The states of Illinois and Minnesota filed lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security Jan. 12 in an effort to protect citizens from aggressive and even deadly federal immigration enforcement tactics.
The legal actions came in response to violence waged by DHS against protesters, bystanders and communities surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the Democratic states targeted by President Donald Trump. Both suits also followed the fatal shootings of a U.S. citizen and an immigrant by ICE agents.
The states asked the courts to declare immigration surges in their jurisdictions unconstitutional, to prohibit the use of violence in apprehending immigrants and U.S. citizens, and to bar DHS and ICE from taking punitive actions against protesters and others exercising First Amendment rights to publicly demonstrate against government policies.
The states asked the courts to declare immigration surges in their jurisdictions unconstitutional.
“When the federal government itself violates legal rights and civic norms on such a broad scale and public panic is high, state and city governments bear the costs — both tangible and intangible. Defendants’ agents’ reckless tactics endanger the public safety, health and welfare of all Minnesotans,” according to State of Minnesota v. Kristi Noem.
DHS tactics have made community members afraid to go to work, to attend school and to go shopping and have eroded public trust in law enforcement as ICE agents are often confused with police, the lawsuit adds. “Defendants’ agents’ tactics also sap state and local resources when local law enforcement officers are called away from their important work to respond to avoidable incidents Defendants’ agents cause.”
The action filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota cites several acts of unprovoked violence by federal authorities against bystanders, protesters and other witnesses of immigration enforcement actions.
Demonstrators hold candles during an emergency vigil organized by the Ward 40+ Community Response Team at Winnemac Park in Chicago January 7, 2026. The gathering is held to mourn a rapid responder reportedly killed by an ICE agent earlier the same day in Minneapolis and to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
One included the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on Jan. 7. She was killed as she sat in her vehicle observing an ongoing immigration raid.
Another occurred shortly before and a mile from Good’s killing when a state attorney identified herself to agents during an unfolding arrest. “A DHS agent jumped out of his vehicle, unloaded entire canisters of pepper spray on her at point-blank range, causing such irritation that she had to strip her clothing off on the scene to reduce the effect.”
“You’re white. You wouldn’t be fun anyway.”
During a protest over Good’s shooting, a white minister told ICE agents arresting a Hispanic woman he was willing to be arrested in per place. “The pastor reports that when he told DHS they should take him instead and that he was not afraid, DHS pointed a gun in his face, handcuffed him, placed him in the back of a vehicle, and released him after purportedly saying, ‘You’re white. You wouldn’t be fun anyway.’”
The action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois contains equally chilling accounts, including the use of military tactics during an immigration raid on an apartment building.
“Agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter into a South Shore, Chicago apartment building and arrested and detained without warrant dozens of people, including multiple United States citizens, some of whom were children. Agents pulled people from their beds in the dead of night, zip-tied their hands and detained them in buses or vans. Agents also ransacked residents’ apartments, kicked down doors, emptied bookshelves and overturned mattresses.”
DHS has collected biometric data from Chicago and other Illinois residents without consent, arrested hundreds of people of color without warrants or due cause and indiscriminately released tear gas in populated urban areas, State of Illinois and City of Chicago v. DHS claims.
Raids have been conducted “in or near courthouses, domestic violence shelters, hospitals and schools, arresting parents and separating them from their children, dragging teachers out of their classrooms and preventing victims of violent crime from seeking judicial relief.”
The federal government claims the Sept. 12 fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant, after dropping his son off at daycare near Franklin Park, Ill., was justified. “Videos of the incident did not corroborate DHS’s assertion that the shooting officer was ‘seriously injured’ by a ‘criminal illegal alien.’”
“I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.”
A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent shot U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez five times and bragged about it in a group chat with fellow agents, according to the Illinois suit. “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.”
DHS initially claimed Martinez rammed the agent’s vehicle but later dropped the case against her because body camera video proved the assertion to be false.
Illinois asked the court to bar the deployment of federal immigration agents without “express congressional authorization” to prevent further mistreatment of immigrants and Americans.
Border Patrol and ICE agents “have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law — randomly and brutally stopping and questioning residents, separating parents from their children, detaining without warrant or probable cause citizens and non-citizens alike, and using tear gas and other chemical weapons in urban environments against unsuspecting bystanders, injuring dozens including children, the elderly and local police officers,” the suit claims.
Likewise, Minnesota cited federal constitutional violations and asked the court to bar DHS from using physical force and brandishing weapons when such actions are not necessary to stop immediate threats.
Both suits also want agents to be barred from wearing masks and to wear body cameras and uniforms clearly identifying their names and units.
A DHS official defended the actions of immigration agents as necessary in conducting enforcement actions in uncooperative states and municipalities and described the litigation as “baseless,” The New York Times reported.
But the courts already have demonstrated a willingness to oppose some of the administration’s immigration tactics. In October, U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled against President Donald Trump’s ability to deploy National Guard troops to Illinois over the state’s objections.
“The court’s action is one of only a handful of such ‘emergency docket’ cases in which the conservative court has ruled against Trump since he began his second term as president almost a year ago,” NPR reported. “It’s the first time the highest court has weighed in on the controversial deployments. While the decision does not set precedent, it brings some clarity about the president’s power to deploy federal military resources.”