ST. PAUL, Minn. — Today, the Minnesota Senate passed Senate File 3699 – a comprehensive package of legislation to hold federal agents accountable and protect Minnesotans from further violations of their constitutional rights.
In response to “Operation Metro Surge” – when thousands of ICE agents descended upon the state and assaulted, kidnapped, racially profiled, harassed, and killed Minnesotans – the Senate DFL Caucus developed a holistic package of legislation to protect residents of the state and their constitutional rights from the abuses of federal agents.
After passage, Senator Doron Clark (DFL-Minneapolis) – the author of the included Senate File 3570, which protects college campuses from warrantless intrusion – released the following statement:
“For months, our neighbors have been terrorized by the Trump administration. Our neighbors patrol school grounds to protect our kids. Our neighbors organize grocery deliveries to make sure people are fed. Thousands of our neighbors protested the blatant violations of their rights in subzero temperatures – and two of them were killed for doing so. Today, I am wholehearted in my ‘Yes’ vote, because Minnesotans deserve better than the chaos that Trump administration unleashed on our neighbors, and our neighbors deserve to be loved and protected.”
Also included in the package are the following provisions:
- Ensuring federal law enforcement is included in existing prohibitions against masking for the purpose of obscuring their identities.
- Creating a legal avenue for Minnesotans to seek civil action against federal law enforcement officers who violate their constitutional rights
- Establishing the right to sue in civil court if an individual who shoots someone or sees someone being shot does not then help, as already required under state law.
- Requiring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate deaths involving a federal agent
- Protecting essential spaces from entry when a warrant is not present, including schools, child care facilities, health care settings, higher education, and prohibiting civil arrests for people attending court.
- Prohibiting the denial of education based on immigration status, and establishing the ability to sue when this right is denied based on immigration status
The bill, now headed to the House, was passed by the Senate on a party-line vote of 34-33.
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