Minneapolis protesters urge judge to curb immigration officials’ use of force
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The case in Minneapolis comes amid an influx of thousands of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the area.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MINNEAPOLIS – Anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis urged a judge to restrict immigration officers’ use of force at a high-stakes hearing less than a week after a federal agent shot and killed a woman in her car.
The lawsuit was filed in December 2025, weeks before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer killed Minneapolis mother Renee Good
Ms Good’s death was not discussed at the hearing on Jan 13 before US District Judge Katherine Menendez, who heard arguments on protesters’ request for an order restricting the use of force by ICE agents while the case proceeds. The judge said she would issue a ruling by Jan 16.
The case in Minneapolis comes amid an influx of thousands of ICE agents into the area
The state of Minnesota on Jan 12 filed a separate suit over the surge, accusing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of targeting Minneapolis to “punish political opponents and score partisan points”.
“We are in unprecedented times,” Mr Kyle Wislocky, a lawyer for the protesters, said at the hearing.
He added: “DHS themselves have described this operation as the largest immigration operation ever in the country, what is going on right now in Minnesota.”
Protesters, who sued DHS and Secretary Kristi Noem
The requested injunction would also restrict ICE in several ways, including barring the use of chemical irritants against people who do not pose a threat of imminent harm.
Officers would be barred from pointing firearms at protesters “who do not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury”.
In filings, the Justice Department defended ICE agents’ conduct, saying officers “have faced threats and violence”.
A broad injunction, the US said, “would threaten officer safety and impede lawful enforcement activity”.
“Large crowds have surrounded ICE officers in the process of making an arrest and individuals have hurled projectiles at them to the point where the officers were ‘panicked’ and had to call for backup,” the government said.
One of the plaintiffs in the case is Mrs Susan Tincher, a mother of three who runs a small consulting business with her husband. She sued over what she says happened to her after she approached a group of ICE officers on a sidewalk.
She says the officers were surrounding a house and she asked from six feet away: “Are you ICE?”
Seconds later, she was forced to the ground, handcuffed and taken to the federal building where she was locked up.
“Agents cut off some of her clothes and her wedding ring, shackled her and left her in a cell for hours,” the suit said.
It added: “She was released without charge. Mrs Tincher believes ICE was retaliating against her for seeking information about and observing and protesting their activities.”
Justice Department lawyer Jeremy Newman told Ms Menendez that officers ordered Mrs Tincher to “get back” and that she did not do so, and that she was arrested because the officer “reasonably believed she was physically impeding their operation” to detain a violent criminal.
The judge noted that the government had not provided sworn explanations about the disputed incidents from the officers involved, despite having been given extra time to do so.
Another plaintiff and his wife say ICE officers boxed in their car and pointed semi-automatic weapons in their faces because they had followed them from the site of a potential sting operation at a church.
In a late filing on Jan 13, the Minnesota protesters said they are prepared to submit videos to the judge on Jan 14 showing specific incidents.
At the hearing, the judge said she wanted the government to hand over any video from agents’ body-worn cameras. The US said in its own filing that it is actively searching for videos and will turn them over. BLOOMBERG
