DENVER — Denver has joined a lengthy list of cities and counties that signed on to support a federal lawsuit out of Minnesota which seeks to declare the deployment of federal agents in the Twin Cities unconstitutional.
The legal action, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order and return the cities to their status quo before Operation Metro Surge, a federal effort that has “deployed thousands of masked and armed federal law enforcement officers in Minnesota,” according to the filing. Those agents have mostly been concentrated in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Roughly three dozen cities and counties have signed onto an amicus brief, formally putting their support behind Minnesota's lawsuit against Trump administration immigration officials. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty also signed on to the brief.
An amicus brief is a legal document filed by those with a strong interest in a case, which can help inform the court's decision.
"We think it's really important to stand up to make sure we are protecting Denver residents. I have folks every day who say, 'What will happen if ICE comes to Denver like this? We don't want that kind of chaos and destruction in our city.' And I think that it's clear that this is an unconstitutional practice," Mayor Mike Johnston told Denver7. “It's clear that there is nothing that is making cities safer by doing this. It's actually making them more dangerous.”
"We want to make sure this really dangerousdeployment of ICE officers is something that stops in Minneapolis,” he said.
According to Johnston, and the amicus brief, the federal administration is in violation of the 10th Amendment.
“The 10th Amendment, which says, essentially, federal law enforcement can't take over the jobs of local law enforcement. It's a violation of the separation of powers across federal government to local governments," Johnston said.
The filing claims Operation Metro Surge has effectively created “a military occupation of the Twin Cities," which the participating municipalities believe is intended to "cause chaos as punishment for state and local policy choices."
“Operation Metro Surge is by far the most extensive, aggressive, reckless, and chaotic deployment yet,” the filing states.
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Denver7 asked Johnston if he believes signing onto this legal document could encourage the Trump administration to send federal agents to Colorado next.
"You still have to stand up for what you believe is right," Johnston replied. "My job is to stand up for Denver and make sure that would never happen in our city.”
State Senator Mark Baisley, R — District 4, sees the situation unfolding in Minnesota differently.
“What I see in Minnesota is that there is this total lack of cooperation with the Trump administration to find those folks, get them out of the country, get Americans out of danger," Baisley said "Let's cooperate with the people that are coming to rescue our community from that dangerous element that was invited in by Joe Biden.”
Over the weekend, federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. It's the second deadly encounter between federal agents and civilians in Minnesota this month, after federal agents killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7. Both have ties to Colorado. Good had previously lived in the Colorado Springs area, and Pretti's parents live in Arvada.
"What we are witnessing in Minneapolis is intolerable and unlawful,” Boulder DA Dougherty said in a release. “What happened to Renee Good and Alex Pretti is absolutely tragic. The idea that agents can operate without warrants, use lethal force, and then be shielded from scrutiny is a betrayal of justice."
Baisley said, in his opinion, it appeared that both Good and Pretti were "agitators."
"It just breaks my heart that both of them died," Baisley said. "I would have hoped to see them expressing their First Amendment rights to protest against ICE and any Donald Trump activities that they're objecting to without involving themselves into the law enforcement action. That's just a dangerous place to be. So, I just hope that Colorado, if ICE comes here in a big presence, that our political leadership will encourage people to express their First Amendment right to object, but not agitate."
Specifically, Baisley hopes Johnston will "not incite people to to step out of what would be good, lawful, protest behavior.”
Johnston did not agree with the descriptions of Good and Pretti as "agitators."
"I see them as allies, and I see them as citizens," Johnston said. "They are folks that are doing what they think is their obligation to look after their neighbors, really,"
Denver7 also asked Johnston what his messaging would be to citizens if the federal government came to Colorado in full force next.
"It's not our residents' job to stand down. It's our federal government's job to realize that we have local law enforcement who can do this work, and they're making cities less safe, not more safe," Johnston said. "What we have done is we always encourage people to peacefully protest. We've had peaceful protests almost every week of the last two years that I've been mayor, and we've hardly ever had an arrest or an incident because our officers are incredibly well-trained.”
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said the peaceful protests in Denver show there is no need for any federal intervention in the city.
"We have demonstrated the fact that, not only can we manage these very peacefully — even very large demonstrations — but we are expert now at being able to de-escalate situations so they don't devolve into some of the things that we've seen elsewhere," Thomas said.
It's important for Thomas to ensure immigrants within the community are comfortable reporting crimes to his department, which will not share their information with federal authorities.
"We want them to know that we certainly support them," he said. "We want to protect their rights as well, and so we want them to feel comfortable and welcome, to come to us and report crimes and understand that we are going to seek justice on their behalf."
Operation Metro Surge launched in December and represents the Department of Homeland Security's largest ever immigration enforcement operation, according to DHS. The department reported that it has resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.
Minnesota's lawsuit names top DHS officials, along with members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol, as defendants.
The brief states that it is not challenging federal authorities' ability "to remove people who do not have lawful status," but that it wants to stop the current tactics, which it says includes mass deployment, racial profiling and excessive use of force, particularly against people observing agents' operations.
“By treating residents like enemy combatants and our neighborhoods like warzones, ICE is hurting the children and families who live in the cities targeted by these violent and coercive surge operations,” the brief states.
Johnston said the next step is for the case to be heard in district court.
The City of Denver has filed five lawsuits, including two other amicus briefs, against the Trump administration.