Things STAY’Ss Busy…..
DOJ Civil Rights Division’s criminal section NOT invited into the Federal probe….
The Justice Department division that regularly handles investigations of police shootings has not been brought into the probe of an immigration officer’s fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The decision so far to not involve the Civil Rights Division’s criminal section provides a window into the unusual way the Trump administration has handled the investigation. The move has deepened doubts, already raised by Minnesota officials, about whether the shooting will receive a fair and scrupulous examination.
“When you put that together with the state authorities being excluded from even access to the evidence — like shell casings, the car — I don’t have any confidence that a use-of-force investigation is actually even happening when it comes to the death of Renée Good,” said Keith Ellison, the Democratic attorney general of Minnesota.
“I don’t know for certain that they are not doing anything, because they have been amazingly uncommunicative. But they are not telling us what they are doing.”
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem have all declared the shooting justified, despite an investigation not being completed and video footage that challenges parts of their narrative….
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Federal regulations do not require Civil Rights Division prosecutors to participate in such investigations. The head of the division, Harmeet K. Dhillon, would need to be involved, however, if the Justice Department decided to pursue civil rights charges.
Legal experts said that it is possible that the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota could handle such an investigation on its own, but that it would be highly unusual not to involve the expertise of the Civil Rights Division….
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The officials said Ross placed himself at needless risk by stepping in front of Good’s vehicle, escalated the situation and went against best law enforcement practices. Law enforcement officers should not position themselves in front of vehicles, and they need to try to de-escalate confrontations and must generally avoid shooting into moving vehicles, these officials said.
The videos show that Good’s vehicle did move toward the ICE agent as he stood in front of it. The footage also shows that he was able to move aside and fire at least two of his three shots from the side, according to a Washington Post analysis….
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Feds sued by Minnesota and Illinois Officials….
Minnesota officials sued federal immigration authorities on Monday, claiming the Trump administration’s “unprecedented surge” of immigration agents is politically motivated and violates the U.S. Constitution.
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in cities across the country has been the subject of heightened scrutiny after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday….
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In their suit, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are asking a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop or limit the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge.”…
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Separately, the state of Illinois filed suit against the Trump administration on Monday, seeking to place limits on DHS agents in the Chicago area…
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A U.S. district judge that month issued a temporary restraining order halting the federal raids in those jurisdictions based on race, a ruling that was upheld by a federal appeals court.
The U.S. Supreme Court in September issued a stay against the temporary restraining order that allowed DHS to resume its operations as the legal case, which is ongoing, continues to make its way through the federal appeals process….
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ICE IS increasingly being tracked and documented in its actions….
As the Trump administration deploys thousands of federal immigration officers and agents around the nation, a loose-knit but increasingly organized network of activists is tracking their whereabouts and documenting arrests.
The fatal shooting of Renée Good last week, as ICE officers and residents faced off on a residential street here, has brought new attention to these activities. Good’s wife has said the couple came out with whistles that morning to support their neighbors; video shows both women exchanging words with ICE officers before Renée Good starts to move her car and one officer fires.
Federal court rulings say citizens can observe and record police activity in public areas as part of their First Amendment rights, and many of the observers are doing nothing more than that. They say that they believe authorities are less likely to use force if someone is recording and that they are providing a public service by letting their communities know when federal immigration officers are nearby.
But as officers and agents employ aggressive tactics, some activists have blown whistles to warn community members of approaching law enforcement, tried to follow immigration enforcement vehicles or used their own cars to block the roadways — entering murkier legal territory. Some legal experts said such behavior could in theory justify obstruction-of-justice charges, but they added that any such prosecution would be unusual….
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But David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, says those threats have rarely become prosecutions. He is tracking such incidents and said he knows of fewer than a dozen cases in which people were charged with following or recording immigration officers or warning others of their presence. Most of those cases seem unlikely to go to trial, he added…
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To prove a charge of impeding federal officers, prosecutors generally must show the offender intended to cause some kind of harm or injury, said Tobin Raju, an attorney with Yale Law School’s media freedom clinic. “As long as there’s no real interference with the law enforcement operation, the right to record and document police activity is protected by the First Amendment,” he said….
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In Minneapolis, scores of ICE monitoring groups have formed, some with more than 1,000 members, volunteers said. They communicate in encrypted apps, using pseudonyms like Egg Salad or Prince, speak in code, and carry and distribute whistles. They assume authorities may monitor their license plates; if they have more than one car, they may keep the other one “clean” — not using it for ICE monitoring but instead to provide food and other aid to immigrants affected by the crackdown….
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“We tell people: You have a right to record. If ICE tells you not to, just back up — but keep recording,” Her said. “And say you’re exercising your rights.”
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ICE lurking around public schools….
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is increasing its activity around public schools, resulting in student protests and canceled classes, including in Minneapolis, where an ICE officer fatally shot a woman last week.
Fears of ICE, which had previously been forbidden from school grounds before the Trump administration rescinded that prohibition last year, have led to measurable declines in student attendance, and high schools students have staged walkouts in protest of increased enforcement…
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