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Immigration enforcement in Minnesota
Jon Collins

Judge orders federal government to justify spying at Minneapolis church

A sign posted outside of a building in snow
A sign outside the University Baptist Church in the Dinkytown area indicating federal agents are not welcome on the premises. Homeland Security allegedly spied on the church by sending an undercover operative to observe and record a May 28 martial arts class inside the church, potentially violating a court order barring the department from enforcing civil immigration laws at places of worship.
U.S. District Court for Minnesota

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The judge has ordered federal agencies to explain why they shouldn't be held in contempt of court for violating an injunction barring immigration enforcement actions at a Minneapolis church.

A federal judge has set a hearing for next week to hear why the government believes they shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for violating an injunction covering a Minneapolis church where the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted an undercover operation in May.

Court records released as part of the conspiracy case against 15 Minnesota activists who oppose ICE showed federal agents extensively monitored protesters in the Twin Cities at churches, union halls and public libraries throughout the spring. That includes a May operation where an undercover agent attended what the government described as a left-wing martial arts club event in the basement of University Baptist Church in the Dinkytown neighborhood.

The church is part of an injunction issued in February in the District of Massachusetts involving churches from around the country. It forbids the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from taking “immigration enforcement action” at any of the involved churches, including a ban on “arrest, seizure, search, interrogation, questioning, interview or investigation.”

Last week, an alliance of churches involved in the injunction filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to order the government to explain why it shouldn’t be held in contempt for violating the injunction. It included a declaration from church member and former church president Jean Lubke, who said sending a federal immigration agent into the church was a “complete violation of our sacred space.”

In a separate filing Friday in the conspiracy case against the 15 Minnesota anti-ICE activists, the government argued that the gymnasium where the agent recorded participants was part of an “adjacent protected area,” and not the church proper.

The government argued that Homeland Security didn’t violate the injunction because the church wasn’t being used for an event that was “central to its mission.”

The government said the undercover agent “was not engaged in immigration enforcement as defined by the injunction or as set forth in Title 8 of the United States Code,” according to the federal government’s filing. “Rather, the investigation related … ongoing incidents of the indicted conspiracy.”

In a response Sunday, the churches said the gym is located immediately below the church’s sanctuary and not separate from the rest of the building.

The church building’s “protection does not vary from hour to hour based on whether [Homeland Security] believes what’s going on inside at that moment is ‘central’ enough to a plaintiff’s religious mission,” according to the churches’ motion.

Attorneys for the churches note Homeland Security had not made any efforts to challenge the scope of the injunction’s ban on certain areas of the churches, but it was trying to “quibble” about the details in the injunction after disregarding it.

Saylor ordered the government to show why they shouldn’t be held in contempt by this Friday. He scheduled a court hearing on the matter for Sept. 4.

Community activists and groups subpoenaed by the federal government have expressed outrage about the scale of the government’s surveillance of anti-ICE activists in Minnesota.

The federal government is also fighting efforts by the 15 defendants in the Minnesota conspiracy case to access more evidence, which they believe would show the administration acted vindictively in prosecuting activists seen as political enemies.

Defendants want to see correspondence between administration and Homeland Security officials and prosecutors about how they began the conspiracy investigation. They also want access to any communications among investigators that point towards a political motive or attempts to suppress First Amendment activities.

In last week’s filing in the conspiracy case, prosecutors argued the so-called Minnesota 15 haven’t shown that the documents they’re requesting would be “material to preparing the defense” and have not proven they were subject to “selective prosecution, vindictive prosecution or outrageous government conduct.”

A hearing in the conspiracy case is scheduled for Thursday. The government requested an extension because they’ll only have one prosecutor available. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Schultz denied that request because the government didn’t explain “why more than one counsel is necessary for this hearing” and why no others are available.