Yves here. While most of us are busy watching events like the Iran war, the AI bubble, the sovereign debt default, and the climate crisis, ICE abuses continue, as we pointed out in our post about the lack of necessary health care for detainees in the New York City area. This post focuses on the severity of the misconduct in the Minneapolis raid last year.
By Brett Wilkins, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published in Common Dreams
Human Rights Watch on Thursday published a scathing report detailing how President Donald Trump has “created a human rights crisis” in Minnesota by ordering the deadly attack on the Twin Cities in the service of deporting multiple executives.
HRW called Operation Metro Surge, launched by Trump last December, “an unprecedented deployment of thousands of immigration agents and government officials in the state of Minnesota,” including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“The Trump administration says Operation Metro Surge is designed to keep Americans safe and often says it targets non-citizens with a history of violent crime,” the report said. “But the operation itself caused significant damage, and nearly two out of three people arrested by ICE during Operation Metro Surge had no prior US criminal history.”
At least three people have been killed in connection with the scheme. Ice agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renée Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, in Minneapolis on January 7. A week later, Nicaraguan prisoner Victor Manuel Díaz, 36, who was arrested during the operation, became the third person to die at the notorious East Montana concentration camp in Texas. On January 24, CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez and Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti, 37, also in Minneapolis.
“Government agents shot a third Minneapolis resident and then fired several rounds of gunfire,” the report continued. “Agents also violently smashed car windows without reason, threw people who did not want to be arrested, and set off chemical extinguishers and grenades that went off multiple times, sometimes at close range and without warning, resulting in injuries, including journalists.”
In addition, federal agents “arrested and illegally detained hundreds; engaged in acts of racism, harassment, and surveillance; and intimidated the people of Minnesota, violating their rights to freedom of speech and assembly, and interfering with their rights to education and health, among other things,” HRW said, adding that “citizens faced more abuse when they protested their rights.
HRW’s report calls for an immediate end to government abuses in Minnesota; independent investigations into allegations of extrajudicial killings, racial profiling, arbitrary detention, force majeure, and other rights violations; and full accountability of responsible officials.
“The federal government sent dozens of masked, armed men to arrest people on the street, take them out in chains, and torture those who wanted to testify,” Reagan Williams, a crisis and conflict researcher at HRW, said in a statement. “The people of Minnesota have come together to protest, document abuse, and provide critical assistance to one another. Action at the national level is needed to ensure accountability, end continued abuse, repair the damage, and prevent another crisis of this magnitude.”
“Operation Metro Surge exposed the violent and abusive practices of these organizations,” added Williams. “We have clear evidence of how they operate where impunity is rampant, and we need to urgently plan a new way forward with accountability and structural reforms that end these abuses.”
