DOJ Subpoenas Walz, Others in MN Probe 01/21 06:27

   Federal prosecutors served grand jury subpoenas Tuesday to Minnesota 
officials as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded 
law enforcement during a sweeping immigration operation in the Minneapolis-St. 
Paul area, a person familiar with the matter said.

   MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Federal prosecutors served grand jury subpoenas Tuesday 
to Minnesota officials as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed 
or impeded law enforcement during a sweeping immigration operation in the 
Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a person familiar with the matter said.

   The subpoenas, which seek records, were sent to the offices of Gov. Tim 
Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul 
Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, the person said.

   The person was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation 
and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

   The subpoenas are related to an investigation into whether Minnesota 
officials obstructed federal immigration enforcement through public statements 
they made, two people familiar with the matter said Friday. They said then that 
it was focused on the potential violation of a conspiracy statute.

   Mayor: Subpoenas are to stoke fear

   Walz and Frey, both Democrats, have called the probe a bullying tactic meant 
to quell political opposition. Frey's office released a subpoena, which 
requires a long list of documents for a grand jury on Feb. 3, including "any 
records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials."

   "We shouldn't have to live in a country where people fear that federal law 
enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they 
disagree with," Frey said.

   Her, a Hmong immigrant and a Democrat, also acknowledged a subpoena, saying 
she's "unfazed by these tactics." The governor's office referred reporters to a 
statement earlier Tuesday in which Walz said the Trump administration was not 
seeking justice, only creating distractions.

   Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, is expected to travel to Minneapolis on 
Thursday for a roundtable with local leaders and community members, according 
to sources familiar with his plans who spoke on condition on anonymity because 
the trip had not yet been officially announced.

   The subpoenas came a day after the government urged a judge to reject 
efforts to stop the immigration enforcement surge that has roiled Minneapolis 
and St. Paul for weeks.

   The Justice Department called the state's lawsuit, filed soon after the 
fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration officer, "legally frivolous."

   "Put simply, Minnesota wants a veto over federal law enforcement," 
government attorneys wrote.

   Ellison said the government is violating free speech and other 
constitutional rights. He described the armed officers as poorly trained and 
said the "invasion" must cease. It's not known when U.S. District Judge 
Katherine Menendez will make a decision.

   Ilan Wurman, who teaches constitutional law at University of Minnesota Law 
School, doubts the state's arguments will be successful. He said immigration 
enforcement is clearly a matter of federal control.

   Hard to track arrests

   Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the Trump 
administration's big-city immigration crackdown, said more than 10,000 people 
in the U.S. illegally have been arrested in Minnesota in the past year, 
including 3,000 "of some of the most dangerous offenders" in the last six weeks 
during Operation Metro Surge.

   He highlighted the capture of three people with criminal records from Laos, 
Guatemala and Honduras.

   "These are not technical violations. As I mentioned, these are individuals 
responsible for serious harm," Bovino said at a news conference.

   Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, 
expressed frustration that advocates have no way of knowing whether the 
government's arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are 
accurate.

   "These are real people we're talking about, that we potentially have no idea 
what is happening to them," Decker said.

   Bovino defends his 'troops' as ethical

   Good, 37, was killed on Jan. 7 as she was moving her vehicle, which had been 
blocking a Minneapolis street where ICE officers were operating. Trump 
administration officials say the officer, Jonathan Ross, shot her in 
self-defense, although videos of the encounter show the Honda Pilot slowly 
turning away from him.

   Since then, the public has repeatedly confronted officers, blowing whistles 
and yelling insults at ICE and Border Patrol. They, in turn, have used tear gas 
and chemical irritants against protesters. Bystanders have recorded video of 
officers using a battering ram to get into a house as well as smashing vehicle 
windows and dragging people out of cars.

   Bovino defended his "troops" and said their actions are "legal, ethical and 
moral."

   "What we see when folks get swept up, as you say, oftentimes it's as 
agitators, as rioters, and now I call them anarchists," he told reporters, not 
"ordinary citizens, Ma, Pa America."

   Police in the region, meanwhile, said off-duty law enforcement officers have 
been racially profiled by federal officers and stopped without cause. In 
Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, police Chief Mark Bruley said he has 
received complaints from residents who are U.S. citizens, including his own 
officers.

   Pastor says protesters invaded church

   A Minnesota church targeted by an anti-ICE protest Sunday decried it as 
unlawful, while one of the protest leaders called for the resignation of a 
church leader who works at a local ICE office. About three dozen people entered 
Cities Church in St. Paul, some walking right up to the pulpit.

   "Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus -- or any other 
act of worship -- is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws 
of this nation," Cities Church in St. Paul said Tuesday in a statement shared 
by its pastor, Jonathan Parnell.

   Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the protesters as 
"agitators" in a post on X and said, "arrests coming."

   Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and local activist, called for another 
pastor who works at ICE to resign from the church, saying his dual role poses a 
"fundamental moral conflict."