Federal invasion: Minnesota, Illinois sue feds over ICE deployments – After a federal agent shot and killed a woman last week, two states—Illinois and Minnesota—that the Trump administration has targeted for immigration enforcement—sued Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday in an effort to limit the agency’s crackdown. Federal invasion

Officials in Minnesota are seeking to halt Homeland Security agents from deploying to the state despite the objections of Gov. Tim Walz and the mayors of the Twin Cities. Illinois attorneys are asking the court to ban federal investigators from using the controversial techniques adopted in their onslaught on the Chicago region.

The court filings come comes as hundreds more federal agents are being dispatched to Minnesota, the Trump administration said, as furor develops over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, characterized the deployments as a “federal invasion.”Assaults, racial profiling, harassment, and terror are all on the rise. Everyone is on lockdown in the schools. Businesses have been forced to close. Ellison said in a statement that police in Minnesota are wasting a lot of time dealing with the mayhem caused by ICE. “This federal invasion of the Twin Cities has to stop, so today I am suing DHS to bring it to an end.”

In an interview that aired on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Noem revealed the increase.To ensure the safety of the ICE and Border Patrol agents working in Minneapolis, we will be deploying additional officers today and tomorrow, according to Noem’s statement from January 11th. “They will arrive, there will be hundreds more.”

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Minnesota AG attacks Noem over ‘federal encroachment’

Noem, along with other high-ranking DHS officials, including Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, were sued by Minnesota Attorney General Ellison. A group of Minnesota state officials have petitioned a federal court to halt “the unprecedented surge of DHS agents into the state and declare it unconstitutional and unlawful.” Federal invasio

Ellison said in a statement that he is urging the court to act immediately, saying the federal agents represent an urgent threat to Minnesota: “The unlawful deployment of thousands of armed, masked, and poorly trained federal agents is hurting Minnesota.” In addition to Good’s death, Minnesota officials claim Homeland Security’s operation in the state has forced schools to go into lockdown, businesses to close and diverted police from usual responsibilities.

Noem said the deployments are vital to “root out this rampant fraud.” “For years, these corrupt, activist politicians have refused to protect Minnesotans,” Noem said in a statement. “We will root out this rampant fraud, we will arrest the criminal illegal aliens hurting Americans with impunity, and we will hold those who aid and abetted this criminality accountable.” ‘Occupiers rather than officers,’ Illinois AG says of feds

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in a statement dubbed federal agents “occupiers.””Border Patrol agents and ICE officers have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law,” Raoul added. “They arbitrarily, and often brutally, interview residents. Without warrants or reasonable cause, they brutally detain citizens and non-citizens alike.” Federal invasion

The state’s 100-page lawsuit describes the techniques federal agents used during Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s onslaught on the Chicago area. Illinois’ lawsuit includes the agency’s use of Black Hawk helicopters in assaulting a South Side apartment building, the fatal shooting by a federal agent of a Mexican immigrant and the use of tear gas near a children’s Halloween celebration.

State officials are asking the court to limit the measures agents can employ, including making arrests without warrants, utilizing chemical weapons and concealing of vehicle plates. Homeland Security’s actions in the Chicago region have decreased in recent weeks as agents have deployed to Minnesota. But Border Patrol Commander Bovino has pledged to return in force to the area.”If you think we’re done with Chicago, you’d better check yourself before you wreck yourself,” Bovino said in a statement. Bovino is also named as a defendant in the Illinois complaint.

Good shooting recorded on video

The Jan. 7 shooting, which was caught on film, quickly generated reaction against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and has widened differences between federal and state authorities. The federal government believes the agent acted in self-defense; Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others say he acted carelessly.

Footage shows multiple agents approach Good’s SUV, which was halted in the middle of the street. One officer tries to open the driver’s side door while someone is heard yelling at her to get out of the car. Good briefly reverses before driving forward, then proceeds to drive right, away from the agents. As the vehicle pulls forward, a cop standing on the front driver’s side draws his rifle and fires three times at close range.

Noem, in multiple interviews Jan. 11, defended the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, and accused Good of “domestic terrorism.” Video analysis by USA TODAY showed Good’s vehicle looked to be turning away from the officer who shot on her. Federal invasion

What to know about DHS’ deployment to Minnesota?

In the first week of January, the Department of Homeland Security announced a surge of 2,000 agents into Minneapolis and Saint Paul as part of the administration’s deportation goal and to investigate fraud. Federal officials describing the deployment termed it the “largest immigration operation ever.”

The fraud investigations were begun after President Donald Trump seized on examples in Minneapolis, calling out Walz and going after the state’s Somali community. Since 2022, federal prosecutors have accused more than 80 persons in the schemes, many of them U.S. citizens of Somali heritage.

Officials have not stated how long the federal deployment will last. The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it had detained 1,500 unauthorized immigrants since it launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.

Over the weekend, thousands of people went out for protests in Minneapolis. Though most of them stayed peaceful, some flare-ups saw federal agents deploy pepper spray and tear gas. Videos also show federal authorities, including Border Patrol officers, making immigration-related arrests. Federal invasion