"A federal judge gave a significant victory to Minnesota protesters and observers of federal officers Friday, granting a preliminary injunction preventing the officers from retaliating against demonstrators. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez prevents the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from arresting or detaining people who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest including observing Operation Metro Surge, which is the feds' name for the incursion of 3,000 immigration officers and agents here."
"ICE observers are frequently following cars they suspect are being driven by federal officers, tracking them, entering vehicle descriptions into a database and discouraging them from making immigrant arrests. The judge declared this legal and a protected activity: "The act of safely following (federal agents) at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop.""
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Homeland Security and ICE from arresting or detaining people engaged in peaceful and unobstructive protest, including observers of Operation Metro Surge. The injunction bars federal agents from using pepper spray or other nonlethal munitions against peaceful protesters and prohibits stops or detentions of drivers absent reasonable, articulable suspicion of interference. The decision recognizes that safely following federal agents at an appropriate distance is legal and protected activity. The lawsuit was filed in December by six plaintiffs represented by the ACLU.
Read at Truthout
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