The U.S. Justice Department is investigating two prominent Minnesota liberals for allegedly trying to interfere with federal immigration operations.
Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are being investigated over comments they made about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner.
The investigation comes as a federal judge restricted the actions thousands of federal law enforcement officers can use in Minneapolis, blocking the use of pepper spray and arresting peaceful protesters.
Protests have intensified in the city since 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agents last week.
On Friday, new details about Good’s death also came to light. A Minneapolis woman was found by paramedics with at least three gunshot wounds and a quarter gunshot wound to the head, according to official reports confirmed by CBS.
“Weaponizing the judicial system against opponents is an authoritarian tactic,” Governor Waltz wrote on
“The only person not investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
“I will not be intimidated,” Mayor Frey said in a statement to the BBC.
“This is a clear attempt to intimidate me as an advocate for Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger the government has brought to our streets,” he said.
The BBC has contacted the Ministry of Justice about its apparent investigation.
The governor urged Minnesotans to protest peacefully, but criticized members of the Trump administration for inflammatory rhetoric, including describing ICE as a “modern-day Gestapo.” Frey demanded that immigration agents leave Minneapolis.
The investigation focuses on federal statute 18 USC § 372, which makes it a crime for two or more people to conspire to prevent a federal officer from performing his official duties through “force, intimidation, or intimidation,” a U.S. official told CBS.
Protests continued in Minneapolis Friday after U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez blocked federal authorities from using pepper spray and other non-lethal weapons on protesters.
The 83-page order stops the thousands of federal officers currently deployed to the city as part of immigration operations from arresting peaceful protesters.
It also blocks stopping or detaining a person driving or a passenger in a vehicle “without reasonable suspicion that he or she is forcibly obstructing or interfering.”
The judge noted that a person following federal law enforcement in a vehicle “does not, of itself, create reasonable suspicion that would justify a vehicle stop.”
Video showed Good riding in his SUV before he was killed, and the video showed him honking his vehicle’s horn to warn neighbors in the area where immigration authorities were present.
The Trump administration said Good obstructed federal law enforcement and attempted to chase agents away before opening fire. Local officials said Good was a legal observer who posed no risk.
Video of the incident shows ICE agents blocking traffic and approaching a vehicle parked in the middle of the street. The officer instructs her to get out of the car.
As Good turns the wheel to drive away, her Honda Pilot SUV moves forward with one of the agents standing near the front of the vehicle. He pulls out a gun and fires.
Good, who responded to the scene of the shooting last week, was shot twice in the chest, once in the left forearm, and suffered a fourth wound, believed to be a gunshot wound, to the left side of the patient’s head, according to a Minneapolis Fire Department incident report obtained by CBS News.
Paramedics found Good unresponsive with an irregular pulse and pronounced him dead on the ambulance ride to the hospital, CBS reported.
Video from the scene shows the agent then walking away.
However, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told CBS that the officer suffered internal bleeding to his torso after the incident. No further details have been disclosed.
The FBI is investigating the incident, but there is no federal civil rights investigation into the agent who fired the shots. Local officials and authorities said they were excluded from the investigation.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump criticized protesters and local leaders on Friday.
On Truth Social, he accused the protesters of being “highly paid professionals,” adding that Walz and Frey had “completely lost control.”
The Republican president later told reporters at the White House that he had no plans to invoke the Insurrection Act or send troops to quell the unrest in Minnesota, after suggesting he might do so earlier this week.
“I’ll use it if I need to. I don’t think there’s any reason to use it right now,” he said. “It’s very powerful,” he added.
Thousands of ICE officers are still deployed in the state.
Democratic lawmakers traveled to the city for hearings and on Friday criticized federal immigration practices in the state and accused ICE of reckless and unlawful actions.
Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota lawmaker who has long been at odds with Trump, said ICE was “trying to create chaos and fear.”
Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York said ICE had become a “lethal weapon.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington lawmaker, said ICE agents should not be allowed to wear masks or make arrests without warrants and should have body cameras and name tags.
Democratic lawmakers also interviewed several residents who said they were detained in shackles for hours by ICE until they could prove they were U.S. citizens.
The BBC has contacted DHS and ICE for comment.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told CNN on Friday that people may be asked to verify their identity if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is “in the vicinity” of a person detained by DHS operations.
She rejected suggestions that such tactics could be discriminatory, saying “racial hostility has no place at DHS.”
