Civil Liberties and Policing

Legal experts say Fourth Amendment protections constrain ICE searches and seizures amid a surge of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, advising residents they can refuse consent to searches and request warrants. A separate PBS fact-check found FBI Director Kash Patel’s blanket claim that guns are barred at protests is incorrect under Minnesota law — the state is a permit‑to‑carry jurisdiction that generally does not ban otherwise lawful firearms at demonstrations — and Patel later narrowed his remarks to say the FBI isn’t targeting peaceful, lawful gun owners absent threats.

Federal judges in Minnesota have rejected multiple arrest warrants tied to a Jan. 18 anti‑ICE protest at Cities Church, finding the warrants lacked probable cause. One of three people previously taken into federal custody was St. Paul school board clerk Chauntyll Allen, who is charged with conspiracy to deprive others of their constitutional rights and has been criticized by state Rep. Elliott Engen while defending the disruption in a TMZ interview as something that "needed to be done to get the message across."

An internal ICE memo dated May 2025 and signed by Acting Director Todd Lyons asserts that officers may rely on administrative immigration warrants — without a judge‑signed judicial warrant — to enter residences, authorizes the use of the "necessary and reasonable" force after knocking and identifying themselves (operations between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.), and has been used in training and operationalized in incidents such as a Jan. 11 Minneapolis entry where agents rammed a door. Whistleblowers and legal advocates call the policy a flagrant Fourth Amendment violation and lawmakers including Sen. Richard Blumenthal are demanding hearings, while DHS says affected individuals have due process and that administrative-warrant issuers found probable cause.

The 8th Circuit granted an administrative stay pausing U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez’s preliminary injunction — which barred federal agents in Minnesota from using pepper spray or nonlethal munitions on peaceful protesters, arresting peaceful protesters, or stopping or detaining drivers and passengers near protests without reasonable articulable suspicion — while the government pursues an appeal. The injunction, filed by the ACLU on behalf of six community members (one plaintiff, Susan Tincher, said she was handcuffed within 15 seconds of arriving and held for five hours), came amid deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minneapolis and has drawn political reactions, with Attorney General Pam Bondi calling the stay a victory and reports noting ICE guidance asserting broader force and entry authorities.