Minnesota Police Officer Stopped by ICE Agents While Off Duty
What to Know
- A Brooklyn Park police officer was stopped by federal agents who demanded her citizenship proof, despite her being a U.S. citizen.
- Federal agents obscured their identities, and the officer's attempt to record the incident was thwarted when her phone was knocked away.
- Local law enforcement officials condemned the profiling, emphasizing the importance of civil rights and calling for accountability.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minnesota -- An off-duty Brooklyn Park police officer was stopped by federal agents who demanded proof of her citizenship, according to the city’s police chief, Mark Bruley.
In a news conference at the Minnesota Capitol on Jan. 20, Bruley and fellow law enforcement personnel spoke against what they said is a spate of racial profiling by federal immigration agents deployed to the state in President Donald Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge.”
The stop occurred after the Brooklyn Park officer drove past federal agents, Bruley said.
“When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork,” Bruley said, “of which she’s a U.S. citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork.”
The officer tried to record the interaction, Bruley said, but federal agents knocked the phone from her hands. He said it was impossible to know whether the agents represented Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol or another federal agency.
Immigration enforcement agents across Minnesota have obscured their faces and forgone name badges typically worn by local police.
In a separate news conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Greg Bovino, Border Patrol commander at large, said federal agents have worked well with local police in cities like Chicago and New Orleans, who “gave us a lot of good information.”
Bruley declined to identify the officer but said she is a person of color. He did not name her ethnicity and noted that officers of varying ethnicities in several law enforcement agencies in the Twin Cities metro area have had the same experience. He said the officer eventually identified herself as a police officer to de-escalate the incident, though doing so is normally a violation of department policy.
At that point, he said, the agents left without commenting or apologizing.
“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day,” Bruley said.
St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said Minnesotans’ civil rights must be protected.
“I truly want to believe that there isn’t anybody on either side of the political aisle that thinks that people’s civil rights aren’t important,” Henry said. “They have to be the cornerstone of everything we do.”
Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said for those in positions of leadership, “now is not the time to be quiet.”
“When we have concrete examples of profiling,” Witt said, “we need to do the right thing.”
Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
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