Dear Minnesota Elected Officials and Law Enforcement Leadership:

In response to the increasingly frequent and alarming attacks by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and related entities that have terrorized our immigrant neighbors and communities, we are calling on you to take concrete steps to protect our communities.

Every community in Minnesota needs strong existing separation ordinances, policies, and practices. Establishing new and strengthening existing separation ordinances without delay is paramount. Unfortunately, we know that these racist and xenophobic-driven raids will continue to worsen as federal agents flood our communities to specifically target our beloved Somali and Latine neighbors.

As community members who will continue to act in order to keep our immigrant communities safe, we implore you to make a clear demarcation between local law enforcement and federal immigrant enforcement operations. Police departments, including MPD and SPPD, have assisted federal agents with crowd and traffic control during several raids. In some cases, local law enforcement has indiscriminately deployed chemical weapons, rubber bullets, and physical force on community members, constitutional observers, and journalists.

These disturbing incidents have severely harmed trust between community members and city government and are not in line with the promise of solidarity that you as leaders have articulated in the face of this increased threat.

We urge you to take the following steps to begin to repair trust, defend our immigrant neighbors, and protect the safety of community members, constitutional observers, and journalists:

1. Enact, strengthen, and enforce existing separation ordinances without exceptions, including traffic and crowd control. Current ordinances have too much room for local law enforcement to legally cooperate with Federal Agencies.

2. Limit escalatory police crowd control tactics that cause physical harm and increase the possibility of violence.

--Prohibit the use of tear gas and other chemicals. Tear gas is a weapon of war. Berkeley, Portland and San Francisco have all banned tear gas. The state of Minnesota, and its counties and cities, should ban other violent crowd control and dispersion techniques such as the use of pepper spray.

--End the use of kettling. Kettling, also known as “police lines,” is used as a practice to arrest large numbers of people. The tactic directly impacts the rights of First Amendment assemblies and mass demonstrations. The practice – in which police surround a group of protestors, prevent them from dispersing, and subsequently arrest them – has been found controversial because it can also result in the detention of bystanders.

--Ban the use of rubber bullets. Localities should also ban the use of rubber bullets as a tool against protesters. Although they are classified as “non-lethal,” rubber bullets cause serious injuries and can still be deadly. San Jose banned the use of rubber bullets.

--Ban the use of sonic weapons. The Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), or “sound cannons,” can be used as a sonic weapon by emitting loud and painful levels of noise that can cause long-term hearing loss. Seattle prohibited the use of acoustic weapons against crowds.

3. Establish civilian oversight of police engaged in crowd control. Even the best trained, most disciplined police force cracks under the pressure of intense situations. Civilian oversight with the authority to pull officers from the line and meaningfully influence central command is essential for meeting all our goals of peaceful and safe demonstrations and protections of First Amendment rights.

4. Enact ordinances that prohibit federal agencies from using municipal, county, or school owned or controlled property, including nonpublic areas of buildings for any purpose (or without a signed judicial warrant). Minneapolis has taken action on this through an Executive Order.

5. Require all law enforcement to identify themselves while on duty and prohibit them from concealing their identity by being clearly uniformed and unmasked. Law enforcement officials should be accountable to the public and never conceal their identity while performing official duties. Require them to identify themselves by name and badge number and require badges to be worn identifying their agency while on municipal, county, and school-owned property.

6. End all Automated License Plate Reader contracts. Investigations have shown that regardless of data sharing agreements, ALPR contractors like Flock regularly share data beyond the allowed channels. The only safe data is the data you don’t collect.

Sincerely,