State lawmakers returned to the Capitol on Tuesday for the start of the 2026 legislative session with several pieces of legislation in tow inspired by months of federal immigration enforcement.
Nearly a dozen bills were introduced this week aimed at dealing with Operation Metro Surge’s impact, and with providing Minnesotans with protections and avenues for accountability. Border czar Tom Homan said earlier this month that most of the 3,000 agents sent to Minnesota will be withdrawn, with a small number remaining in the state..
Most of the bills were discussed in a handful of committees this week. Five proposals were debated in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Friday, prompting some sparring between DFL and GOP lawmakers.
Here are the bills introduced by state lawmakers this week:
Rendering aid to the wounded
Senate File 3688 – DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy of St. Paul
Murphy’s bill establishes civil penalties for when someone shoots another person and fails to render aid, and for witnesses to a shooting who fail to render aid. It builds on a current Minnesota statute that outlines criminal penalties for the same inaction.
“In Minnesota, we help each other, we push each other out of snow banks, and we bring hotdish in time of loss and celebration,” Murphy said while presenting her bill to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Friday. “We share resources with communities struck by danger and disaster, and we render aid.”
Murphy cited the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good and Jan. 24 killing of Alex Pretti. Both were shot by federal immigration agents while observing enforcement activity in Minneapolis; witnesses reported that the agents in both cases failed to render medical aid.
Agents at the scene of Good’s killing waited for local emergency personnel to arrive more than six minutes after the shooting as a doctor on scene unsuccessfully pleaded with the agents to allow him to administer CPR.
In the case of Pretti, an affidavit from a physician who witnessed the shooting said federal agents did not attempt to render aid or check Pretti’s pulse, and instead, spent their time counting his bullet wounds. The physician also said he tried to render aid but was denied by agents at the scene.
“I don’t want to live in a place where authorities think their responsibilities include shooting people, but don’t include helping the wounded or dying, even and especially if they’re the ones who caused it,” Murphy said.
The state’s role investigating federal shootings
Senate File 3660 – Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is the agency that investigates all officer-involved shootings that take place in the state. The current statute that gives the BCA authority to investigate shootings involving law enforcement only applies to police officers licensed in Minnesota; Latz’s bill would broaden that authority to include federal law enforcement officers.
The bill comes after the BCA was shut out of the investigations into the Good and Pretti killings, as well as the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa Celis, who was wounded by a federal agent in north Minneapolis on Jan. 14.
“It was highly unusual,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said Friday regarding how his agency was pushed out of the investigations. “Our local FBI field office continues to be excellent partners, but these are decisions that certainly weren’t being made here or driven by our FBI.”
Despite federal authorities’ decision to not share information with state and local investigators, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and the BCA have been conducting their own investigations into the Good and Pretti killings, as well as the shooting of Sosa Celis.
Moriarty on Wednesday announced that she has initiated a formal process, known as Touhy requests, to demand evidence from the federal government.
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Minnesotans’ ability to sue for damages
Senate File 3628 – Sens. Bobby Joe Champion and Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis
This bill, named the Minnesota Constitutional Remedies Act, establishes the right for Minnesotans to sue federal officials for monetary damages in state court if a federal official violates their civil or constitutional rights. Champion said the aim is to build on the federal law known as Section 1983, which allows people to sue state and local officials for violating constitutional rights.
“There is no legal path for individuals who have had their constitutional rights violated in which federal immigration officers can be held accountable for those violations,” Fateh said. “We’ve yet to see an end to the occupation that we’ve been witnessing, but even when it concludes, we know that that’s not enough, that there has to be accountability for the injustices that we have witnessed.”
The legislation also prohibits any state and local law enforcement agency from collaborating with federal agencies unless the federal agency agrees in writing that it will abide by the U.S. Constitution and Minnesota Constitution, and that the federal agency’s officers and employees may be held liable if they don’t.
Republican lawmakers pushed back on the legislation at Friday’s hearing, citing a letter from the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association opposing the legislation and arguing that the bill is redundant and would impose more costs on state and federal courts.
The sheriffs’ association also argues that the bill would “destroy long-standing law enforcement partnerships that have taken apart major criminal enterprises and caused the capture of some of the most dangerous criminals in Minnesota.” The organization cited recent investigations and prosecutions of social services fraud as an example of local and federal collaborations.
Unmasking federal agents
Senate File 3590 – Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville
The bill from Port aims to address reports of federal immigration agents wearing face masks when making arrests and conducting raids. It would update the state’s current identity concealment statute for local law enforcement to include federal agents.
