MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A group of local prosecutors concerned about recent immigration enforcement operations launched a project Wednesday to strategize and seek accountability for what they consider federal overreach and unconstitutional behavior.
The program is called Fight Against Federal Overreach, a tongue-in-cheek reference to an obscene acronym that is popular in memes and has been used by members of the Trump administration to taunt opponents.
Officials in Minnesota, along with criminal justice experts and former federal prosecutors, are increasingly critical of the federal response to the aggressive tactics being used by immigration officers in Minneapolis and the surrounding area. The killing of two civilians by federal officers, including the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday, has drawn increasing criticism from public officials, including Republicans, and massive protests.
Larry Krasner, Philadelphia District Attorney and one of the founding members of the group, said he's never before seen the law enforcement tactics and attitude recently apparent in U.S. cities.
He said the officers who conceal their faces and badge numbers are unprofessional and that they have been given bad orders from authorities with a poor understanding of the law. He cited a declaration by Vice President JD Vance that the officers have immunity from prosecution for any of their actions.
“A functional Department of Justice, gone. Functional United States attorneys offices applying the law in an even handed way, gone. Good, qualified officials within those organizations, they're retiring, resigning or leaving," Krasner said. “It used to be, you could rely on the federal government to rein in rogue sheriffs who are killing people on the side of the road ... but now the federal government are the rogue sheriffs.”
Local officials must fill the gap where federal authorities are failing, partly because there's no federal pardon power for state level convictions, he said.
The Associated Press reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the group and its accusations and did not receive an immediate response. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other leaders have defended the officers' practices and tactics in Minneapolis and elsewhere as constitutional and necessary.
Federal officials denied Minnesota investigators access to the scene after the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good. They also said the Justice Department's Civil Rights division didn't need to open an investigation into the fatal shootings, despite that being a longstanding practice after such fatal encounters.
The group, which includes Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty — Minneapolis and St. Paul are part of the county — as well as prosecutors from Austin, Texas, and several Virginia jurisdictions among others, said the actions of immigration officers involved in enforcement operations are having negative repercussions on the criminal justice system.
Krasner noted immigration agents have been keeping tabs on courthouse proceedings, targeting and arresting people usually just outside the buildings. That means victims of crime are afraid to report them, and witnesses and even defendants are afraid to go to court.
He said local officials are increasingly concerned about practices such as warrantless entries and unlawful detentions along with other coercive enforcement tactics.
“I think what we are feeling is the same thing the country is feeling,” Krasner said. “We are in general underreacting, though the country seems to be getting it right now. It’s as if they were willing to be pushed and pushed and pushed, and they were pushed off a cliff ... and it’s now too far.”
