(Minneapolis) Demonstrators for and against the latest wave of immigration repression led by the Trump administration clashed Saturday in Minneapolis. The Minnesota governor’s office announced that National Guard troops had been mobilized and stood ready to assist state law enforcement, although they had not yet been deployed to city streets.
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Since the strengthening of immigration controls by the Department of Homeland Security in the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, with the deployment of more than 2,000 federal agents, demonstrations have taken place daily.
A large group of protesters gathered in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday and confronted a much smaller group of people demonstrating in support of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Demonstrators chased away pro-ICE and forced at least one of their members to remove a t-shirt deemed indecent. Jake Lang, organizer of the pro-ICE protest, appeared injured as he left the scene, suffering bruises and scrapes to his head.
Snowballs and water balloons were also thrown before the arrival of an armored police van and heavily equipped Minneapolis police officers.
The National Guard ready to intervene
Meanwhile, the state’s National Guard said in a statement Saturday that it had been “mobilized” by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to support the Minnesota State Police “to ensure traffic safety, protect people and property, and guarantee the right of all Minnesotans to peacefully assemble.”
Commander Andrea Tsuchiya, spokesperson for the National Guard, clarified that, although mobilized and ready to intervene, it had not yet been deployed on the streets of the city.
The announcement comes more than a week after Tim Walz, a frequent critic and favorite target of President Donald Trump, asked the National Guard to stand ready to support state law enforcement.
PHOTO KEREM YUCEL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tim Walz
The repression carried out in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, progressive bastions, fueled daily demonstrations. Protesters denounce masked immigration agents who remove people from their homes and vehicles and use other aggressive tactics.
Like previous repression operations, that of the two cities caused at least one victim. Renee Good, a US citizen and mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a confrontation on January 7.
A federal judge ruled Friday that immigration agents cannot detain or gas peaceful protesters who do not obstruct authorities, including while they observe agents during Minnesota’s crackdown.
Living in fear
At a news conference Saturday, a man who fled Liberia’s civil war as a child said he had been afraid to leave his home in Minneapolis since being released from an immigration detention center following his arrest the previous weekend.
The video showing federal agents breaking down the front door of Garrison Gibson with a battering ram on January 11 has become a new rallying symbol for protesters opposed to the crackdown.
Mr. Gibson, 38, was served with a deportation order, apparently because of a 2008 drug trafficking conviction, which was later overturned. He remained in the country legally under what is called a supervision order. After his arrest Sunday, a judge ruled that federal authorities did not give him sufficient notice of the revocation of his supervised status.
On Friday, Mr. Gibson was again detained for several hours during a routine immigration check. His cousin, Abena Abraham, said ICE agents told her Friday that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller had ordered the new arrest.
The White House denied this new arrest and any involvement by Mr. Miller.
After his arrest, Mr. Gibson was flown to an immigration detention center in Texas, but was sent home following the judge’s ruling. His family had to use a dumbbell to hold their front door closed in freezing temperatures before spending US$700 to repair the damage.
“I don’t leave my house,” Mr. Gibson said at a press conference.
The Department of Homeland Security says an “activist judge” is once again trying to stop the government from deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes.
“We will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and deportation of aliens who have no right to be in this territory,” said Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of Homeland Security.
Mr Gibson said he had done everything he had to: “If I was a violent person, I would not have spent the last 17 years reporting myself. »
