Trump administration targets Minnesota in latest sanctuary policy lawsuit

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Minnesota, its two largest cities and a county over so-called sanctuary policies that the agency says interfere with the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration policies.

The lawsuit alleges the policies result in the release of dangerous criminals who would otherwise be subject to deportation, and it asks a federal court to invalidate state and local laws and policies that it says impede immigration enforcement. The suit filed Monday targets the state as well as Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis.

“Minnesota officials are jeopardizing the safety of their own citizens by allowing illegal aliens to circumvent the legal process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Minnesota is one of the latest jurisdictions targeted over their immigration enforcement policies by the Trump administration, which has sued Colorado, Illinois, New York and New Jersey as well as several cities including Boston,Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City and Rochester, New York.

On a separate front, federal authorities said Tuesday they found widespread immigration fraud in a first-of-its-kind surge operation they conducted in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area this month. And they said they’re planning to expand the strategy to “many” other cities, but declined to name them.

Authorities say a sweep found widespread immigration fraud in the Twin Cities

“Operation Twin Shield” targeted over 1,000 suspicious immigration cases involving more than 900 individuals, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Investigators said they discovered evidence of fraud or other red flags in 275 cases. They referred 42 noncitizens for possible enforcement action, and arrested four. They said they expect those numbers to increase as more investigations are completed. No criminal charges were announced.

“What they found should shock all of America,” Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said at a Minneapolis news conference. He said officers encountered “blatant marriage fraud,” overstays and other visa abuses, and people claiming to work at businesses that may not exist. The agency did not say how many more cases than normal it analyzed.

Edlow singled out “troubling patterns” with sponsors for the “ Uniting for Ukraine ” program that he said should have raised serious concerns for President Joe Biden’s administration. Biden launched it in 2022 as a humanitarian parole program that allowed Ukrainians to temporarily stay and work in the U.S. if they found American sponsors. President Donald Trump’s administration put the program on hold in January.

Edlow said his officers got “great cooperation among our federal partners, and that’s where the cooperation ended,” due to what he said were local sanctuary policies.

The lawsuit against Minnesota

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said his state is not stopping the federal government from partnering with local law enforcement to prosecute dangerous individuals.

“This baseless lawsuit is just more political retaliation against Minnesota and we will respond in court,” Ellison, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The lawsuit cities a nonbinding advisory opinion Ellison issued in February that said neither state nor federal law authorizes state or local authorities to hold individuals for immigration detainers if they would otherwise be released from custody. The lawsuit says many counties cite that opinion as a reason not to turn over people who could be subject to deportation. The state also bars sharing driver’s license data for immigration enforcement, the lawsuit notes.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said his city “proudly welcomes immigrants, refugees, and families seeking opportunity” and won’t back down.

“Donald Trump has built his career on attacking immigrants and dividing Americans, and now he’s dragging our city into court with a fear-driven, politically motivated lawsuit,” Frey said in a statement.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was among three Democratic governors summoned by a U.S. House oversight committee back in June for a grilling over their states’ immigration policies. Walz rejected the assertion that Minnesota is a sanctuary state. It has no statewide law protecting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally from deportation.

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Hennepin County, however, restrict the extent to which their law officers and other employees can cooperate with immigration enforcement, the lawsuit noted. The Hennepin County jail, for example, won’t hold people solely for administrative immigration detainers and doesn’t notify immigration authorities when individuals subject to those detainers are released.

What exactly is a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction?’

There’s no legal definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction, but the term generally refers to governments with policies limiting cooperation with immigration authorities. Courts previously have upheld the legality of such laws.

Minnesota was among 14 states and hundreds of cities and counties listed earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security as “sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law.” The list later was removed from the department’s website after criticism that it errantly included some local governments that support Trump’s immigration policies.

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Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska.