Minnesotans Learn How to Observe Federal Agents in a Watch for Civil Rights Abuses

Transcript

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

ANCHOR: …how sexually explicit emails were sent from a Rochester Public School to students and staff. Then, a Minnesota organization is training citizens to legally and peacefully ensure federal agents abide by the constitution, and those without a home have new help in Southern Minnesota.

I'm Gracie J.

Students and staff with the Rochester Public Schools received sexually explicit and threatening emails earlier this month. According to several media sources in the Rochester area, the district says students accessed an email distribution list, allowing them to send out the unauthorized email. The inappropriate message went to a large number of students of all grade levels. The district says it has identified the students responsible for creating and forwarding the messages and that those students are facing disciplinary action. The district also says it has taken steps to prevent it from happening again.

As you may have heard and seen, Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE officers, are making significantly more arrests in Minnesota. Many are questioning whether ICE agents are abiding by the constitution. Reporter Katherine DeCelle tells us about a Minnesota organization training residents around the Midwest on how to legally ensure the constitution is being upheld.

Ryan Perez: What we train is legal, constitutional ways to uphold people's rights, and that includes whipping out your phone, documenting being loud, asking questions, but following this practice that is called civil initiative, which is the idea that we know the lines of the law, we're going to follow them, and we're actually going to work to uphold the law and the Constitution.

Katharine DeCelle: That's Ryan Perez, leadership and organizing director with COPAL, Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action, a Minnesota-based organization. Among many programs, COPAL trains people about their constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement.

Ryan Perez: The right to open the door or not open the door, what a warrant looks like.

Katharine DeCelle: This summer, COPAL began getting more requests from immigrant residents, asking for trainings on civil rights if stopped by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

Ryan Perez: And we saw more and more allies saying, "I want to know the information so I can protect my neighbor, and I want to be able to help my cousin know their rights, and if I see something on my block." And as a response, we began developing this curriculum that we call constitutional observers.

Katharine DeCelle: COPAL's constitutional observer program trains community members to safely and legally document what law enforcement is doing and report back if any civil rights are being violated.

Ryan Perez: So observers get their handbook, they get training that is between an hour and a half, and they get a lanyard with ID that labels them as a constitutional observer as well.

Katharine DeCelle: Ryan says the constitutional observer method combines two approaches. One, the legal observer who records but stays quiet, and two, the protester who is vocal but may lack legal training.

Ryan Perez: You'll have people trained that are seeing an enforcement that are yelling and asking for a badge number, asking for a warrant, and it's their constitutional right to do that.

Katharine DeCelle: When a constitutional observer reports seeing an individual's rights violated, COPAL shares that information with legal partners.

Ryan Perez: It's up to lawyers in the courts to decide if the law was violated or due process was violated.

Katharine DeCelle: In November, St Paul Police officers responded to a scene on St Paul's East Side where protesters gathered after ICE agents raided a local residence. In a press conference, St Paul Police Chief Axel Henry had this to say about the incident.

Axel Henry: To be very clear, the St Paul Police department is committed to supporting people's first amendment rights, and we also encourage our residents to monitor these events, whether you want to come and watch or you want to videotape them for yourselves, to ensure that everything is happening in a lawful fashion.

Katharine DeCelle: For North Star Stories, I'm Katharine DeCelle.

ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.

The city of Winona is giving Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota permission to operate an overnight shelter in the basement of Wesley United Methodist Church. According to the Winona Post, the city is allowing the organization to operate a temporary shelter after rejecting its request last month to operate a permanent shelter at a different location. Catholic Charities has been searching for a permanent overnight winter shelter since outgrowing its space last year. The permit allows up to 20 people to stay from eight at night until eight in the morning.

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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.