Minnesota | Federal judge limits immigration police powers

(Washington) A US federal judge on Friday imposed restrictions on immigration police in the state of Minnesota, shortly after Donald Trump said he saw “no reason at the moment” to invoke the Insurrection Actwhich would allow him to use the army as a police force, in the face of demonstrations in that state.

The death of an American woman, killed in her car by an immigration police agent (ICE) last week, crystallizes tensions between the government and local Democratic authorities, who clash over their version of the facts.

In her decision, federal judge Kate Menendez notably orders officers not to arrest or detain demonstrators in their vehicles who “do not obstruct” their action, as well as not to use pepper spray. The Department of Homeland Security has 72 hours to comply.

At the same time, American media reported Friday that the Justice Department was investigating several state elected officials, including Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, for obstructing ICE’s action.

MM. Walz and Frey insist that federal agents are not welcome in the state and dispute the official theory that the officer who shot Renee Good was in self-defense, based on videos.

They are demanding that responsibility be established in the death of this 37-year-old mother, fearing that the FBI investigation is biased.

“Misusing the judicial system against its opponents is an authoritarian strategy,” denounced Tim Walz on Friday on X, while Jacob Frey criticized “an obvious attempt at intimidation” on the same social network.

The state’s main city, Minneapolis, has been under tension since the death of Renee Good.

Hundreds of police officers have since joined the approximately 2,000 police officers already deployed in Minnesota. And a Venezuelan national was injured by a new police shooting on Wednesday.

The operations, which civilians are still trying to oppose, continued under the snow on Friday, according to AFP photos.

“If I needed it (the Insurrection Act), I would use it. I think there is no reason at the moment to do so,” the American president declared to the press at the White House on Friday.

The day before, however, he had threatened on Truth Social to invoke this exceptional legislation if “corrupt Minnesota politicians do not respect the law and do not work to prevent professional agitators and insurgents from attacking” ICE agents.

“Incitement to violence”

Compilation of laws of the 18^e and 19^e centuries that Donald Trump has several times spoken of using, the Insurrection Act establishes a form of state of emergency which allows the federal state to use the army for the purposes of maintaining order on American territory.

It was invoked for the last time in 1992 by President George Bush Sr., at the request of the Republican governor of California, faced with riots in Los Angeles after the acquittal of the police officers who had beaten Rodney King, a black motorist.

In Minnesota, “debate is intensifying within the protest movement over how firmly to resist ICE,” a local newspaper, the Star Tribune.

For their part, federal agents fired twice, wounding a Venezuelan man on Wednesday and killing Renee Good last week.

The Department of Homeland Security also confirmed Friday the death two days earlier of a 34-year-old Mexican man, Heber Sanchez Dominguez, while in ICE custody.

At least four people have died in ICE custody this year, according to the agency.

“Wrongful” death

On Wednesday, lawyers for Renee Good’s family announced the opening of a civil investigation, a first step in possible action against the federal state.

Several polls published Thursday show that a majority of Americans consider the death of Renee Good “unjustified”. These surveys, including one from CNN, also establish that Americans largely disagree with the explanations given by the Trump administration.

On the legal front, the local section of the civil rights organization ACLU filed an action against the federal administration on Wednesday, accusing its agents on site of having “violated fundamental human rights (…), particularly targeting the Somali and Latino communities”.