Minnesota's ACLU says federal immigration officers aren't just going after undocumented immigrants—they're sweeping up US citizens, too, and now the group is taking the government to court. In a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday, the ACLU of Minnesota accuses ICE and Customs and Border Protection of grabbing people in the Minneapolis area without warrants or probable cause, "solely because the agents perceived them to be Somali or Latino," CNN reports.
The lawsuit targets the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, tying the alleged abuses to "Operation Metro Surge" and to past remarks by President Trump about Somali immigrants. ACLU staff attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson says the group is seeking an emergency order from a federal judge to halt what it calls systemic Fourth Amendment violations, arguing that "federal agents' conduct—sweeping up Minnesotans through racial profiling and unlawful arrests"—is both unconstitutional and "morally reprehensible."
The class action suit was filed on behalf of three US citizens, two men of Somali descent and one Latino man, who say they were unlawfully detained, the Star Tribune reports.
- Mubashir Khalif Hussen, 20, says he was on his lunch break when agents pinned him to the ground, placed him in a headlock, and took him into custody. He says his supervisor brought his passport card to the scene but ICE agents refused to review it.
- Mahamed Eydarus, 25, says he was shoveling snow with his mother when masked agents in unmarked vehicles asked why they were speaking a foreign language, demanded she remove her niqab and detained them for an extended period; Eydarus now fears going out in public, the suit says.
- A third plaintiff, a 22-year-old identified under the pseudonym Javier Doe says he was tackled outside the Target where he worked, dragged handcuffed into an SUV as agents blasted Mexican music, and later dropped at a Walmart lot after they checked his identification and confirmed he's a US citizen born in Minnesota. He says he sought emergency medical care for his injuries.
DHS is pushing back hard. In an email to CNN, a department spokesperson called the accusations "disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE," insisting that immigration enforcement is based on a person's legal status, "NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity." The spokesperson said DHS officers are guided by "reasonable suspicion" and denied that agents are conducting "indiscriminate stops." CBS News reports that the ACLU of Minnesota has an online form for people to report being "questioned, stopped, arrested, or detained by ICE where the officers did not have a warrant or where the encounter appeared to be the result of racial profiling."
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