A US immigration officer shot and killed a person in Minneapolis on Wednesday during an enforcement operation, the department of homeland security said.
The shooting came as the Trump administration ramped up a promised crackdown on illegal immigration in Minnesota.
The office of senator Tina Smith described the person who was shot as the wife of a prominent local activist, and Ilhan Omar, a Democrat whose congressional district includes the shooting scene, described the person as a “legal observer”.
Several of the state’s top Democrats called on federal immigration agents to leave the city, accusing them of sowing chaos. Federal officials have defended the crackdown in Minneapolis as a necessary response to illegal immigration and widespread fraud in state social service systems.
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Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota said in a statement that he had been informed of the shooting involving US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice), which took place in a residential neighbourhood in south Minneapolis.
“My public safety team is working to gather information on an Ice-related shooting this morning,” Mr Walz said. “We will share information as we learn more. In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm.”
Hundreds of people immediately gathered at the scene in protest of the presence of immigration agents. The shooting took place in a middle-class residential neighbourhood in Minneapolis, about a mile from the place where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
About 2,000 federal agents were expected to take part in the enforcement operation, which could last for weeks, according to administration posts on social media.
Elliott Payne, president of the Minneapolis city council, said in an interview from the scene that a woman appeared to have been driving a maroon vehicle while agents were conducting an enforcement operation.
“I don’t know if she was an observer or their target,” he said, condemning the presence of Ice in Minneapolis. “They’re an escalating factor. We need them out of our city.”
Mayor Jacob Frey said on social media that the shooting involved an Ice agent. Mr Frey, a Democrat who was recently sworn in for a third term, said “the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city”.
He added: “We’re demanding Ice to leave the city immediately.”
Federal agents enforcing immigration laws have been involved in several shootings in recent months, including in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas. At least 10 such shootings have been reported by news outlets since US president Donald Trump returned to office.
Mary Moriarty, the elected prosecutor in Hennepin county, which includes Minneapolis, said officials were “pushing hard for a local investigation”, which she described as “the only way to ensure full transparency and review by our office”.
“We will use every available lever to ensure a local, transparent investigation takes place,” Ms Moriarty said in a statement.
– This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
