MINNEAPOLIS — A federal immigration agent accused of pointing his gun at occupants of a car after pulling alongside them in February has turned himself in to county authorities. Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. was arrested on the spot — a triumph for Hennepin County prosecutor Mary Moriarty in her battle for local sovereignty. The arrest was a break in the Trump administration obstinacy to cooperate with local authorities in cases of lawlessness by ICE agents during the President’s Operation Metro Surge over the winter. Refusing to be bullied, Hennepin Cojnty’s Moriarty went after Morgan, age 35, with a nationwide arrest warrant. “There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the state of Minnesota,” Moriarty said at a news conference, announcing Morgan’s arrest. Morgan was apprehended recently at his Maryland home and ordered to return to Minnesota to face Moriarty’s charges of felony assault. Rather than be extradited, Morgan volunteered to do so. Once the was in Minneapolis, Hennepin County judge promptly ordered bail at $100,000, which he posted.
Moriarty. Tough no-nonsense Hennepin County attorney. Elected 2923.
The incident
The driver and front-seat passenger of a car called 911 that an unmarked SUV pulled alongside them, rolled down his window, and pointed a handgun at them, and blocked their car on the shoulder. The car’s driver told investigators they feared it was a “crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people.” They acknowledged tyat Morgan claimed be a police officer although he was nit not in unform nor, was not wearing a badge or identification, and an unmarked vehicle. This was — on February 5 on State Highway 62 near Portland Avenue in Minneapolis —at the height of the Trump’s uninvited occupation of Minnesota streets wtih 3,000 federal immigration and deportation agents.
What next
Trump’s interim atteney genral, Todd Blanche, has warned that the U.S Justice Department could prosecute state or local officials who arrest federal agents for performing their official duties. The same rough-shod position as taken earlier by Pam Blndi, who was Blanche’s disgraced predeessor as Trump’s attorney general. Morgan has been with the U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement agency eight years.