CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Leaders from Minneapolis gave Chicago aldermen a first-hand account Tuesday about the city's response to the surge in immigration enforcement that's resulted in two fatal shootings by ICE agents in the Twin Cities.
Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne told members of the City Council's Health and Human Relations Committee during remote testimony that he "cannot overstate" the number of Constitutional violations he's personally seen committed by ICE agents during the agency's operations there.
"It feels like political retribution," Payne said of the enforcement operation, noting that agents' marching orders appeared to be designed to escalate tensions rather than ease them.
He said last Saturday's fatal shooting by agents of Alex Pretti came one day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets for a general strike to protest the surge of detentions.
"They (agents) had shoved a woman and he was just coming to their defense and trying to help them up after falling over ... and they started piling on top of him," Payne recounted.
And while he noted that Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino was leaving Minnesota, to be replaced by President Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan, Payne told aldermen that he and advocates planned to stay vigilant.
"Just because they changed their tactics doesn't mean they change their mission," he said.