.