Minneapolis police tangled in immigration enforcement action

Recent raids in Worthington and Willmar have created a climate of fear in immigrant communities in Minnesota. The Willmar raid is the subject of a federal lawsuit, based on alleged violations of constitutional rights by ICE agents who allegedly forced their way into homes without warrants. Racial profiling was an issue in Worthington and Willmar, with ICE agents targeting for investigation those people on the street or in the workplace who "look Latino."

A community report from the scene comes from Alondra Espejel—Minneapolis Police Department creates chaos with ICE: community responds, demands immigration reform now. To view photos of the operation, visit: MN Immigrant Freedom Network's Flickr site . To view videos from the scene, visit: Youtube

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak acknowledged Sunday that city officials "are a bit in the dark at this point," but reiterated that the city of Minneapolis is "absolutely committed to our policy of separating our police from immigration."

Minneapolis has enacted an immigration separation ordinance, which says in essence that city police should not ask about immigration status except when directly relevant to a criminal investigation. Similar ordinances have been enacted in St. Paul and in cities across the country. Police departments are among the strongest advocates for immigration separation ordinances, which help to establish trust and increase reporting of crimes by immigrant communities.

While Mayor Rybak insists that his commitment is "rock solid – the police should be here first and foremost to protect and serve the people of Minneapolis," community members are skeptical. Alondra Espejel of the Immigrant Freedom Network, said: "Once you have ICE agents discussing plans with MPD in public, that is collaboration. ... What kind of message does this send to the community? Actions speak louder than words. It is too late now, over 200 community members saw the MPD park next to ICE vehicles, I saw a high up ICE official talking with BCA and an MPD officer. If that is not collaboration, then what is? Let's stop passing the buck. The MPD metio la pata [put their foot in it], ... Unfortunately, all the evidence we have shows that the MPD, whether they planned to or not, did cooperate with the ICE operation that day."

Peter Brown of the National Lawyers' Guild said he would be sending a request for review of Minneapolis police participation in Saturday's operation to the Minneapolis City Council Public Services committee.

"We are very interested in getting any information and seeing any videotapes that anyone has," Rybak said. "We are very interested in seeing any tapes and reviewing those and seeing if our officers followed our policy. ... Anyone can reach me at my e-mail at
rt@minneapolis.org.

Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Sharon Lubinski said, "There are rumors, but we were not there for immigration enforcement." She said that Minneapolis police were called in on Saturday by the BCA, which was serving "serious warrants that were not immigration violations." As of Sunday night, no official information was available on how many arrests were made, by what agencies or on what charges.

On Sunday, activists gathered again at Lake and Bloomington to protest the previous day's operation and, in particular, the apparent participation of Minneapolis police in an immigration enforcement operation. Individuals who had been present on Saturday described Minneapolis police and ICE agents conferring on plans, chasing people and apparently working closely together.

The recently-organized Community Raid Response Committee, summoning its members by text messaging, arrived Saturday shortly after ICE vehicles and Minneapolis police assembled in the parking lot of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at 28th Street and 15th Avenue. Perry Bellow-Handelman reported that Minneapolis police officers and ICE agents appeared to be conferring on plans, and then proceeded to Lake and Bloomington. Committee members followed ICE agents and police throughout the next four hours, as they moved through the neighborhood. A crowd of activists and community members, which grew to about 200 over the course of the day, observed, protested, distributed literature advising people of their rights, videotaped and photographed the ICE and police operations.

At Lake and Bloomington, the co-owner of Guayaquil restaurant discovered the building's back door was open and went into the alley to find out who had opened it. Police patted her down for weapons, and told her they had a warrant but refused to show it to her. (Later in the day, officers showed a warrant to the second co-owner of the restaurant.) The owner reported that officers arrested two customers and four people from the apartments above the restaurant. As seemed to be the case throughout the day, it was unclear whether the arrests were made by ICE or BCA agents. Maria Belen Power, another witness, reported that Minneapolis police joined in chasing someone in the alley. The owner of the grocery next to Guayaquil said Minneapolis police also chased someone across his rooftop.

Other witnesses reported arrests at buildings at 30th and Grand, 31st and Pleasant, and 25th and Pleasant, and a search of an apartment at 32nd and Cedar, where agents found no one at home but carried away boxes of material. Law enforcement officers from the Minneapolis Police Department, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and ICE all participated in some way in the operation, and it often was unclear which officers were making arrests.

Patrick Leet, an immigration activist, who was arrested Saturday by Minneapolis police, characterized the operation as "terrorizing the community" and as "a full, frontal attack – to come to Lake and Bloomington on a Saturday afternoon, taking people out of their homes."

Immigration-related raids have increased across the country during the past five months, with accompanying increases in arrests and deportations. According to a local immigration attorney, "ICE has many more agents and dollars to carry out these actions than they used to and they will spend those dollars and employ their agents to do what Congress and this Administration have charged them with doing. The cold reality is that ICE now has those agents hired, trained, detailed to Bloomington, MN, and they are not leaving."

Mary Turck

Mary Turck is the editor of the TC Daily Planet.