Minneapolis immigrant rights groups demand accountability from mayor and police chief

Minneapolis, MN – On Thursday, June 5, Minnesota Immigrant Movement (MIM), Asamblea de los Derechos Civiles, and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) held a press conference at Minneapolis City Hall outside of Mayor Jacob Frey’s office, hosting an array of local political and social justice leaders.

The community members and organizers demanded accountability from the mayor and MPD after local law enforcement helped federal authorities terrorize the immigrant community on Lake Street on June 3.

On June 3, witnesses reported an action aimed at spreading fear and terror into the Latino community, with more than 40 officers, most masked and armed, present in an operation including federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DHS, HSI, ATF, DEA, and ICE. Officers were heavily armed with military-grade weapons and had at least two BearCat vehicles and a long range acoustic device (LRAD).

Although Minneapolis is supposed to be a sanctuary city, the June 3 events raised questions for neighborhood residents and the media alike. The operation included officers from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department and the Minneapolis Police Department in the heart of Minneapolis’ Latino immigrant community. This was despite the city of Minneapolis having a policy to not cooperate with immigration enforcement activity and the Hennepin County sheriff also having stated an intention to not cooperate with immigration enforcement. The violence perpetrated by the federal agencies and MPD resulted in several people being injured, at least one in need of medical attention.

Speakers included four city council members, who had approved a resolution earlier in the day to have the city auditor do an after-action review of the city’s involvement in the raid. Despite MPD and Mayor Frey’s initial claims that local authorities were only present for “crowd control,” eyewitness accounts say the opposite. “What happened is disgusting, it is wrong, and we will not tolerate that in the city of Minneapolis,” Councilmember Jason Chavez said Thursday.

Rachel Dionne Thunder, representing the Indigenous Protector Movement, emphasized to the crowd that “No one is illegal on stolen land.” Vash Lamp of MIRAC closed out the press conference calling out the mayor, police chief, sheriff and president, “When Frey, O’Hara, and Witt violate and threaten our sanctuary city policies to subtly appease Trump, we will respond. There is no amount of police violence, military force, or political pr tactics that these four can engage in that will result in the people of our city surrendering to this vile and racist agenda.”

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