ACLU sues federal agencies over alleged racial profiling in Twin Cities surge

Civil liberties groups filed a federal class-action complaint in U.S. District Court in Minnesota accusing federal immigration forces of a pattern of racial profiling, suspicionless stops and warrantless arrests during a recent enforcement operation across the Twin Cities known as Operation Metro Surge.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Minnesota and partner law firms lodged the complaint Jan. 15–16 on behalf of three named plaintiffs and a proposed class that the filings say includes dozens more affected residents. The complaint names the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol and multiple federal officials as defendants and seeks class-wide relief and a preliminary injunction to limit agents’ tactics.

The complaint alleges repeated, constitutionally unlawful conduct, saying agents stopped people without reasonable suspicion, detained U.S. citizens and lawful residents because of their race or perceived ethnicity, and arrested individuals without warrants or probable cause. It describes incidents in which people were allegedly "handcuffed, tackled, and beaten," windows were broken, people were dragged from cars, and chemical agents such as pepper spray and tear gas were used against compliant, nonviolent people.

The ACLU filed the suit amid mounting local concern over an intensified federal presence in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have filed separate legal challenges seeking to curtail deployments, and Ellison’s filing referenced a federal presence of some 3,000 DHS agents. The litigation arrives as the federal government moved to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, a decision that advocates say compounds fear in Minnesota where the nation’s largest Somali community lives and where census data show many Somali Minnesotans are U.S. citizens.

Local reporting and the ACLU characterize those most affected as Somali and Latino residents. The complaint catalogues more than a dozen incidents, including a December 2 encounter near Lake Street in Minneapolis in which agents detained two men outside an apartment building after one produced a passport and other identification. Local coverage identified one man as Ali Deir; the complaint alleges agents continued to detain the men while awaiting further information from headquarters before ultimately leaving.

At a Jan. 15 news conference announcing the filing, ACLU of Minnesota Executive Director Deepinder Mayell and civil rights lawyers framed the legal action as necessary to protect basic constitutional rights and to seek accountability for what they described as a targeted, destabilizing enforcement campaign.

DHS pushed back sharply. In a statement the department called the allegations "disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE." The statement said, "What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S., NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity," and added that DHS law enforcement acts based on "reasonable suspicion" and enforces federal immigration law "without fear, favor, or prejudice."

The lawsuit comes after days of protests that intensified following the shooting death of Renee Good by a federal immigration officer, an event that further strained trust between Minneapolis neighborhoods and federal agents. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are asking the court to impose immediate limits on federal practices while the case proceeds, arguing that the surge has produced both constitutional injuries and community harms that aggravate long-standing disparities in policing and public safety.

The case remains pending in federal court. If judges grant preliminary relief, it could constrain how federal agencies conduct enforcement in urban areas and shape wider debates over the use of federal immigration forces in communities with large immigrant and refugee populations.