A day after a multiagency federal sting at a Lake Street restaurant devolved into a clash with protesters, city and county officials returned to the neighborhood to better explain their role in the operation.
At a news conference Wednesday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara described some of Tuesday’s operational tactics by federal agencies as “tone deaf” and said he’s communicated his concerns to those agencies.
Tuesday’s enforcement actions were centered at the Las Cuatro Milpas, a Mexican taqueria, and involved more than 30 armed officers wearing badges from the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Everybody learned yesterday how heightened and tense the issue of immigration enforcement in this city is,” O’Hara said. “… It surprised me somewhat how quickly things escalated and how the situation deteriorated.”
Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said the enforcement action was one of eight search warrants carried out against a “transnational criminal organization.”
The Sheriff’s Office partnered with federal law enforcement on the operation, which included executing search warrants at several locations, including on Lake Street. Others were served in Hennepin County and neighboring metro counties, DeWitt said.
Both O’Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey said Minneapolis officers were involved in the action, but only to ensure public safety after protesters gathered.
“It was an action focused on drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking,” Frey said Wednesday. “Regardless, I just want to tell the community our police officers will not work to enforce federal immigration law, we will not be involved in federal immigration actions.”
But concerns about the cooperation of local law enforcement with federal ICE agents persisted Wednesday.
“Yesterday, an ICE spokesperson confirmed what Hennepin County residents already knew: their agents were on the ground as part of a criminal investigation involving multiple agencies,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement Wednesday. “ICE has confirmed that local law enforcement assisted them. Obviously, our community has questions.”
Erika Zurawski with the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), said the presence of heavily armed officers in military-style vehicles in an immigrant-dominated neighborhood sent a clear message.
“We believe the operation yesterday had a very specific goal to give a show of excessive force,” she said.
Local businesses affected
The clash had an immediate impact on businesses in the area, with several business owners along Lake Street reporting little foot traffic Wednesday.
Colonial Market owner Daniel Hernandez, who joined the mayor for a press conference and tour of local businesses, said it’s important for the city to clear up its role. But that won’t completely ease the fears already present in the community.
“I’m confident that once the people get the facts that basically there was no immigration raid, people will come [back],” Hernandez said. “But meanwhile, it will cost us a lot of money while things get settled.”
On Wednesday, Frey and Hernandez toured Mercado Central, La Mexicana and Taco Taxi, all located at the intersection of Lake and Bloomington.
La Mexicana owner Maria Lala works across the street from Las Cuatro Milpas. She said when she arrived at the intersection, no one questioned her.
“There was no [ICE] raid. Agents came to do their job but ICE never came to detain people or ask about immigration status,” she said.
She blamed protesters for creating a scene and said businesses are still recovering from the unrest following the murder of George Floyd five years ago.
Another business owner, Carlos Lopez, owner of Taxo Taxi, made the call to customers and supporters while speaking with the mayor.
He said events like the one that happened on Tuesday further push customers away from businesses and lead to community members isolating themselves.
“Visit the Latino businesses and support us so this thing doesn’t become dead,” Lopez said.
Multiagency sting
Little information has been released regarding Tuesday’s operation. An FBI statement said the investigation was the first in Minnesota as part of a Homeland Security task force investigating drug smuggling, labor trafficking and other complex criminal cases.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St. Paul Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt called the action a “groundbreaking criminal operation” under the Homeland Security Task Force that involved several federal law enforcement agencies. Holt’s statement provided few details but said the operation targeted activities from “drug smuggling to criminal labor trafficking.”
ATF agents on the scene were there to help carry out a federal criminal search warrant, according to ATF spokeswoman Ashlee Sherill. Demonstrators interfered with the operation, she said, including physical contact, which she said will not be tolerated. She directed further questions to the FBI and HSI.
The FBI declined to comment and directed questions to HSI.
ICE/HSI did not respond to questions about how the operation was conducted and if the agency anticipated community pushback.
Several federal search warrants filed in U.S. District Court this week remained sealed Wednesday.
Ahead of Tuesday’s operation, O’Hara said his knowledge of the situation was limited.
“There were a number of law enforcement agencies involved and it was a task force and I didn’t even know that task force was operating or had a variety of federal agencies. I knew a federal criminal search warrant was happening but I didn’t know exactly what,” O’Hara said.
The police chief denied MPD’s involvement in the execution of the search warrant and said the department’s presence was merely crowd control and public-safety related.
“People from the community were saying they didn’t want them [federal agents] there and we responded to get them out of there and try to resolve the situation,” O’Hara said.
‘Intimidation was the goal’
Zurawski from MIRAC said she has a “hard time” believing Mayor Frey and O’Hara after reading HSI’s statement on Tuesday’s operation. Many immigrant advocates are pushing for local authorities to immediately notify the public ahead of time if officers are working with any federal agencies on immigration enforcement or operations happening in the city.
Terri Nelson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union Minnesota, called the event a troubling instance of militarized law enforcement operations intended to intimidate. It’s unlikely that armored vehicles and federal agents with automatic rifles were needed to execute a search warrant at a small business that resulted in no arrests, she said.
“The scale of the operation and the presence of FBI, HSI, ICE, and local law enforcement seems deliberately provocative and designed to intimidate the people living in Minneapolis. That intimidation was the goal is evidenced by the unexplained presence of ICE at a non-immigration enforcement event,” Nelson said.
The ACLU is concerned that law enforcement used chemical irritants to disperse demonstrators, who they said have a right to protest.
The armored vehicles and the composition of the different federal agencies present at Tuesday’s operation is “not usual” for immigration enforcement action involving multiple people, said Linus Chan, an immigration attorney and director of the Detainee Rights Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School.
However, he noted that President Donald Trump’s administration has made immigration enforcement a top priority for all federal enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, ATF and Homeland Security.
“It’s very clear that immigration and customs enforcement was involved in whatever that action was yesterday,” he said, referring to the officers wearing ICE badges.
Because of the armored vehicles and high number of armed officers causing a disruptive scene in the surrounding area, “I don’t think what happened yesterday would be something that a rational administration would want to happen,” he said.
“On the other hand, this administration seems to value fear, and so if that is what they wanted to do, then that’s what they’ll get,” he added.
