Tonight in Your Rights: Twin Cities counteroffensive
Prosecutors redouble their probe of Alex Pretti and Renee Good's killers. Another lawsuit seeks to block an ICE warehouse. Plus: A first-of-its-kind suit over CECOT.
State and local prosecutors in Minnesota sued Donald Trump’s Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday in a renewed effort to pry loose information relevant to their homicide investigations into Alex Pretti and Renee Good’s fatal shootings.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Bureau of Criminal Apprehensions Superintendent Drew Evans also want the government to share evidence about the case of Julio Sosa-Celis, whom federal agents shot in the leg and then prosecuted before that case collapsed.
“These shootings are just three examples of the violent actions committed by federal agents in Minnesota during the surge,” the lawsuit states. “Federal agents also carried out illegal stops, sweeps, arrests, and dangerous raids in sensitive public spaces. The surge created widespread fear among Minnesota residents, both citizens and noncitizens. It caused hundreds of millions of dollars in economic harm. And it flooded Minnesota’s federal courts with lawsuits challenging the unlawful detentions that resulted from the operation.”
Earlier this year, Minnesota state and local prosecutors brought an earlier version of their federal lawsuit, which was rejected by a federal judge. Moriarty then placed a written demand for the federal government to provide evidence, known as a Touhy request.
Minnesota authorities say that the Trump administration rejected those requests with “no lawful justification.”
“The State of Minnesota has the authority and responsibility to protect against and address violence within its borders, including by prosecuting homicides, attempted homicides, and assaults,” their lawsuit states, describing investigators’ duties to “gather the evidence, evaluate the facts, and decide whether Minnesota criminal law was violated.”
“It is a core attribute of state sovereignty—and a duty owed to the people of Minnesota—that such investigations be thorough and based on all relevant evidence,’ they write.
On Tuesday, former Senator Markwayne Mullin officially replaced Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security, and he will inherit this lawsuit as a co-defendant, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Read the complaint here.
ICE warehouse opposed in Michigan
Another state attorney general pushed back against the Trump administration’s plans to build a nationwide archipelago of immigration warehouses on Tuesday.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) filed a federal lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, seeking to block the conversion of a warehouse to hold 500 immigrants in Romulus, Mich.
“The Romulus Warehouse is simply not—and never will be—an appropriate place of detention for numerous reasons,” the lawsuit notes.
Located within a mile of an elementary school and middle school, the Romulus warehouse stands in a floodplain—and “frequently floods, including last year,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Romulus Warehouse has only six bathrooms and relies on a 6-inch sewer line connected to a 15-inch city-owned sewage pipe under Cogswell Street—neither of which could possibly handle the sewage load necessary for 500 detainees and staff,” the lawsuit states.
According to Project Salt Box’s ICE Warehouse Tracker, the federal government has been forced to cancel at least 10 contracts amid nationwide pushback. Those buildings were supposed to be part of a nationwide archipelago of immigration camps that ICE director Todd Lyons infamously compared to “Prime, but with human beings.”
In addition to community resistance, state AGs across the United States have filed lawsuits opposing warehouses under the National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedure Act. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown recently obtained a temporary restraining order blocking a warehouse in his state, and a similar lawsuit is playing out in New Jersey.
Read the complaint here.
First-of-its-kind civil suit filed over CECOT confinement
One of the hundreds of men spirited from the United States last year filed a federal lawsuit seeking $1.3 million in compensation for the “physical and psychological abuse, humiliation, and degradation” that he experienced in a terrorism prison in El Salvador.
Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel counted himself among the 238 Venezuelan immigrants whisked from the United States last year to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
His 44-page complaint narrates a familiar story.
On his birthday, Leon Rengel headed to work when he was detained and federal agents claimed that his tattoos showed an affiliation with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“Plaintiff’s tattoos include the names Sandra and Isabela—his mother and daughter—a barbershop, and a tiger, rather than any symbols connected with TdA,” his complaint states. “But ICE officers ignored Plaintiff’s explanations and documentation and took him into custody.”
According to experts, TdA isn’t known to display their affiliations with tattoos, but several immigrants have been picked up in the government’s dragnet for that reason. CBS found that most of the immigrants sent to CECOT had no apparent criminal record.
Early in his second term, Trump issued a proclamation designating the group an alien enemy, attempting to circumvent the due process rights of anybody suspected of that affiliation. The government ignored Chief U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg’s order to return the deportation flights to the United States because of the likely violations of the immigrants’ Fifth Amendment rights.
Leon Rengel’s lawsuit says that CECOT told him and his fellow immigrants “welcome to hell,” put them in the prone position and assaulted them with batons.
“Then the guards began picking up all the detainees by the hands, their hands still cuffed behind their backs,” the complaint states. “The guards dragged the detainees, their faces to the floor, across the prison floor and into their cells. Finally in their cells, Plaintiff was told there was ‘no escape’ and that ‘they would be there for a minimum of ninety years.’ Plaintiff, a young barber who was never affiliated with any gang in Venezuela or in the United States, was terrified.”
CBS News, which first reported the story, said that the Department of Homeland Security insisted that Leon Rengel was a gang member but refused to provide the evidence.
“I was never a gang member,” the 28-year-old told the network.
Attorney Norman Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador and the co-founder of The Contrarian, represents Leon Rengel for the Democracy Defenders Fund. He confirmed to All Rise News that his lawsuit was the first
(Disclosure: Norm Eisen was my editor at Just Security.)
Read the complaint here.
I am so happy to learn of actions by states against conversions of warehouses into detention centers. I lived through the Holocaust and I don't want American concentration camps!
I had no idea you and Norm had worked together. I am a fan of you both!