A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered immigration agents to stop arresting peaceful protesters and using crowd-control weapons against them.
MINNEAPOLIS: A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered restrictions on the conduct of US immigration agents towards protesters and observers in Minneapolis.
US District Judge Kate Menendez issued an injunction barring federal agents from retaliating against individuals engaged in peaceful, unobstructive protest activity.
Officers are explicitly prohibited from arresting or detaining peaceful protesters or orderly observers without reasonable suspicion of a crime.
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The judge also banned agents from using pepper spray, tear gas, or other crowd-control munitions against peaceful demonstrators or recording bystanders.
The ruling follows the Trump administration’s deployment of 2,000 immigration agents to the Minneapolis area nearly two weeks ago.
The US Department of Homeland Security called it the largest such operation in history.
The number of heavily armed officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol has since grown to nearly 3,000.
This force dwarfs the ranks of local police in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Tensions escalated after an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good in January.
Good was taking part in a neighborhood patrol organised by local activists to monitor ICE activities at the time. – Reuters
