Local leaders raised concerns about school attendance, business impacts and possible outreach to state and national officials.
Mayors, city managers and police chiefs from 15 Twin Cities suburbs gathered at the Eden Prairie Community Center on Wednesday to discuss the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Twin Cities.
The closed-door meeting brought together local officials to share information about recent ICE activity in their communities and to discuss possible next steps as ICE remains active across the metropolitan area and the state, Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case said.
Representatives from Hennepin County, including Commissioner Debbie Goettel, and the chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison were also in attendance.
Members of the media were not invited to the meeting, though Case spoke with Eden Prairie Local News afterward.
Case said mayors shared specific instances in which ICE agents allegedly followed residents without clear cause, including an incident in Brooklyn Park in which a Hispanic off-duty police officer was surrounded by agents while driving her personal vehicle. The officer told the agents she was a citizen and a police officer, but they did not allow her to leave until they eventually departed, Case said.
A representative from Richfield said there is growing concern about the impact ICE’s presence is having on students, with roughly one-third not attending school, Case said. Several restaurants in Richfield have also closed due to ICE activity in the city, raising concerns about lost wages and workers’ ability to pay their bills.
Officials from all cities in attendance, including Eden Prairie City Manager Rick Getschow and Police Chief Matt Sackett, encouraged U.S. citizens to call 911 if they encounter ICE and feel unsafe. While officers cannot intervene in or stop a federal arrest, they can respond, record interactions and help deescalate situations. (Editor’s emphasis added)
“Police departments across the area do not want to interfere with the job duties and the role of ICE, but the expectation is that ICE will follow the law as well,” Case said.
Eden Prairie has experienced several instances of ICE activity, but city officials are not notified in advance, Case said. Instead, the city typically learns of ICE’s presence after the fact, if someone calls 911.
Case reiterated the city’s previous statement that local police departments, including Eden Prairie’s, do not participate in federal immigration enforcement and enforce only state and local laws. Eden Prairie police cannot ask about a person’s immigration status or share that information with ICE, he said.
Case said he shared a few facts to illustrate the current situation in Minnesota during the meeting, including that there are about 100,000 undocumented immigrants in Minnesota, compared with about 2 million in Texas. Despite that difference, Texas has roughly 1,500 Border Patrol agents, while Minnesota has about 3,000 ICE agents and Border Patrol officers statewide, Case said.
“It begins to very much look like it’s not about immigration,” Case said… (Editor’s emphasis added)
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