Loading the cargo bin. ICE agents march cuffed and shackled detainees from mass arrests into a military cargo plane for immediate deportation. All of them violent criminals? Any? Who knows. There have been shortcuts in legal procedures designed to protect individuals from unwarranted arrest.
Attorney general to sheriffs: Don’t be bullied
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Attorney General Keith Ellison told county sheriffs they cannot provide interim jailing for people rounded up in Trump raids to catch illegal aliens. Ellison noted that Trump agents have arrested dozens of brown-skin people who are in the country legally – brazen violations of constitutional rights. ICE agents have taken more detainees than they have space to hold them. Although none of these ICE sweeps have been in Minnesota so far, the agency has hounded county sheriffs to stand by to hold detainees. In an eight-page legal opinion Ellison said:
“Minnesota law does not authorize state and local officials to hold or arrest someone based on an immigration detainer. Nor does federal law grant such authority.”
Ellison noted that ICE has used so-called “detention writs” to make arrests. These writs, said Ellison, are designed a as tool in civil law and never were intended for criminal procedures. Critics have seen a white supremacist thrust in the Trump-authorized mass arrests. A brown skin tone has been a criterion for arrests.
Ellison. According to Minnesota law, he rules, local jails can’t be used as federal holding facilities for detainees arrested in mass raids without a judge-authorized arrest warrant. The detention writs used by ICE agents don’t cut it, he said.