• The Minnesota Senate passed a package of bills in response to a large-scale ICE operation.
• The bills would allow Minnesotans to sue federal agents for constitutional violations in state court.
• The legislation also aims to ban federal immigration agents from schools and hospitals.

The Minnesota Senate on Monday approved a package of bills aimed at reining in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after more than 3,000 federal agents descended on Minnesota for what the Department of Homeland Security called its largest immigration enforcement operation ever.

Swarming groups of federal agents racially profiled and arrested people in the streets during Operation Metro Surge, which ignited massive resistance and resulted in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. Citizens.

“All we want are safe communities and the fair treatment under the law,” said Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, and chief author of the bill package. “The way ICE agents and Border Patrol agents went about (immigration) enforcement was an absolute abuse of our Constitution. It contravened our constitutional principles. It was without warrants. It was stopping people without lawful basis. It was arresting people without probable cause. It just crossed so many constitutional lines.”

The Minnesota Senate is controlled by Democrats, who have made Operation Metro Surge recovery and accountability a top issue. The Minnesota House is deadlocked between Republicans and Democrats, and Republicans have largely opposed Operation Metro Surge-related bills this session. The legislative session ends on Sunday.

IMMIGRATION: ICE agents deployed in more than 40 states, Fort Snelling mentioned

The bill passed 34-33 in the Senate with no Republican votes.

The package includes a bill to allow Minnesotans to sue federal agents in state court if their constitutional rights are violated.

For much of American history, people have had the ability to sue federal agents, but the U.S. Supreme Court has rolled back that precedent. The high court has suggested that only Congress can authorize lawsuits seeking money from federal officials.

More: Ramsey County attorney seeks state funds to solve non-fatal shootings

Some legal scholars believe state legislatures, too, can authorize lawsuits against federal officials for violating the Constitution. The Illinois Legislature last year passed such a law, and the Trump administration promptly sued, arguing the Constitution’s supremacy clause limits states from enacting policies that conflict with federal law.

The Trump administration has said that federal agents have “absolute immunity” if they are conducting immigration enforcement. Legal experts say that immunity doesn’t extend to unreasonable or excessive use of force. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged one ICE officer with assault for allegedly brandishing a weapon and is weighing charges against the agents who killed Pretti and Good.

The package of bills also includes banning law enforcement from wearing face masks, and it creates a “civil right of action” in shootings in which a person can be held civilly liable if they shoot someone and fail to provide aid to the victim.

It also prohibits federal immigration agents from schools, hospitals, childcare centers and courthouses.

More: Minnesota House passes bill to create office to fight fraud

Senate Republicans say the package would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential litigation because the state will likely be sued. States cannot regulate immigration law, and Republicans argue the bill package does just that.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

(FOX 9) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has sent a warning letter to nine commercial landlords warning them they may be renting to massage parlors that are engaging in sex trafficking.

Warning letter

What we know:

Ellison shared an announcement about the letter in a news release on Tuesday. The letter warns the landlords, which were not named in the news release, that their tenants could be operating an illicit business.

The letter also shares some “red flags” of sex trafficking, noting that the business in question appears on a website “RUBMAPS” – a review site that officials say allows sex buyers to share their experiences.

Local perspective:

Some of the common red flags outlined by the AG that a massage parlor is engaged in sex trafficking are:

• Hours are often late, past regular business hours.
• Entrances are private and windows are covered.
• High security measures, including external cameras at entrances, screened entry with buyers needing to call or be buzzed in.
• Evidence, such as makeshift kitchens, shows that women are living on the premises.
• Cash-heavy transactions.
• Clientele is almost exclusively male.
• Illicit advertising online and sex-buyer activity on online review sites.

What you can do:

Landlords and residents who suspect a business may be engaging in prostitution can contact:

• The BCA at 1-877-996-6222 or email bca.tips@state.mn.us.
• The Attorney General’s Office via its online complaint form, or by calling the Office at (651) 296-3353 (Metro area) or (800) 657-3787 (Greater Minnesota).
• The National Human Trafficking Hotline, 1-888-373-7888.

What the letter says

Dig deeper:

The letter also informs the landlords that Minnesota law allows landlords to cancel residential leases if they learn a tenant is engaging in prostitution activities on their premises. The AG urges the landlords to check if similar provisions are available for commercial leases. It also warns of the legal ramifications of allowing sex trafficking on their property.

Ellison requested a response from landlords within ten business days of the letter.

In the news release, Ellison explains that many of the women that work out of these parlors are brought to the United States under false promises, isolated once here and coerced to perform as sex workers.

What they’re saying:

In a statement, Ellison says: “Minnesota will not tolerate vulnerable women being abused and trafficked at illicit massage businesses hiding in plain sight in our communities. I’m asking property owners to join me and do their part to help stamp out this criminal conduct.”

Big picture view:

The effort by Ellison is part of an initiative to combat sex trafficking that the attorney general’s office is collaborating on with local law enforcement, national anti-trafficking advocacy group The Network, and the Minnesota BCA’s Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force.

• Minnesota lawmakers are considering a bill to fund a program aimed at reducing non-fatal shootings.
• The program is modeled after a successful Ramsey County unit that increased arrests and prosecutions for these crimes.
• Since the unit’s creation, the solve rate for non-fatal shootings in St. Paul rose from 37% to 71%.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, who helped devise a program to sharply increase arrests and prosecutions of non-fatal shootings, pressed state lawmakers Thursday to pass a bill for $1 million in grants to help other jurisdictions continue the successful experiment.

The bipartisan bill (HF1082), authored by House public safety co-chairs Reps. Kelly Moller and Paul Novotny, is modeled on Ramsey County’s non-fatal shooting unit, which has succesfully reduced gun crime in Ramsey County, and especially St. Paul.

More: Program to help Minnesota hospitals get drug discounts under scrutiny

Previously, police and prosecutors spent few resources investigating non-fatal shootings, which were viewed as less important than homicides and often involved engaging with difficult witnesses.

The logic of the program is straightforward: Non-fatal shootings are essentially failed homicides, and they often spur a cycle of retributive violence. By solving and prosecuting so few of them, authorities lost any chance at deterrance. The non-fatal shootings often escalated to killings.