E-Paper
Did ICE ask off-duty cops to prove citizenship? Minnesota police chief makes concerning claims, ‘Being forced to…’
The police chief of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, raised concerns while detailing off-duty officers' recent interactions with ICE agents.
The police chief of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, alleged during a press conference Tuesday, January 20, that ICE agents asked off-duty officers to provide proof of citizenship. The remarks were made at a press conference held by a coalition of law enforcement officials from the Twin Cities area to discuss ICE.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said that some of his officers were asked by ICE agents to prove their citizenship, adding that his department has received citizen concerns about “civil rights violations.”
Here’s what Mark Bruley said
“What we're hearing is they're being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause and being forced to [show] paperwork to determine if they are here legally,” he said, as reported by Newsweek. “As this went on over the past two weeks, we started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off duty.”
Bruley said that every one of those people is a person of color, adding that it “has to stop.”
Bruley alleged that one of the officers was stopped by ICE agents who “boxed her in” and demanded paperwork. However, she is an American citizen and would “clearly” not be carrying any, he added. She then became “concerned” and started to record the interaction, following which her phone was “knocked out of her hands,” he said.
The agents allegedly left without saying anything else or apologizing after the officer identified herself as law enforcement.
“I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident. In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers,” Bruley said. “This isn’t just important because it happened to off-duty police officers. But what it did do is—we know our officers know what the Constitution is. They know what right or wrong is. They know when people are being targeted, and that’s what they were.”
Minnesota has been seeing various anti-ICE protests in the aftermath of Renee Nicole Good’s death. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was gunned down by federal agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, a shooting that the Trump administration claimed was carried out in self-defense as she allegedly struck him with her vehicle.
