County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the initiative is already tracking more than a dozen incidents, including one involving Border Patrol official Greg Bovino
Minnesota’s Hennepin County has launched a new online portal where everyday Americans can share photos, videos, and descriptions of any potentially unlawful behavior and abuses of power by ICE and CBP agents.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said that the Transparency and Accountability Project (TAP) is a direct result of the Trump administration’s chaotic and deadly Operation Metro Surge, which has resulted in the brutal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, the senseless targeting of immigrant neighbors like five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, community members being dragged out their cars and homes in nothing but their underwear, and the disruption of thriving local communities.
In a recent statement, Moriarty said TAP is already probing 17 incidents “that have been brought to our attention by the community, including Gregory Kent Bovino’s actions near Mueller Park on January 21.”
“Footage captured by activist Ben Luhmann shows Bovino throwing a gas canister at protesters and observers in Minneapolis’ Mueller Park on January 21,” Mother Jones reported March 2. “The canister released green gas that, as Duke University School of Medicine professor and tear gas expert Sven-Eric Jordt told my colleague Samantha Michaels, may contain the carcinogenic reproductive toxicants lead and chromium.” Bovino, since demoted from Operation Metro Surge and replaced by so-called “border czar” Thomas Homan, previously violated a court order “after he was seen lobbing a canister of tear gas” at a crowd in Chicago’s Little Italy in October, Courthouse News reported last October.
“We will investigate and pursue charging where appropriate,” Hennepin County Attorney Moriarty continued in the TAP announcement, adding that “we’ll seek collaboration with local law enforcement wherever and whenever needed.”
Community-based monitoring remains critical because Minnesotans continue to be targeted by federal agents despite repeated administration claims that operations are winding down in the area. In just one example of the ongoing abuses of power, federal immigration agents have reportedly been intimidating community members who’ve been exercising their legal right to observe federal immigration enforcement actions.
“Across the Twin Cities, immigration agents have identified legal observers by name and address, and, in some cases, led them back to their homes after they engaged in lawful monitoring of immigration activity,” The Intercept reported March 5. “Legal observers say this pattern of behavior sends a clear and chilling message: The federal government knows who they are and where they live.”
In one alarming example, observer Nicole Cleland said she was startled when a Border Patrol agent addressed her by her first name and issued her a warning for exercising her rights. “He said they were using facial recognition technology, and warned her to stop ‘impeding’ their work or she’d be arrested,” HuffPost reported. Just a few days later, Cleland received a notice stating that her Global Entry privileges had been revoked. HuffPost reports that an internal CBP memo urging field offices “to send ‘recommendations to revoke Trusted Traveler membership for U.S. citizens’ to headquarters for review, along with an incident report” suggests Cleland “may not be the last” targeted in this manner.
“Make no mistake, we are not afraid of any legal fight,” Hennepin County Attorney Moriarty continued. “But we will do this ethically, responsibly, and vigorously. TAP is fundamental to our efforts to ensure the transparency and accountability that our community deserves. This is just the beginning.”
Amid the ongoing DHS shutdown stemming from the administration and its Congressional allies’ refusal to agree to meaningful reforms reining in ICE and CBP, other states are also taking action to expose and investigate abuses of power by federal agents in their own localities.
In New York, State Attorney General Letitia James said that her office is investigating the tragic death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a nearly-blind Burmese refugee who was abandoned outside a Buffalo coffee shop by Border Patrol last month. While the business was open for drive-thru orders, it was closed to foot traffic, Investigative Post reported Feb. 28.
“Video obtained by Investigative Post shows him walking through the parking lot, wearing orange booties issued by the jail,” the report said. “Shah Alam — nearly blind, unable to speak English, with no money or phone — wandered the streets of Buffalo for six days before dying Tuesday night downtown on a sidewalk near KeyBank Center.” Meanwhile, Mr. Shah Alam’s family opened a missing persons case with the police, unaware that he’d been dumped outside a coffee shop because no one from Border Patrol had informed them.
“This was an unspeakable tragedy that never should have occurred,” Attorney General James wrote to Rep. Tim Kennedy (NY-26) in a March 6 letter. “Mr. Shah Alam fled genocide and came to this country in search of safety and opportunity. Instead, his life was tragically cut short. No one who comes here seeking refuge should be callously abandoned in harm’s way. Although there are significant questions outstanding, I firmly agree with the need for transparency and accountability.”
While Kristi Noem’s firing was announced last week following a disastrous series of Congressional hearings that in part exposed “wholesale corruption” at the department, her removal doesn’t change the reality on the ground, America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said Monday.
“Recent news tells the real story. A journalist covering immigration enforcement disappears into ICE detention. Teenage musicians who once performed at the U.S. Capitol are suddenly locked up by ICE. New evidence raises serious questions about the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration agents in Texas,” she said.
“The Trump/Miller mass deportation campaign is making us all poorer, weaker, and less safe,” Cárdenas continued. “And the American people see it. New polling shows the public strongly disapproves of Trump’s handling of immigration and hold negative views of ICE. The problem is not just Kristi Noem. The problem is the policy agenda itself.”
