MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Senate on Monday approved a legislative package to create new restrictions on federal immigration agents, including a ban on face coverings and new options for residents to sue federal agents for violating their rights.

Addressing the effects of the Trump administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown this past winter is a priority for Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers this legislative session. They have less than a week before the May 17 deadline to pass any bills.

Their package, aimed at creating civil and criminal penalties for federal overreach and limiting immigration agent access to schools, day cares, courts and hospitals unless they obtain a judicial warrant, passed 34-33 on party lines in the DFL-Majority Senate after hours of debate.

It faces slim chances of passage in the tied Minnesota House, where Republicans have shown no interest in taking up legislation.

Restricting federal action

Supporters of the bill say they want to protect Minnesotans from overreach by federal agents, who shot and killed two people during clashes with activists and arrested U.S. citizens during “Operation Metro Surge” in January.

“Today we’re going to give you a chance to take steps to protect Minnesotans here with the way we vote on this bill,” said Sen. Ron Latz, a St. Louis Park DFLer, who sponsored the legislation. “We expect law enforcement to follow the law, and we expect to be able to hold ICE and the President accountable for the harm they cause.”

President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security sent thousands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents to Minnesota earlier this year, who detained and deported thousands.

The massive expansion of enforcement operations drew local resistance from activists, leading to clashes with federal agents and the deaths of residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti during confrontations with ICE and Border Patrol.

Good did not get immediate medical assistance after her shooting. The Senate DFL’s bill would require aid and provide a way for residents to sue agents who don’t render aid.

The surge also caused widespread fear among those in immigrant communities, regardless of whether they are citizens or otherwise legally in the U.S., who were concerned about racial profiling and arrest by agents.

“The government sent mass masked men, armed, untrained and unrestrained, to terrorize our communities,” said bill sponsor Sen. Omar Fateh. “They pursued, harassed, detained, arrested and jailed Minnesotans in every stage of immigration, including legal status, refugees and American citizens.”

GOP concerns

Senate Republicans raised concerns during Monday’s debate that the federal government has supremacy over state law. During the crackdown, Vice President JD Vance argued that federal immigration agents have “absolute immunity.”

One ICE agent has been charged in Hennepin County for pointing his weapon at two people in a vehicle on a highway. A nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest.

Since the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause privileges federal authority over state authority, residents using a state law to go after federal agents likely would face extensive challenges in court, Republicans argued. Immigration is strictly under federal authority, they said.

“We’re setting ourselves up for Minnesota taxpayers to be tied up in court for years, with millions and millions of state tax dollars spent to try to defend this,” said Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe.

Illinois enacted a similar law to the one Minnesota Senators debated on Monday. It attracted a lawsuit from the Trump administration last year.

Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, said Metro Surge would not have been necessary if local authorities cooperated more closely with federal immigration enforcement and introduced amendments to the DFL bill requiring counties and cities to honor federal immigration detainers for people held on charges in county jails. Those and other GOP amendments failed on party lines.

Other bills

Monday’s legislative package isn’t the only bill moving through the Legislature aimed at addressing the impacts of Operation Metro Surge. All face similar headwinds in the tied House.

The Minnesota Senate has approved two bills providing aid to renters and businesses that faced losses during the crackdown. One is a $100 million business recovery loan program that received a Republican vote.

Estimates of Operation Metro Surge’s local costs continue to grow. An April filing in a lawsuit brought by the state and Twin Cities mayors against the Trump administration estimates $600 million in lost revenue for St. Paul and Minneapolis businesses alone, and $240 million in lost wages.

A $40 million emergency rental assistance bill also passed in the DFL-majority Senate this session, but companion legislation has stalled in the tied House.

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