US Justice Department probes Minnesota officials amid migration raids

The probe volition look into whether Minnesota officials blocked national migration agents from carrying retired their duties.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are among a radical of authorities officials who accidental they are nether probe by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a week aft they sued the national authorities implicit its arguable migration raids.

The DOJ probe volition reappraisal whether Minnesota authorities officials conspired to obstruct justness by preventing national migration officers from carrying retired their duties, US broadcaster CBS News reported precocious connected Tuesday.

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The probe is the latest twist successful an escalating showdown betwixt Minnesota officials and the medication of President Donald Trump implicit migration raids successful the state, including the cognition wherever an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cause changeable dormant Renee Good, a parent of 3 and a US citizen.

Governor Walz confirmed the DOJ probe successful a connection connected Tuesday, describing the determination arsenic “political theatre”.

“This Justice Department investigation, sparked by calls for accountability successful the look of violence, chaos and the sidesplitting of Renee Good, does not question justice. It is simply a partisan distraction,” helium said.

In a station connected X, Attorney General Ellison said the Justice Department had subpoenaed his bureau for “records and documents related to my office’s enactment with respect to national migration enforcement, not for maine personally”.

Ellison called the determination “highly irregular”, fixed the timing of the bid truthful soon aft the authorities filed a January 12 suit against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“Trump’s DOJ is much focused connected investigating my bureau than the sidesplitting of Renee Good,” Ellison wrote connected X.

“I volition not beryllium intimidated, and I volition not halt moving to support Minnesotans from this run of revenge,” helium said.

In a connection announcing the national suit past week, Ellison’s bureau said the ICE raids were “dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests, each nether the guise of lawful migration enforcement”.

Minneapolis Mayor Frey described the DOJ probe arsenic an effort to intimidate authorities officials.

Frey’s bureau earlier released a transcript of the Justice Department subpoena, which calls for “any records tending to amusement a refusal to travel to the assistance of migration officials”, according to The Associated Press quality agency.

The documents volition beryllium reviewed by a expansive assemblage connected February 3, which volition measure whether determination is probable origin to proceed with the lawsuit.

The Department of Homeland Security launched an tremendous migration cognition to deploy thousands of ICE and CBP officers to the Minnesota cities of Minneapolis and St Paul – known arsenic the “Twin Cities” – successful December, arsenic portion of Trump’s crackdown connected undocumented immigrants successful Democrat-led cities.

The Minnesota crackdown became planetary quality successful aboriginal January erstwhile an ICE serviceman changeable and killed Good, 37, who was monitoring an migration raid arsenic a national observer. The DOJ has since declined to analyse the shooting contempt wide nationalist outrage crossed the country.

Trump has threatened to usage the Insurrection Act against the authorities and has readied 1,500 active-duty soldiers successful Alaska to hole to deploy to Minnesota to quell imaginable protestation violence, according to a Reuters report, citing unnamed US officials.