St. Paul, Minnesota — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison accused the Trump administration of turning immigration enforcement into “politics and retribution,” describing what he called a “surge” of federal agents in the Twin Cities as a constitutional crisis, and said he has seen “no evidence” of a federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier this month.
“In fact, I have evidence to the contrary that the federal government is investigating the death of Renee Good at all,” Ellison told CBS News in an interview Friday.
He added, “Todd Blanche, who is the No. 2 at DOJ, said they’re not investigating.”
At the same time, Minnesota authorities, Ellison said, are seeking a “full, fair and joint investigation.”
“In Minnesota, if you are killed — particularly if you’re killed…in connection with an action by an official federal or state, we will investigate your death,” Ellison said.
The state agency tasked with investigating Good’s killing, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, withdrew from a joint investigation with the FBI a day after the shooting. It said in a statement at the time the agency said it had been informed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that “the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.”
When asked in a Jan. 18 interview with “Face the Nation” whether the ICE officer who shot Good was under investigation, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the department was “following the exact same investigative and review process that we always have under ICE, and under the Department of Homeland Security, and within the administration.”
Ellison on the apprehension of 5-year-old Liam Ramos by ICE
Ellison strongly disputed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s assertions about 5-year-old Liam Ramos, who was taken into ICE custody outside his home. Ramos’ image has been widely circulated across the news and social media in a photo that shows him wearing a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack. DHS said the boy had been “abandoned.”
“I don’t buy that at all. In fact, there are very credible people who know Liam who refute that. I believe them over ICE,” Ellison said, calling DHS’ claim and subsequent treatment of Ramos “another example of atrocity” tied to the deportation effort DHS has dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.”
Witnesses told CBS News that ICE used the boy as bait to lure family members out.
“That is morally repugnant and nothing the federal government should ever be associated with,” Ellison said.
Suing to stop DHS’ warrantless arrests in Minnesota
Ellison’s office and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop what they allege are unlawful tactics, framing the surge as a planned deployment targeting Minnesota, not a routine enforcement action. He argued the operation has been fueled by President Trump’s anger over losing the 2020 presidential election.
“Mr. Trump said ‘retribution.’ He said he won Minnesota three times and that leaders here wrongfully denied him. So he’s mad at us,” Ellison said. Asked whether the ICE operation is about politics, rather than law enforcement, he replied, “It’s 100% about politics and retribution.”
DHS alleges leaders in Minnesota “created disorder” by failing to cooperate with federal law enforcement. Ellison called this “a false statement” and said planning for the surge of federal law enforcement had long been underway. He said he believes U.S. officials are shifting their rationale now because public opinion is turning against the operation.
At the center of the lawsuit, Ellison said, are accusations of warrantless arrests without individualized assessment — including alleged civil immigration arrests without probable cause — along with racial profiling and what he described as excessive detention.
DHS has claimed that there are a few arrest videos that were taken out of context.
“Yeah, well, they’re going to have to defend their position in court, because that’s not true,” Ellison replied.
If he’s successful in obtaining an injunction blocking the DHS operation in Minnesota, it’s not clear whether the state could enforce it — or that it would survive appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ellison acknowledged that uncertainty but said inaction was not an option.
“The only alternative is to do nothing and hope for the best,” he said. “We have to do all that is in our power to insist that the federal government obey the law.”
Ellison said the DHS surge is imposing significant costs on state and local governments, with “hundreds of thousands of dollars” spent daily on crowd control, overtime and emergency response.
He also described a stream of injury complaints tied to pepper spray, tear gas and “less lethal munitions,” adding that “literally dozens every day” are making reports, while also emphasizing the harms of what he called unlawful detention and imprisonment.
And pressed on whether the state would subpoena federal agents in its civil case to access evidence in the Good case, Ellison said legal and ethical constraints govern the boundary between civil litigation and criminal investigations, but he did not rule it out.
“We’re going to do what is legal and ethical,” he said.
ICE’s new authority to carry out warrantless searches
ICE agents have seen their authority expanded — a May memo that was recently disclosed by whistleblowers said agents are authorized to use force to enter homes without a judicial warrant. Ellison called the policy “unconstitutional” and said he’s heard reports it’s being used in Minnesota. He signaled the state would challenge such actions.
Cooperation with ICE
DHS has said that Minnesota is not cooperating with ICE detainers — requests to hold detainees for an additional 48 hours so they can be turned over to ICE custody — or other requests for assistance. Ellison counters that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility — not the state’s — and while Minnesota is not a sanctuary state, state laws and court orders sometimes prevent the state from assisting ICE because it cannot hold criminals beyond their sentence.
For instance, he said that if an individual sought by the federal government is arrested for driving under the influence, “our courts don’t have the legal authority to hold them once the court has said they need — they are to be released.”
He indicated that the state is following its laws as they’re written: “They’re asking us to join them in breaking the law, and we can’t do that. We believe in upholding the law.”
But cooperation with ICE detainers is uneven in Minnesota. In Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, the sheriff told CBS News that authorities do not notify ICE when detainees are released back into the community. The Department of Corrections, however, does notify ICE.
DHS says that if every county in the state coordinated with ICE, federal agents could go home and ICE would not continue to conduct raids in Minnesota.
“They’re saying, ‘Oh, well, if you only would tell us, do our job for us, then we could go home.’ No, you didn’t,” Ellison said. He added, “ICE needs to do its job that it is paid to do, and it has a massive budget to do.”
“Minnesota is not a sanctuary state,” he told CBS News. “We don’t do the federal government’s job, but we don’t in any way obstruct them from doing their job.”
He suggested his state is at the center of a collision between politics and constitutional rights and warned that “the only way to get along” with the administration is to “abandon constitutional rights.”
“We must insist upon our First Amendment right to vote for whoever we please and not be persecuted,” he said. “We must insist on the Fourth Amendment protection to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.”
