Federal agents deployed tear gas and pepper spray towards activists on Tuesday amid a growing number of confrontations and protests in Minneapolis. From young adults to state lawmakers, Minnesota residents have begun to push back against the increase in federal immigration units following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
“How dare they come back to this neighborhood?” Neph Sudduth, a Minneapolis resident, expressed this while speaking to NBC News. “How forgone you have to be morally to come back here and stand up and do that with your faces covered?”
Nearly a week since the shooting, tensions between the public and federal officers have escalated. Immigration officers have resorted to utilizing tactical gear and gas masks as tear gas fills the air following confrontations with community members.
Since the incident, at least five attorneys have resigned in response to the U.S. Justice Department’s handling of the investigation.
Additionally, as the FBI continues its investigation, federal officials have prevented state investigators from getting involved, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stating Tuesday that there was "currently no basis" for an investigation by the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Residents and witnesses who spoke with NBC News said that officers began to throw tear gas canisters and use pepper spray in retaliation for activists using whistles to alert others about the operation and against protestors.
In several schools around Minnesota, students walked out of school in protest of immigration enforcement’s presence within the state.
Additionally, Democratic state Rep. Michael Howard announced the arrest of two U.S. citizens by US Border Patrol agents who stopped at a Target store.
“Yesterday in Richfield, federal agents, including Greg Bovino, senior commander of US Border Patrol, entered Target without a warrant, physically assaulted, and arrested two Target employees, both who are U.S. citizens. Madness,” Howard wrote in a press release.
Officials in Minnesota sued the federal government on Monday in an effort to halt the deployment of thousands of federal agents to the state.
