Minnesota Police Who Refused To Work With ICE Now Mad Feds Won’t Work With Them

Minnesota’s criminal investigations agency said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office barred it from participating in the probe into the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation.

An ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Good during an enforcement operation Wednesday, drawing angry responses from Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office blocked the agency from participating in the investigation, cutting state investigators off from evidence, case files and interviews they said were necessary to conduct a full and independent review, the Associated Press reported.

BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said federal prosecutors reversed an earlier plan that would have allowed the BCA to investigate alongside the FBI. The announcement came as demonstrators and police clashed outside a Minneapolis immigration court Thursday morning. When asked about the dispute, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Minnesota officials lack jurisdiction over the investigation.

Minnesota police and local officials have previously resisted cooperating with ICE under long-standing sanctuary policies in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul, arguing those policies interfere with federal immigration enforcement and restrict cooperation with ICE.

Federal immigration agents expanded operations across the Minneapolis region after authorities uncovered what they described as a massive Minnesota welfare-abuse scheme valued at at least $9 billion. President Donald Trump said he would strip Temporary Protected Status from Somalis connected to the case.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public/Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0)