Minnesota and Illinois filed federal lawsuits Monday against the Trump administration, arguing that the surge of thousands of immigration agents into their states violates the Constitution and federal law.
The legal action comes days after an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, escalating tensions that have turned the Twin Cities into the epicenter of America’s immigration enforcement debate.
The suits don’t merely seek to slow the enforcement operations. They ask courts to declare the entire surge unconstitutional and impose strict limits on federal agents’ conduct.
What The Lawsuits Claim
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the deployment a “federal invasion of the Twin Cities” at a Monday press conference. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and several immigration officials as defendants.
According to the complaint, “thousands of armed and masked DHS agents have stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids and carry out dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests in sensitive public places, including schools and hospitals.”
The Minnesota suit makes several explosive allegations: that federal agents have engaged in racial profiling against Somali and Hispanic communities, detained U.S. citizens without cause, fired chemical irritants at demonstrators including outside a local high school, and arrested peaceful bystanders.
Illinois and Chicago’s lawsuit, filed separately, alleges immigration agents interrogate residents without reason to believe they’re in the country illegally, make arrests without warrants or probable cause, and deploy tear gas “without warning against persons who are not resisting.”
The Political Targeting Argument
Both lawsuits advance a provocative legal theory: that the Trump administration is targeting Democratic-led states for political retribution, not legitimate law enforcement purposes.
Minnesota’s complaint cites a January 9 interview in which Trump “essentially claimed that Minnesota is ‘corrupt’ and ‘crooked’ because its officials accurately reported election results and those results did not declare him the winner.”
The lawsuit notes that red states with larger undocumented immigrant populations have not received comparable enforcement surges. As the filing puts it: “Minneapolis and Saint Paul are now the latest of the cities widely considered to be Democratic cities with elected leaders who do not politically align with Trump to be flooded with federal agents.”
Illinois made a similar argument, saying Trump and his administration “have long directed threatening and derogatory statements towards jurisdictions that do not invest in enforcing federal immigration law.”
The Numbers Behind The Surge
The Department of Homeland Security has deployed more than 2,000 immigration officers to Minnesota, with another 1,000 CBP agents arriving over the weekend. ICE has called the Minnesota operation its largest enforcement surge ever.
To put that in perspective, Minnesota’s lawsuit notes the federal deployment “greatly exceeds the number of sworn police officers that Minneapolis and Saint Paul have, combined.”
The operation, dubbed “Metro Surge,” began in December initially targeting undocumented Somalis after a right-wing influencer accused several Somali-run day care facilities of fraud. State officials who investigated the allegations found no evidence to support the claims.
DHS says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in Minneapolis since the operation began.
Citizen Detentions And Civil Liberties Concerns
The lawsuits document multiple instances of U.S. citizens being detained by immigration agents. According to reports from the ground, a 20-year-old Crystal man of Mexican descent was detained by agents in a live-streamed encounter last week despite being a U.S. citizen born in Minneapolis.
NPR documented another case Monday: a Somali-American man who was briefly detained and questioned about his legal status while driving to work. “I know my rights here. I’m a U.S. citizen, I’m legal here, I’ve been over 25 years here,” he told NPR after being released.
Tribal leaders have also raised concerns, citing the reported detention of four homeless men who are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
“Quite honestly, we need ICE to just do what ICE is supposed to do, which is immigration enforcement,” Ellison told CNN Monday night. “They’re doing far more than that… by harassing people, by using excessive force on a routine basis.”
The Renee Good Shooting
The lawsuits come days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old prize-winning poet, while she sat in the driver’s seat of an SUV in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Federal officials claim Good “weaponized” her vehicle against the officer. Homeland Security Secretary Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist.”
State and local officials have disputed that characterization, saying Good was only trying to leave the scene. Video obtained by NBC News appears to show Good and her wife talking to the officer moments before he opened fire.
The shooting has transformed the immigration enforcement debate from a policy dispute into a question of accountability. Demonstrators have gathered across the country, and residents in Minneapolis have organized in group chats to trail immigration agents, honk horns, and alert neighbors of ICE’s presence.
What The Lawsuits Seek
Minnesota’s lawsuit requests a temporary restraining order seeking an immediate halt to ICE operations, which could be heard as early as Tuesday. Both suits ask federal courts to impose specific constraints on enforcement activities.
The Minnesota filing seeks to ban federal officers from threatening force or brandishing weapons against people who are not subject to immigration arrest. It also demands federal officers wear visible identification, activate body-worn cameras, and remove masks that conceal their faces.
Illinois’s lawsuit asks a judge to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection “from conducting civil immigration enforcement” in the state without “express congressional authorization.”
The Administration’s Response
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Constitution is on the administration’s side, calling the Chicago and Illinois lawsuit “baseless.” A White House spokesperson dismissed Minnesota’s suit as a “far left manifesto” that seeks to “smear law enforcement officers and incite violence against them.”
McLaughlin added that “ICE does not randomly arrest people or conduct operations without specific objectives. Nor does federal law enforcement execute operations without undergoing proper procedure, such as securing warrants when necessary.”
Secretary Noem announced Thursday she is barring lawmakers from visiting detention facilities without a week’s notice, citing “escalating riots and political violence targeting buildings and facilities used by ICE.”
Local Law Enforcement Concerns
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast Monday that frequent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement could spiral out of control.
“It could very, very quickly explode,” O’Hara said. “And with the level of staffing that we have and the time that it takes to get the National Guard to come in, it will be too late. That’s my fear.”
Governor Tim Walz has put the National Guard on standby, but O’Hara’s concerns highlight the strain the federal operation has placed on local resources. According to Minnesota’s lawsuit, Minneapolis police officers have worked thousands of combined overtime hours responding to incidents involving federal agents, costing the city over $2 million.
Schools, businesses, restaurants and day cares have closed temporarily, Ellison said, “because people are scared to go out… whether they are immigrants or they are citizens.”
What Happens Next
Legal experts say Minnesota will face an uphill battle proving the state was targeted based on illegitimate political factors, though Trump officials’ “tendency to comment publicly” on enforcement actions could provide ammunition for the state’s argument.
The lawsuits from Minnesota and Illinois may be the start of a broader legal strategy. Other blue cities and states are watching closely, and similar court challenges could follow.
For now, Minneapolis remains the test case for whether the federal government’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics can be checked by the courts, or whether states and cities must simply endure them.