Recent immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota — including the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis mother by federal officers — should be a warning to other communities, including Southern California, said Rep. Dave Min.
Min, an Irvine Democrat, was part of a group of more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers who converged in a chilly Minneapolis on Friday morning, Jan. 16, for a field hearing about federal immigration enforcement and the violence that has occurred in the area. They decried recent activity from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including the killing of Renee Good, deaths of people in ICE custody, apparent deployment of tear gas on students and more.
“What we are witnessing right now is unprecedented,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, said at the start of Friday’s hearing. “There is no modern precedent for this level of federal overreach, violence (and) lawlessness carried out in the name of immigration enforcement. This is not routine enforcement, this is not about public safety, this is not even about immigration. This is about political retribution.”
Min said he participated in the hearing to show support for those in the community impacted by the ICE activity and because of concern for his constituents in Orange County.
“I’m concerned that what happened in Orange County — and Southern California more generally — last year is going to come back more violent and more extreme,” Min said. “What we’re seeing in Minnesota right now is much more activity and infused with a complete lawlessness and unaccountability and violence that didn’t exist last year in Southern California.”
“When ICE comes back to Southern California — and I think they will en masse at some point — I have deep concerns that if we don’t stand up right now with Minnesotans, this will be even worse for us and our communities,” he said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the immigration agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal law, to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement to help with his administration’s massive immigration crackdown around Minneapolis. But he backed off that threat a bit on Friday, telling reporters, “I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I’d use it. It’s very powerful.”
Min, in an interview from Minnesota — where temperatures weren’t expected to get higher than 30 degrees and light snow was forecast on Friday — said he expects upcoming funding bills, related to Homeland Security’s budget, could be an avenue where Democrats concerned with ICE could make an impact.
Still, he said criticism of recent ICE actions in Minnesota shouldn’t be partisan.
“What’s happening right now is grossly illegal and unconstitutional,” Min said. “This shouldn’t be a partisan issue, not a left or right thing. Everyone should come together to say federal law enforcement agents shouldn’t go around terrorizing people.”
Also on Friday, the Orange County lawmaker visited a memorial for Good, who was fatally shot in front of a family member earlier this month, a shooting that has divided many. Those who defend the ICE agent’s actions say it was an act of self-defense; others have called the shooting unnecessary and reckless.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.