“Community members, legal observers and even state employees have reported being shot in the face at point-blank range with chemical irritants, assaulted and threatened by people that they could not identify, and who refused to give their names or agencies,” Port said. “When that happens, there is no way to file a complaint or seek justice, and there’s no accountability when power is abused.”
The legislation makes it illegal for federal agents to hide their faces, badges and identification numbers while working. It also keeps the rule in place that local law enforcement officers cannot conceal their identity in public with a mask or disguise.
The bill would still allow law enforcement officers to wear religious coverings and protection from hazards like weather, smoke or gas. However, it provides more guidance about when law enforcement can conceal their identities while on duty. Those exceptions include undercover work, among other situations.
“This bill balances officers’ safety and investigative needs and ensures masked federal agents can no longer act against Minnesotans anonymously and with impunity,” Port said.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee raised concerns about the doxxing of law enforcement officers, citing numbers from Trump administration officials who say attacks on agents have greatly increased during the surge. One GOP senator, Sen. Michael Holmstrom of Buffalo, introduced an amendment that would have increased penalties for doxxing law enforcement, but the amendment failed.
Education protection bill
House File 3409 – Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, DFL-Minneapolis
The bill authored by Sencer-Mura would codify the right to education regardless of immigration status, and provide guidelines for schools on how to respond to immigration enforcement.
Under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, undocumented children already have the right to a public education. This bill would codify that decision in Minnesota state law, and also expand it to include perceived immigration status to address recent racial profiling concerns. It would also require schools to develop procedures around law enforcement agents attempting to access a school.
“It provides guidelines for how schools and districts should react to immigration enforcement attempts on small grounds, and so it really sets that state standard,” said Alex Vitrella, program director of Education Evolving, a member of the Push Forward MN coalition backing the bill. “What we’ve seen over the last few months is schools and districts scrambling to put in place policies and procedures to address what’s happening.
“Our larger metro districts have general counsels to support them in crafting these, but the smaller rural districts and charter schools are obviously less resourced, and it’s a lot to figure out.”
The bill would provide support for an issue school districts are already facing, Vitrella said, and assure families that students are safe at school.
Protecting ‘essential’ spaces
House File 3435 – Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis (schools)
Senate File 3699 – Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park (courts)
Senate File 3616 – Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley (child care facilities)
Senate File 3570 – Sen. Doron Clark, DFL-Minneapolis (colleges and universities)
Health care facilities bill – Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina
DFL lawmakers also introduced a package of bills aimed at preventing or limiting the presence of ICE to protect immigrants at locations they deem sensitive and essential for going about their lives.
As part of the suite of proposals, HF 3435 aims to keep immigration enforcement agents out of schools. School employees would be prohibited from allowing agents to access school sites unless they provide valid identification, a written statement of purpose, a valid judicial warrant and permission from the superintendent.
In a party-line vote in a tied committee Wednesday, this bill failed to advance from the House Education Policy Committee.
“The safety and well-being of our students should be our highest priority, not dangerous federal policy made on a whim for a partisan agenda,” said Rep. Sydney Jordan (DFL-Minneapolis), the bill’s chief House author, in a statement after the vote. “This bill should not be controversial, and the decision made by our Republican colleagues to politicize the safety of our students is deeply disappointing.”
The bill was laid over for future consideration.
Senate File 3699 from Latz would prohibit civil arrests, which includes by immigration authorities, of people who are attending courthouses.
“There’s nothing more fundamental to the operation of the justice system than the opportunity to participate,” Latz said. “That cannot be completed, whether to protect the public or to seek justice for the victims, if those participating in the justice system cannot do so safely and without fear of civil arrest.”
Senate File 3616 from Sen. Erin Maye Quade of Apple Valley, Senate File 3570 from Sen. Doron Clark of Minneapolis and a third bill from Sen. Alice Mann of Edina would limit ICE presence at childcare facilities, colleges and universities, and health care facilities, respectively.
Mann, who is a physician, said during a Thursday news conference highlighting the package of bills that she’s received several calls from health care providers across the state over the last few months detailing the conduct of ICE agents at their facilities. She said providers reported instances of agents wearing masks and carrying assault rifles as they roamed the halls, entering patient rooms without warrants and refusing to leave after physicians, as well as parking in no-parking zones and blocking ambulances.
“For the federal government to target spaces that care for the bodies of people, where mothers will hold their newborns for the first time, where people will take their last breath … what does that say about how far we have fallen,” Mann told reporters. “Protecting these spaces should not be a partisan issue but it is, because if it weren’t, we would not be here today.”
Staff reporter Becky Z. Dernbach contributed to this report.
