Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati sue Trump, ICE to block them in Minnesota
Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati joined 80 local governments across the United States in challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“What we’re seeing in the Twin Cities is horrific, heartbreaking, and more of the same illegal and unconstitutional tactics from the Trump-Vance administration that seemingly cares more about retribution than the rule of law,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a press release, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Klein then remembered Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis this month, claiming that “local governments are under threat” and residents are worrying “about federal agents upending their daily lives.”
“The courts are the surest check against this administration, and we will use every tool we have to hold this administration accountable for their overreach,” he wrote.
Coalition members, which, in addition to Klein, included Cincinnati Solicitor Emily Smart Woerner and Cleveland City Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, according to the news source.
In the brief, the attorneys argued that the federal government is violating the Constitution by coercing local governments to help it with its immigration plans and sending many ICE agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The coalition also asked the court to block further unlawful actions by ICE agents to restore law and order, which, according to the attorneys, the residents of the Twin Cities lack right now.
The brief also notes that the ICE operations in Minnesota and other places all around the country have caused widespread harm, which resulted in the residents’ mistrust of all law enforcement, including regular police officers, because of their negative interactions and perceptions of the federal agents that were deployed to the cities by the Department of Homeland Security.
“President Trump, DHS, ICE, and other Defendants are violating the Constitution in the Twin Cities,” the attorneys wrote. “The Court should enjoin the Federal Government from further unlawful actions in order to restore the rights of the Plaintiffs and their citizens.”
As a result of that, the brief asked federal Judge Kate Menendez to provide a temporary pause on ICE’s activity.
“For these reasons, in solidarity with the cities and people of the Twin Cities, as well as the State of Minnesota, and as representatives of millions of residents, amici respectfully request that this Court grant Plaintiffs’ motion for temporary restraining order,” they wrote.
