On Jan. 28, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against 16 Minnesotans accused of assaulting or impeding federal immigration officers, sharing photos of those arrested being held by agents who turned their backs to the cameras on social media.
Among the 16 was Nasra Ahmed, a Somali American woman accused of spitting on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who accosted her on Jan. 14. The official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) X account later posted Ahmed’s booking photo.
“These violent, anti-ICE anarchists will not deter DHS law enforcement from arresting and deporting the worst of the worst in Minnesota. They are fighting to keep rapists, murderers, drug dealers and predators in their community. You will not stop us. This administration will not be intimidated,” DHS wrote in an official post.
But just weeks later, the government reduced charges against all 16 from felonies to misdemeanors. Ahmed pleaded not guilty and her legal team pushed the government to produce discovery evidence about her arrest.
The government produced nothing, and on May 14 motioned to dismiss the case. And on June 12, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim dismissed the charges against Ahmed with prejudice, protecting her from future prosecution.
The federal government wins the vast majority of criminal cases it files. But critics charge that many of those stemming from Operation Metro Surge have been rushed, shoddy and politically motivated. Six other defendants whose photos Bondi shared have also had their cases dismissed, court records show, including a second case dismissed with prejudice.
Similar prosecutions continue, however. This week U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen announced charges against 15 others accused of assaulting or impeding federal agents carrying out the largest immigration enforcement effort in American history.
“This case takes things even further than before because people are being prosecuted generally for no specific actions, but for political organizing and resistance,” said defense attorney Jordan Kushner, who represents both Ahmed and one of those indicted this week, Erik Davis.
Starting with the 2016 shooting of Philando Castile by then-St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez, Minnesotans protesting local and federal law enforcement have been charged with a variety of riot-related crimes. But in both state and federal courts, many of those cases have been dismissed or had charges lowered to misdemeanor offenses, according to news archives and court records.
‘Weapons to punish dissent’
Kushner has worked as a defense attorney for 35 years. Ahmed’s case is the first time he can remember the government filing a motion to dismiss, he told Sahan Journal. Now he’s defending another client charged with resisting ICE operations in Minnesota.
“I think the cases are all persecutions and are all political weapons to punish dissent,” Kushner said.
Davis, a professor at Macalester College, is charged with impeding or assaulting federal law enforcement. The indictment describes his role as organizational. It mentions him moderating a Jan. 11 meeting about resisting the ICE operation and planning a direct action at the Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 23. Charging documents also claim Davis sent out a planning message days before the Jan. 23 protest, where prosecutors say the group attempted to block access to the building, which impeded ICE operations.
Davis is being persecuted for exercising his first amendment rights, Kushner said.
The indictment leads Kushner to believe federal agents had an infiltrator within groups organizing resistance to Operation Metro Surge, and that the most recent indictment shows the government has spent a huge amount of resources going after citizens.
“They found all this time to go after these activists who didn’t hurt anyone, but didn’t find any time to go after officers who committed murder,” Kushner said, referring to the killings of Renee Good, shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, and Alex Pretti, shot by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection agent Raymundo Gutierrez.
Many cases dismissed
A total of 36 people, including the 16 Bondi posted on X, were charged with assaulting or impeding federal agents in December and January in Minnesota, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has dropped 18 of those cases, according to MPR News.
That’s unusual. The federal government historically wins more than 90% of its criminal cases with defendants either pleading or being found guilty, according to Pew Research Center. Typically about 8% of DOJ get dismissed, Pew found. But across the country, many protestors charged with impeding or assaulting ICE officers have had their cases dismissed.
In Chicago, prosecutors in May moved to drop conspiracy charges against six people who demonstrated outside of an ICE holding facility.
“At this point prosecutions are being driven by the political agenda,” Kushner said.
Asked by reporters Tuesday about his confidence in the latest indictment given losses in similar cases, Rosen said he didn’t feel those cases had failed in any way.
“You watch how this case plays out, you watch how the evidence plays out, and the evidence will prove it all,” Rosen said.
State charges often dismissed
Events have played out similarly in the local cases following large protests in Minnesota. Mass arrests of people during protests across the Twin Cities resulted in large batches of cases being dismissed in recent years.
After Castille was shot and killed, 73 people were arrested for protesting outside the governor’s mansion in St. Paul. Many of those people pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly charges, MPR News reported. But after a jury trial resulted in six people being acquitted, the St. Paul City Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss charges against the 17 remaining defendants.
After then-Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in May 2020, about 95% of 520 misdemeanor citations issued in the Twin Cities were dismissed, according to the Minnesota Reformer.
Cases have also been thrown out in local charges filed against people protesting ICE. In 2019, 29 people were arrested and cited for unlawful assembly protesting ICE operations during the first Trump administration outside the Whipple building. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office dismissed those cases because it was a peaceful protest, Fox 9 reported.
In recent months, dozens of protesters arrested outside the Whipple building by local law enforcement during Operation Metro Surge have seen cases dismissed in Hennepin County District Court, KARE 11 reported.
“I think that there’s an understanding that our clients are exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and to peacefully assemble,” defense attorney Trisha Pohland told KARE. “And they’re standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.”
