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CNN Legal Analyst Predicts Minnesota Democrats’ Anti-ICE Suit Will Go Down In Flames

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CNN legal analyst Elie Honig predicted Monday that litigation by state and local officials in Minnesota against the Department of Homeland Security would fail.

Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis announced the suit that seeks to force the Trump administration to withdraw United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from the state Monday, claiming it was an “invasion.” Honig told CNN host Anderson Cooper that the most the suit could gain would be “information” after Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota discussed the increasingly contentious situation in the state.

“What they’re asking, the state of Minnesota is asking a federal judge to throw ICE out of the state and to prohibit ICE from enforcing federal law in the state,” Honig told Cooper. “There’s simply no precedent for that. These lawsuits — Illinois and Minnesota, both filed similar lawsuits, have no precedent cited in there. To do that would violate the supremacy clause, which says the states cannot block the feds from doing their federal duties.”

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“The one thing that Minnesota might get out of this, depending on the judge, the judge could want a hearing and could ask ICE some of the questions you just asked Senator Klobuchar about training and protocols,” Honig continued. “But they’re not going to win, but they might get some information.”

The Supreme Court threw out multiple provisions of Arizona’s SB1070 legislation that sought to crack down on illegal immigration in the border state, in 2012, citing the supremacy clause of the Constitution.

Minnesota officials have come under fire for the failure of local authorities to respond to several violent incidents, including an attack on independent journalists Nick Sortor and Cam Higby. Tensions have increased since an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good while carrying out an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis Wednesday.

Honig also said Minnesota authorities would also likely fail to make any charges stick against the ICE agent over the incident.

“There’s nothing preventing the state from charging. However, if they did charge the federal agent with state level crimes, there would be a serious argument that the federal agent would make,” Honig told Cooper. “First, he would ask to remove the case over to federal court. We’ve seen that done before. And then he would claim immunity. But he does not have absolute immunity, as JD Vance has said. He would have qualified immunity. He’d have to show that he was acting within the scope of his job.”

“And I think the counterargument would be what he did there exceeded the bounds of what he was supposed to do as an ICE agent,” Honig continued. “So the bottom line is, yes, the state can theoretically bring charges, but they would have legal hurdles once they did that.”