The local and national American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, Jan. 15, seeking to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from stopping and questioning people based on their ethnicity and to prevent them from arresting people wrongfully.
The lawsuit alleges ICE’s activities in Minnesota violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments, which prevent unreasonable searches and seizures and guarantee equal protection, as well as three federal laws preventing false arrests.
The lawsuit cites accounts from three U.S. citizens in the Twin Cities who ICE used force against and detained and seeks an emergency order from a judge to put a stop to such behavior.
At a Thursday news conference, ACLU of Minnesota Staff Attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson said that “thousands of masked federal agents with militarized gear and weapons are terrorizing our city and our state.”
“The only way to stop this is for people to stand up for their rights,” Ahlin-Halverson said. “Our clients are bravely coming forward and asking the court to do something about this as soon as possible.”
If it prevails, the lawsuit would not remove the 2,000 to 3,000 federal immigration agents who are currently deployed in Minnesota. But it would set boundaries on their activities and create “a mechanism” that would enforce the injunction, Ahlin-Halverson said.
The lawsuit follows another local ACLU lawsuit filed last month that seeks to grant additional rights to people who document and protest federal immigration actions in Minnesota.
The lawsuit is filed on the behalf of Mubashir Hussen, 20, whose story of being arrested by ICE in December has circulated widely in local media. Since then, he alleges that ICE agents pepper-sprayed him in the face on Jan. 6 as he was recording an ICE protest on his phone.
The lawsuit also cites an account of Mahamed Eydarus, 25, of Fridley, who alleges that ICE agents racially profiled him on the morning of Dec. 10 as he was leaving a night shift as a personal care assistant and attempting to shovel his car out of snow with his mother. The ICE agents, who were wearing ski masks, demanded that Mahamed and his mother show their ID to prove they were in the country legally, according to the suit. They also allegedly asked Mahamed’s mother to remove her niqab, a religious face covering, and asked why both were speaking a “foreign language.”
Finally, the lawsuit cites the account of Javier, a 22-year-old Richfield resident whose arrest at Target recently went viral on social media. The suit does not reveal Javier’s last name. According to the lawsuit, four Border Patrol agents and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino approached Javier in the Richfield Target parking lot as he was on his way to work.
Bovino and the agents repeatedly asked Javier and his coworker whether they were U.S. citizens. Javier responded by swearing at Bovino and the agents, which the lawsuit notes is protected speech under the U.S. Constitution.
The agents tackled and pinned Javier in the entrance of the Target. Javier alleges one of the agents pressed his knee on his neck. They arrested Javier and eventually dropped him off in the parking lot of a Walmart in Bloomington.
Ahlin-Halverson said similar lawsuits in other states have had success and also emphasized that federal ICE and Border Patrol activity in the Twin Cities has been “objectively worse.”
She called ICE and Border Patrol’s recent racial profiling and use of force here “more extreme” than in other states.
