ICE Presence Raises Questions about Protester Law Enforcement Rights

Transcript

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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. Today in Minnesota…

ANCHOR: …one last push to get info from the state’s queer community. Then, as federal agents increase their presence in the state, questions are rising about the rights of protesters versus those of law enforcement. And Rochester honors the first woman ever elected to office in that city.

I'm Gracie J.

The Minnesota Council on LGBTQIA2S + Minnesotans has reopened its statewide needs survey for a final push. The council represents Minnesotans in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Two-Spirit communities. The confidential and anonymous survey closes at midnight on New Year's Eve. A newly translated version is available in Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Arabic, and American Sign Language. It's online at mnqt.info/survey.

Next, what rights do protesters and observers have when immigration enforcement happens? And, what authority do officers have? It gets muddy fast. As Xan Holston explains, a new lawsuit is accusing the federal government of trying to limit free speech at federal enforcement protests, while federal officials say protestors are going too far.

Alicia Granse: Recording, blowing whistles, even yelling, not being very polite, those are all protected by the First Amendment.

Xan Holston: Alicia Granse is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, of Minnesota. She said the question of what kind of speech is protected is long settled, but as recent interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or IC, agents in the Twin Cities show, those rights are still being tested in real time. The ACLU recently filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of six Minnesotans alleging ICE agents violated their first and fourth amendment rights. In one case, a community observer says she was arrested within seconds of arriving at an ICE scene while standing on a public sidewalk and asking a question. She was taken to a federal facility where she was held and had her wedding ring cut off. In another, ICE agents allegedly pulled over people who were following their vehicle, drew their weapons and threatened that they knew where they lived. To date, none of the citizens have been charged with any crimes.

Alicia Granse: We're hearing a lot of federal agents saying the same phrase, you're impeding. You're impeding. Following is impeding.

Xan Holston: Impeding typically means physically blocking or interfering with law enforcement. But the lawsuit says it's now being applied to speech, observation and documentation. Granse pointed to a federal memo Attorney General Pam Bondi released in early December, which gives federal agents wide discretion to treat disruption, proximity to ICE actions and even criticism of the agency as forms of domestic terrorism. That's something Granse says risks turning dissent itself into a reason for arrest.

Alicia Granse: Even talking about how ICE is doing wrong things is impeding, and that's deeply disturbing.

Xan Holston: Dr. Danielle Brown is an associate professor of journalism at Michigan State University who studies protest movements and how they're understood by the public.

Dr. Danielle Brown: That inherent risk. Will you do it anyway? Is the biggest challenge that I'm sure many of these activists are trying to reckon with and reconcile as they take on this work.

Xan Holston: When dealing with municipal police forces, she says there are mostly clear lines about what's legal for them to do, defined by state and county statutes.

Dr. Danielle Brown: There is a mechanism in place where they're supposed to do the right thing and then they could get in trouble if they don't do the right thing.

Xan Holston: But with ICE actions, those lines are blurred, which makes it more difficult for rights organizations and citizens to call up potential abuses of authority.

Dr. Danielle Brown: We actually don't know what these mechanisms are for ICE, and that makes it more difficult to build a demand other than build the mechanism.

Xan Holston: At ICE actions, protesters take on a number of roles in response. Some choose aggressive confrontation and civil disobedience, while others focus on standing back, observing and documenting what unfolds. For the ACLU's Granse, that public documentation is one of the most powerful tools people still have, not just for transparency, but for accountability.

Alicia Granse: Through documenting what government agents do when they're violating rights, is how we as a society vindicate our own rights.

Xan Holston: For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.

The next time you visit Rochester, you may notice a new statue honoring the first woman ever elected to office in that city. Amelia Witherstine joined the Rochester School Board in 1911, becoming the first female to hold a public office in the town. Witherstine went on to serve as president of the school board and become one of the first women to serve on an Olmstead County jury. A statue honoring her groundbreaking work now sits in the southeast corner of Central Park in Rochester.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.