Ahead of 'No Kings' rally, advocates say ICE enforcement persists
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As organizers gear up for Saturday’s “No Kings” protest in St. Paul, immigration advocates on the ground warn that U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement actions continue in the state, even if they may be off the radar of many Minnesotans.
Mira Altobell-Resendez, an organizer with the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), said the enforcement tone has shifted away from some of the more spectacular arrests and public confrontations to a smaller-scale, more targeted and less visible presence. Although, in the end, they said they’re seeing the same outcome: Immigrants in Minnesota are still being arrested, detained for substantial amounts of time and deported.
Altobell-Resendez said advocates are experiencing exhaustion as the scale of the impact on the state’s residents has sunk in. They’ve been seeing fewer people at protests and hope Minnesotans aren’t taking their eyes off ICE just because the agency isn’t quite as visible anymore.
“It's really unsettling to have a bit more time to breathe, but also feel very on edge knowing that things are still going on,” Altobell-Resendez said. “We just aren't seeing them as much.”
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“Operation Metro Surge” brought about 4,000 federal agents to Minnesota between December and mid-February, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That led to regular scenes across the Twin Cities of agents using force or chemical munitions against arrestees or constitutional observers. Two Minnesotans were also shot to death by federal agents, and another was wounded. The government estimates that about 4,000 people were arrested during the federal surge in the state.
Despite claims from administration officials that the level of agents would return to pre-surge levels of about 150, a motion filed in federal court Friday by U.S. Department of Justice attorneys reported that almost 500 agents remain in the state.
Advocates said they’re working to repair some of the damage done during this winter’s surge and keep up public pressure against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Some immigrants MIRAC supports are still afraid to leave their homes for fear of being detained.
“There are organizations that have been doing rent support for immigrants, and they still have been needing hundreds thousands of dollars to be able to help people afford their rent while they still don't feel safe to go to work or their workplaces have shut down due to Metro Surge,” Altobell-Resendez said.
MIRAC is among the groups pushing the state government to enact policies to support immigrants, including a ban on cooperation between local police and ICE.
Immigrants are still facing increased legal pressure, said Julia Decker, policy director for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
Decker said a decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit this week makes it much harder for immigrants to challenge their detention. The court found that the legal justification being used by the federal government to detain immigrants inside the country without bond can stand.
Decker said the immediate impact of this ruling will be that more people will be forced to sit in jail while their cases work their way through the courts. She said the ruling means that even immigrants who haven't been detained face hard choices.
“For people whose lives are being directly impacted by this, [they’re] trying to understand, ‘Is my work card valid now? Can I continue going to work?’” Decker said. “These are obviously day to day life-altering impacts that are being discussed and decisions that are being made.”
The federal government also has been pushing what's being called a "Rocket Docket" to specifically push Somali-Americans asylum seekers through the hearings process more quickly.
“We have seen maybe a draw down of the overtly violent street level arrests of people, so less dragging people out of their cars, less in your face sort of violence,” Decker said. “But we still continue to see people being taken into custody, continue to see people being detained and removed from the country.”
Decker said it will take time for challenges to the federal government's policies to play out in the courts.
Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstration at the Minnesota State Capitol have said they expect more than 100,000 demonstrators. Advocates for immigrants are hoping this weekend's protests keep the public's attention on the federal government's immigration enforcement policies even though the federal surge in the state has officially ended.
