Should Local Police Arrest ICE Agents Over Excessive Force? AG Ellison Responds After Minneapolis Chief’s Warning

MS NOW Exchange Puts AG Ellison on the Spot Over Police Intervention With ICE

MS NOW host Eugene Daniels pressed Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on whether state or local officers might sometimes need to arrest federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents if those agents use what local officers deem excessive force. Daniels cited a public statement from Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara warning that officers who fail to intervene when they observe unlawful conduct could face termination.

“If unlawful force is being used by any law enforcement officer against any person in this city and one of our officers is there, absolutely, I expect them to intervene, or they’ll be fired,” O’Hara said, according to Daniels.

After reading O’Hara’s comment on MS NOW’s The Weekend, Daniels asked Ellison to explain how a local officer would practically intervene with federal immigration agents. “What does that actually look like? I’m having a hard time picturing what it looks like for a police officer to intervene with federal, you know, immigration enforcement and what that would entail,” Daniels said.

Ellison responded that ICE agents already operate in Minnesota and defended the chief’s guidance as an effort to uphold the law and protect public safety. He emphasized that O’Hara’s message was meant to prevent unlawful incidents and to remind officers of their established duties: to render medical aid and to stop unlawful conduct when they witness it.

“That’s not a new thing when it comes to policing. If an officer sees a colleague take money and not log it in the evidence locker or sees somebody using excessive force, they have a duty and obligation to say, ‘I cannot stand by and witness you engage in unlawful conduct,’” Ellison said.

When Daniels asked directly whether officers should arrest ICE agents they believe are using excessive force, Ellison characterized O’Hara’s public warning as preventative: a signal that local authorities expect federal officers to follow legal requirements and that local officers should not tolerate unlawful conduct.

Watch the exchange on MS NOW. The story was first reported by Mediaite.