Legal battles over immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota intensify

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As confrontations with federal officers over their massive immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota showed no signs of stopping Wednesday, legal battles over the surge and the local response were also intensifying.

Federal prosecutors served grand jury subpoenas Tuesday to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's office and five other officials in the state as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded law enforcement during a sweeping immigration operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a person familiar with the matter said.

The subpoenas, which seek records, were also sent to the offices of Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, the person said.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The subpoenas came a day after the government urged a judge to reject efforts to stop the immigration enforcement surge that has roiled Minneapolis and St. Paul for weeks.

The Justice Department called the state’s lawsuit, filed soon after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration officer, “legally frivolous.” Ellison has said the government is violating free speech and other constitutional rights.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, is expected to travel to Minneapolis on Thursday for a roundtable with local leaders and community members, according to sources familiar with his plans who spoke on condition on anonymity because the trip had not yet been officially announced.

Mayor: Subpoenas are to stoke fear

The subpoenas are related to an investigation into whether Minnesota officials obstructed federal immigration enforcement through public statements they made, two people familiar with the matter said Friday. They said then that it was focused on the potential violation of a conspiracy statute.

In a subpoena released by Frey’s office, the long list of documents required include “any records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials.”

Frey said: “We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with."

The governor's office referred reporters to a statement earlier Tuesday in which Walz said the Trump administration was not seeking justice, only creating distractions.

Hard to track arrests

Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the Trump administration's big-city immigration crackdown, said more than 10,000 people in the U.S. illegally have been arrested in Minnesota in the past year, including 3,000 “of some of the most dangerous offenders" in the last six weeks during Operation Metro Surge.

Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, expressed frustration that advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are accurate.

Good, 37, was killed on Jan. 7 as she was moving her vehicle, which had been blocking a Minneapolis street where ICE officers were operating. Trump administration officials say the officer, Jonathan Ross, shot her in self-defense, although videos of the encounter show the Honda Pilot slowly turning away from him.

Since then, the public has repeatedly confronted officers, blowing whistles and yelling insults at ICE and Border Patrol. They, in turn, have used tear gas and chemical irritants against protesters. Bystanders have recorded video of officers using a battering ram to get into a house as well as smashing vehicle windows and dragging people out of cars.

Bovino defended his "troops” and said their actions are "legal, ethical and moral.”

Pastor says protesters invaded church

A Minnesota church targeted by an anti-ICE protest Sunday decried it as unlawful, while one of the protest leaders called for the resignation of a church leader who works at a local ICE office. About three dozen people entered Cities Church in St. Paul, some walking right up to the pulpit.

“Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus — or any other act of worship — is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation,” Cities Church in St. Paul said Tuesday in a statement shared by its pastor, Jonathan Parnell.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the protesters as “agitators” in a post on X and said, “arrests coming.”

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and local activist, called for another pastor who works at ICE to resign from the church, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.” ___

Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Sarah Raza, Jack Brook and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Minneapolis; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Ali Swenson in Washington contributed.