Minn. Police Chief Says He's Heard 'Endless Complaints About Civil Rights Violations' by ICE, Had Officers Targeted: 'It Has to Stop' By Janelle Griffith

Law enforcement leaders from agencies across the Twin Cities say that over the last two weeks, their departments have been inundated with civil rights complaints about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopping people — including off-duty police officers — due to the color of their skin.

At a news conference Tuesday, Jan. 20, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley and other local law enforcement leaders called for more oversight of the recent surge of federal agents in Minneapolis amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Tension in Minneapolis escalated following the killing of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen who was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7. Good’s killing has sparked nationwide protests against the Trump administration.

Bruley began his statement on Tuesday by saying that neither he nor the other leaders beside him are calling for ICE to be abolished.

“The truth is, immigration enforcement is necessary for our national security and for local security, but how it’s done is extremely important,” Bruley said, adding that local agencies had historically worked “exceptionally well” with federal partners, including ICE.

But over the last two weeks, Bruley said, there has been a shift.

“We, as a law enforcement community, have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from U.S. citizens,” Bruley said. “What we’re hearing is they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause” and being forced to provide paperwork to prove they are in the country legally. Bruley said that even off-duty police officers “fell victim to this while off duty.”

“Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them,” Bruley claimed.

PEOPLE reached out to ICE for comment.

Bruley went on to describe that an officer from his department had shared her story with him of having been stopped as she passed ICE while going down a roadway.

“When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork, of which she’s a U.S. citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork,” he said.

The woman became concerned about the agents’ rhetoric, Bruley said, and the way she was being treated, so she pulled out her phone and tried to record the encounter. The phone was knocked out of her hand, he said.

“The officers had their guns drawn during this interaction,” he continued. After the woman identified herself as a Brooklyn Park police officer “in hopes of slowing” and deescalating the interaction, the agents left, according to Bruley.

“I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident,” he said. “In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers.”

Bruley and others who spoke after him said the issue was not of importance simply because it is happening to off-duty police officers. Bruley said the officers know the Constitution, the difference between right and wrong and “when people are being targeted.”

“And that’s what they were,” he said.

“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day,” he added. “It has to stop.”

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Bruley said that such behavior from ICE erodes the trust that local officers “have worked tirelessly for the last five years” — an apparent reference to the unrest that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer — “and theoretically the last 60 years to stop this exact behavior from happening.”

Bruley said he suspects a small group of agents within the surge in the metro area are “acting this way.”

He then called for more oversight to end the reports of civil rights violations.

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry claimed employees from the city also had experienced some of the same things Bruley described — “thankfully not with firearms drawn” — but outside the bounds of what federal agents are allowed to do.

“Law enforcement has more authority than a general citizen,” Henry said. “That means we have more responsibility in how we behave.”

He added: “We have to find common ground here and we have to figure out a way that these processes, which are clearly failing if American citizens are being grabbed or stopped or seized. This can’t happen. We have to make sure that everyone’s civil rights are in tact.”

Both Henry and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Tuesday, a day after the federal holiday honoring the civil rights icon.

“I know what it’s like to be stereotyped, judged and profiled,” said Witt, who is Black. “I know firsthand what it means to be seen before being understood.”

Witt said she is witnessing progress made by local law enforcement erode.

“I am seeing and hearing about people in Hennepin County stopped, questioned and harassed, solely because of the color of their skin,” she said. “Solely being the operative word here.”

And she charged that discrimination is spilling into law enforcement.