Eight arrested in Minneapolis as Trump officials issue threats to protesters | Minnesota ICE shooting

Eight people were arrested outside a federal building in Minneapolis on Tuesday as the Trump administration doubled down on threats against protesters and city and state officials who might try to block their mass deportation agenda, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Throughout the afternoon, crowds gathered to protest federal immigration officers’ continued presence and violent tactics in the city were hit with tear gas, pepper balls and flash bangs. Demonstrators gathered in the city and across the country following the killing of Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent.

Meanwhile, online, administration officials issued dire warnings.

“[The] Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, told Fox News after repeating the administration’s claim that ICE officers have federal immunity. The Justice Department has made clear that officials will face justice if they engage in criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, barring that line.

The shootings come as DHS prepares to send more officers to the Minneapolis area, in the midst of what the administration has called “the largest operation in DHS history.”

A DHS official told CBS News that there are 800 Customs and Border Protection officers and 2,000 ICE officers in the Minneapolis area, where tensions have increased in recent days.

The Pentagon is also preparing to send military lawyers to the region to help with an expected increase in federal persecutions, CNN reported.

Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul have sued the Trump administration in an effort to end the surge, which local officials described as a “federal invasion,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday.

The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security violated the first amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that supports Democrats and welcomes immigrants.

“This is essentially a federal occupation of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it needs to be stopped,” state attorney general Keith Ellison said.

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said: “We’re seeing thousands — plural — of federal agents coming into our city. And yes, they’re having a tremendous impact on daily life.”

The city of Chicago and Illinois filed separate lawsuits over “organized bombing” by DHS.

Meanwhile, several federal prosecutors resigned in protest of the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue a civil rights investigation into Good’s death by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis.

Hundreds of people continued to protest Tuesday despite legal and physical threats from the federal government.

Clouds of gas filled a Minneapolis street near where Good was shot in the head by an immigration agent last week. A man rubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help while agents in an unmarked Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove away.

It is common for people to boo, jeer, and orange whistle when they see heavily armed agents passing by in unmarked vehicles or marching through the streets; It’s all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.

“Who doesn’t have a whistle?” shouted a man with a bag of these in his hand.

Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support her neighborhood friends, said she was “angry” when she saw the agents in tactical gear and gas masks and wondered about their motives.

“I felt like the only reason they came here was to harass people,” Anderson said.

Students protesting an immigration enforcement operation in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, walked out of school, as students in other communities did this week.

Internal security claims to have made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and has vowed not to back down. Responding to the lawsuit, spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.

“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law, no matter who your mayor, governor or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense. But that statement was widely criticized by Frey, Minnesota governor Tim Walz and others, based on videos of the confrontation.