Minnesota sues the Trump Administration for the massive deployment of immigration agents

The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a St. Paul lawsuit on Monday. Paul filed a lawsuit Mondayagainst the Trump administration to stop the deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents in the so-called Twin Cities metro area.

The legal action, which comes days after an ICE agent shot a woman during a traffic stop in Minneapolis, deepens the clash between state authorities and the federal government.

The lawsuit takes direct aim at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and asks a federal judge for an injunction ordering the immediate withdrawal of immigration agents recently sent to the state, governed by Democrat Tim Walz.

According to the brief, the reinforcement of troops ordered by the White House violates constitutional guarantees and exceeds the powers of the federal executive.

The conflict escalated after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman, during an operation in Minneapolis. The event sparked several days of protests and renewed local criticism of the increased presence of immigration agents in the city. The Trump Administration defended the agent, with different spokesmen claiming that Good hit the officer with the vehicle just as he was trying to leave the scene, thus justifying the reaction of the shooting.

In addition to the defense from the White House, the Department of Justice announced that it will not cooperate with state authorities in the investigation of the case. This refusal led Minnesota to open an independent investigation, in a context marked by a growing distrust between federal and state officials.

At the legal level, the lawsuit contends that the deployment violates the Tenth Amendment of the country's Constitution, which protects the sovereignty of the states against undue interference by the federal government. Similar arguments were used the same day by the state of Illinois, which filed a court action to block large-scale immigration operations that have been taking place in Chicago.

DHS, for its part, rejected both states' approaches. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the agency described the claims as contradictoryand accused the local governments of selectively invoking the Constitution to prevent enforcement of federal laws.

"It really is astounding that the Left can miraculously rediscover the Tenth Amendment when they don’t want federal law enforcement officers to enforce federal law—which is a clear federal responsibility under Article I, Article II and the Supremacy Clause—and then go right back to federalizing every state responsibility possible when they get back in power. Spare us," said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.