Opinion | ICE in Minneapolis: Local immigration experts weigh in

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The following article was submitted on behalf of a number of immigration attorneys. Their names are listed below.

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We, the undersigned, are present and past chairs and executive committee members of the Minnesota/Dakotas chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), a nonpartisan professional organization that consists of more than 18,000 immigration attorneys and immigration law professors. Together, AILA’s members represent domestic and international employers that sponsor foreign-born professionals, skilled and unskilled workers, mixed-status families, and individuals who seek protection from persecution in their home countries.

As immigration lawyers, we work to promote justice and to advocate for fair immigration law and policy through direct representation, education and advocacy. In that capacity, we believe in the oath we took as lawyers — an oath that obligates us to advocate for the rule of law by emphasizing due process for all, fair and equitable access to legal representation, and upholding constitutional rights for both citizens and immigrants alike.

It is in this vein that we express our deep sympathy for, and concern with, the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good — an unarmed civilian and mother of three who was shot by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. While we in Minnesota are unfortunately familiar with deadly use of force, we write this to provide context in terms of how we got to this recent devastating loss of life in our community:

At that time, many immigration practitioners across the country expressed concern that this executive order would result in the eradication of immigrants’ constitutional rights and the communities that support them by swaths of armed and untrained agents.

On July 4, Trump signed into law H.R. 1, also referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This legislation provides more than $170 billion for immigration enforcement, including nearly $30 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation operations, while providing only $3 billion in funding for immigration courts and no additional funding for processing of legal immigration applications. Current appropriation conversations in Congress ask for even more ICE funding.

Like many cities across the country, Minneapolis and St. Paul have in place separation ordinances to ensure public safety and to build community trust. These separation ordinances prevent city employees from inquiring about immigration status and from enforcing federal immigration law, which city authorities are neither trained to do nor funded by the federal government to carry out. They also prevent federal agents from using city-owned property for immigration enforcement operations.

Because of these separation ordinances — and consistent with Executive Order 14159 — the Trump administration has identified the Twin Cities as a target for increased militarized immigration enforcement activity.

Operation Twin Shield was an enforcement action conducted in the Twin Cities by ICE in late 2025, in which the Department of Homeland Security deployed ICE agents in an attempt to identify fraud in the immigration process. Based on its own data, DHS targeted more than 1,000 individuals and conducted 900 site visits, including home visits in the early morning and evenings. It arrested four people and referred 42 others to ICE, presumably to start removal proceedings — meaning only 4% of the 1,000 targeted cases resulted in arrest or further action.

Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening) is a third Minnesota-focused enforcement initiative launched in December 2025, carried out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and designed to re-examine previously approved refugee cases that have already been heavily vetted by our country prior to their approval.

The victim of the Jan. 7 shooting was unarmed and driving away from DHS officers. Reports indicate that one officer shot her in the head, killing her. While the Department of Homeland Security immediately referred to the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” and an attempt to run over the officers with her vehicle, anyone who watches the video of the incident can see that what happened is not consistent with that narrative.

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As leaders in the Twin Cities Immigration bar, we hear the lived experiences of our clients and concerned citizens daily. We field the phone calls of business owners, schools, day care centers, hospitals and religious institutions asking what to do while ICE is knocking on their doors. We respond to erroneously issued deportation notices for clients, including those who are lawfully present in the U.S., and we file federal lawsuits to challenge the unjustified detention of our clients. We sympathize with students who tell us ICE is waiting for them in their school parking lots (including those traumatized by the recent events at Roosevelt High School), and we shake our heads as those whose valid asylum applications are improperly denied by unsympathetic judges who have been installed to replace those actually versed in asylum law.

Minnesota has a strong tradition of welcoming immigrants and refugees into our state, and this targeted effort by our federal government is an affront to those values. As we stand up for our immigrant friends, neighbors and family members, we must also fight for the rule of law and a system of immigration and public safety that recognizes our shared humanity, regardless of immigration status — because how we treat others is the ultimate measure of how great America is and how we value our civil liberties and constitutional protections.

With these enforcement priorities, both the scope and scale of ICE’s presence in the Twin Cities is not at all proportionate to ICE’s stated concerns. Further, with no communication or coordination with local law enforcement authorities, the recent incident in Minneapolis demonstrates that under current ICE policies, no one in our communities is safe — which is a direct result of our current administration’s systematic failure to follow the rule of law.

Yet as we wake up this morning in Minnesota, we are still living with the reality that 2,000 ICE officers remain on our streets. Minneapolis Public Schools are closed. We are still scared. We are still angry. And we are still unsafe. As leaders with deep expertise in how our immigration system is supposed to work, we can no longer stand by and watch these attacks against our community and citizens. ICE’s presence is not making our communities safer; in fact, it has the exact opposite effect.

Further aggravating the situation is the recent announcement that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was notified that the investigation into the death of Good will be led solely by the FBI, and that BCA would no longer have access to case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation. Needless to say, it is a challenge for us all to have faith in a government that has already expressed a biased conclusion of what has taken place before an investigation has even begun.

For this reason, we demand a transparent investigation. We urge our lawmakers and federal agencies to review policies governing enforcement actions to prevent unnecessary violence and ensure compliance with constitutional and human rights standards, to prevent situations like this from happening in the future. Until we have an enforcement that is measured, accountable and proportional, we agree with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other local leaders that ICE must leave our cities at once.