Minnesota Leaders Say ICE Shooting Investigation Should Include State Agents

Federal authorities, who have launched an immigration enforcement blitz in Minnesota, said they will re-examine thousands of refugee cases in the state.

With the Minneapolis area in a state of upheaval, Minnesota officials renewed their calls on Friday for state agents to be allowed to help investigate the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier this week.

Two days after the federal officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on a residential street, immigration agents continued to patrol city streets, public schools were closed and the Minnesota National Guard was activated in what Gov. Tim Walz’s office described as a precautionary move.

The federal government also intensified its scrutiny of the state in other ways on Friday. The Department of Homeland Security announced plans to re-examine thousands of refugee cases in Minnesota, framing that effort as a way to root out fraud. And the Department of Agriculture said it would suspend $129 million in payments to the state and city, citing investigations of large-scale fraud in Minnesota social service programs, which have implicated members of the state’s Somali diaspora.

The White House also continued to defend the shooting of Ms. Good, posting a cellphone video taken by the agent that showed the moments leading up to the gunfire.

State and local officials pressed again for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to be allowed to investigate the shooting of Ms. Good alongside the F.B.I., as was initially announced following the shooting on Wednesday. But after the Trump administration and Minnesota’s Democratic leaders sparred over the circumstances of the killing, state officials said on Thursday that state investigators had been denied access to evidence and were withdrawing from the case.

“Our ask is to embrace the truth,” Mayor Jacob Frey said on Friday, adding that he was worried that the federal government had already concluded that the shooting was justified. “Our ask is to include the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in this process, because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation.”

The Hennepin County attorney, Mary Moriarty, and the state attorney general, Keith Ellison, announced on Friday that they would collect evidence submitted by civilians that would be publicly posted online and could be used in an independent investigation.

“I have been on the phone and in meetings with law enforcement, justice leaders and elected officials, discussing ways to ensure a thorough and transparent investigation can occur and be shared with our office,” Ms. Moriarty said in a statement.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said on Thursday that state investigators were not cut out and that “they don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.” State prosecutors would face significant legal and practical obstacles if they sought to file criminal charges against the ICE officer who opened fire.

The tension in Minneapolis comes months into a campaign by the Trump administration to increase immigration enforcement in Democratic-led states and cities. In Portland, Ore., another place singled out for criticism, Border Patrol agents shot two people during what they called a “targeted vehicle stop.”

In Minnesota on Friday, a few dozen protesters faced off with federal agents outside a government building. Agents shot pepper balls at demonstrators who approached a fence, and at least one person was taken into custody by law enforcement.

Later in the day, thousands gathered at a prayer vigil for Ms. Good outside the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, where clergy members from different faiths urged people to respond to Ms. Good’s death with prayer, love and action. In downtown Minneapolis on Friday night, several dozen anti-ICE protesters gathered outside a hotel, chanting “no justice, no peace,” and circulating fliers calling for an end to deportations.

The shooting of Ms. Good, a U.S. citizen, came after weeks of mounting disagreements and heated rhetoric between the White House and the Democrats who run the state.

Over the objections of local leaders, some 2,000 federal officers were said this week to be deploying to Minnesota to arrest illegal immigrants and investigate fraud in state social service programs. On Wednesday morning, just days into the stepped-up campaign, agents confronted Ms. Good as she partially blocked a snowy residential street.

When agents approached her S.U.V. on foot and demanded that she get out, Ms. Good disobeyed and began to drive away. A video analysis showed that Ms. Good’s vehicle appeared to be turning away from the officer who opened fire.

Becca Good, Renee Nicole Good’s wife, said a statement to MPR News that on Wednesday, she and Renee Good “stopped to support our neighbors.”

“We had whistles,” she wrote. “They had guns.”

“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way,” she said.

The White House has described the shooting as a lawful act of self-defense, while Minnesota leaders have labeled the federal account as “bullshit” or “propaganda” and have demanded that ICE leave the state.

“What we are seeing right now, it’s authoritarianism,” said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate.

The Department of Homeland Security has defended its work in Minnesota, which has continued since the shooting, and has pointed to the arrests of men who they said were in the country illegally and had been convicted of serious crimes.

“In the face of violent attacks, ICE law enforcement arrested pedophiles, rapists and drug traffickers in Minneapolis,” Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Attorney General Pam Bondi warned Minnesota demonstrators not to obstruct or attack federal law enforcement, saying, “Do not test our resolve.”

Officials in Minnesota said residents were angry, nervous and eager for ICE to leave. As protesters have gathered by the thousands this week, both Mr. Walz and Mr. Frey have urged them to remain peaceful, saying that they believed the Trump administration was looking for a pretext to send in federal troops. Early on Friday morning, city crews removed barriers blocking streets near the site of the shooting.

Mr. Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard on Thursday but did not immediately send them into the streets. He said the soldiers would be prepared to assist local law enforcement officers if needed. He said there was “every reason to believe that peace will hold.”

State Representative Esther Agbaje, a Minneapolis Democrat, said that she hoped “that the federal government kind of pulls back from Minnesota.”

“People are scared,” Ms. Agbaje said. “People are not going to school. People are not going to work. People are not going to the grocery store. I don’t think that that’s how people should be living.”

The ICE activity was especially noticeable on Friday in a part of South Minneapolis with many small businesses catering to Latinos and Somalis. Volunteers waited on street corners during the frigid morning, shouting and blowing whistles at the first sign of federal agents.

At one point, Somali residents comforted one another outside an apartment complex after they watched agents detain a neighbor. Video captured by a bystander showed three agents slipping as they ran on icy streets. The man they were pursuing stopped and dropped his shopping bags before agents wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him.

Nearby, a usually bustling Latino market was almost empty, with many stalls closed. When the faint sound of whistles was heard outside, a cashier at one business exclaimed and put down a tray of baked goods. Soon, black S.U.V.s carrying federal agents pulled into the parking lot.

Employees scrambled to lock doors and close the blinds, as a security guard spoke to agents outside. The security guard said the agents told him they had been chasing someone who they believed had run inside. The agents were denied entry, he said, but pledged to return.

Reporting was contributed by Hamed Aleaziz, David Guttenfelder, Jesus Jiménez and Dan Simmons.

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