On January 21, the 8th Circuit of the federal U.S. Court of Appeals lifted restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which prevented them from retaliating against protesters, arresting people participating in protests, and using pepper spray and crowd control munitions. This court order comes as ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have doubled down on state repression amidst protests in Minneapolis over the murder of Renee Nicole Good. Just a few days later, federal agents shot and killed ICU nurse and observer Alex Pretti, before tear-gassing protesters who flocked to the area.
Leading figures in the Trump administration have developed contrived explanations and justifications for the actions of ICE agents in the Twin Cities. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson claimed the department is taking “appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law,” while depicting peaceful protesters in Minneapolis as “dangerous rioters.” In response to Good’s murder, DHS Secretary Kirsti Noem doubled down on the claim that her murderer was acting in “self-defense” and accusing her of domestic terrorism. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi defended federal agents as “responding to obstructive and violent interference from agitators.”
However, it’s been clear through widespread reporting of the clashes in Minneapolis that anti-ICE demonstrations have been largely defensive, with ordinary people acting in solidarity with their neighbors, relatives, coworkers, and defending their communities against police violence. Rapid response networks have developed across the city, with community members and the working class organizing in their communities to fight against ICE raids. Both victims of ICE violence were legal observers documenting instances of ICE arrests, who were gunned down by haphazardly recruited agents receiving exorbitant contracts from the U.S. government.
This escalation of state repression in Minneapolis, along with its justification from the court system, represents an unprecedented attack on the working class backed by the full force of so-called “democratic” institutions. A recently leaked ICE memo circulated by top officials claims that officers have the authority to forcibly enter the private property of individuals facing deportation without a judicial warrant. DHS lawyers are claiming that ICE agents can use “a necessary and reasonable amount of force” to enter people’s homes solely with an administrative warrant signed by an immigration enforcement officer.
That a federal appeals court sided with DHS in giving unchecked power to ICE is no accident. For months the court system has been working to give carte blanche to the Trump administration in its authoritarian escalation against working class and immigrant communities. In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to limit the power of federal courts to issue universal injunctions on the Trump administration’s agenda, as a response to Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship through executive order.
In early September, the Supreme Court issued an unbelievably racist ruling which allowed immigration officers to detain people on the basis of whether they work in immigrant-dominated industries like construction, landscaping, agriculture, or car washes. ICE agents have also targeted individuals solely for speaking English with a foreign accent. Immigration officers across the country have consistently tested the limits of legal authority by holding immigrants without bond, deporting them without hearings, and assaulting individuals who record ICE arrests.
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Since federal agents are covered by qualified immunity, and it’s up to the federal government to prosecute them for criminal violations, this means that ICE agents who kill protesters and brutalize working class communities will likely face no accountability for their actions. While the federal court system continues to erode democratic protections in the face of state repression, it is up to us to defend ourselves from Trump’s attacks and organize workers and immigrants to fight back.
Minnesotans are showing up in full force and demonstrating to the nation what ordinary people can do against a militarized and empowered federal agency. The de facto general strike organized in Minneapolis this past Friday showed 50,000 people marching downtown, with businesses across the state shuttering and people flooding the streets in subfreezing temperatures.
As ICE continues to ramp up its violent offensive, we must not only mobilize across the country in solidarity, but organize workers and communities in self-defense, working across unions and social movements to turn our solidarity into action. We cannot wait for the Democrats or the courts to save us. None of us can be free until the Twin Cities are free!
The post How the Courts Legitimized ICE’s Violent Attack on Minneapolis appeared first on Left Voice.
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