Three Minneapolis mayor candidates support a stronger policy separating police and ICE
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The three main challengers to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have agreed to help push for a stronger immigrant sanctuary policy in the city. Frey didn’t attend the immigration group’s event Thursday and declined to sign on to the group’s demands.
A spokesperson for the mayor later said that while he supports a stronger separation ordinance, he has problems with some of the demands, saying they “would have life and death consequences, and would backfire on the very communities they are trying to protect.”
The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) asked mayoral candidates to sign on to a list of four main demands, which includes a ban on Minneapolis police sharing information with federal immigration agencies or providing crowd control for agencies like ICE. The candidates also agreed to push for a ban on face coverings for federal agents and punitive measures for local law enforcement agencies that violate the city’s separation ordinance.
The role of the Minneapolis police in immigration enforcement has roiled city politics since a chaotic raid on June 3 in south Minneapolis, which included ICE and other federal agents. Immigration advocates have questioned the police department’s role in providing crowd control for the action, although a report by the city auditor in August found that police didn’t violate the city’s separation ordinance, which prohibits city employees from enforcing federal civil immigration laws.
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At an event hosted by MIRAC on Thursday, mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis cited the progress made by movements for Black civil rights and LGBTQ rights. As mayor, he said he’d mobilize every part of city government to protect people “who are in the target of an illiberal and autocratic madman in Washington, D.C.”
“When you resist, when you protest, when you have acts of civil disobedience, we will stand behind you and put the full weight of the city to protect that right,” Davis said. “That’s the only way our democracy can work, and that’s the only way we can protect our immigrant neighbors.”
Mayoral candidate Jazz Hampton said meager city resources shouldn’t be allocated to support federal agencies like ICE that have “a higher budget than the military budget of other countries.”
“The job of the Minneapolis Police Department is to protect our residents, whether it’s Lake of the Isles or they are on Lake Street,” Hampton said. “That’s the job of the police department, and that’s what we’re calling on them to do.”
Mayoral candidate and state Sen. Omar Fateh said Frey failed the city by not showing up to support residents during the chaotic federal raid in south Minneapolis on June 3 at which he, Davis and Hampton were present.
Fateh said the city shouldn’t follow in the steps of institutions like universities that were pressured by the federal government to stay quiet after immigration raids or detentions.
“We have a federal government saying that you must sacrifice your values or you’ll lose funding. And, as a city, we’re saying, ‘Hell no. We’re not going to do that,’” Fateh told immigration supporters. “We cannot set the dangerous precedent of sacrificing any of our neighbors.”
Frey pushes back on parts of proposal
Frey’s main three opponents signed onto the group’s detailed 585-word list of demands, according to MIRAC. Among other things, the detailed demands state that no city employee “will cooperate with federal agents/officers from any federal law enforcement agency for any reason.”
“This would prevent us from catching the person who assassinated Melissa Hortman, the perpetrators of violent gun crime on the Northside, and a gigantic number of human and drug traffickers,” said the spokesperson.
The detailed demands also state that Minneapolis police will assist in removing federal agents from the scene of a protest or “arrest any law enforcement agent or officer … who covers their face.”
The spokesperson added, “How do they suppose we do that?”
A MIRAC spokesperson said their list of demands isn’t intended to ban all local and federal law enforcement cooperation, but to prevent the use of Minneapolis police to support federal immigration enforcement efforts.
“The MPD should not be colluding with the federal agency. That’s the lawful way to go about that, we are just asking that they abide by that,” said MIRAC member Myrka Zambrano.
The mayor’s spokesperson added that under Frey’s administration, the city has fought successfully in court against President Trump’s attempts to get the city to use its police force to enforce immigration laws.
The Minneapolis mayoral election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4. Early voting is already underway.
