- - Minnesota and Illinois are suing the Trump administration over immigration operations. Here are the lawsuits’ key claims

Danya Gainor, Taylor Romine, CNNJanuary 13, 2026 at 7:00 AM

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Federal agents operate in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday. - Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Minnesota and Illinois separately filed lawsuits Monday against the Trump administration, arguing the president’s immigration crackdown is terrorizing their communities and violating the Constitution.

“We have watched in horror as unchecked federal agents have aggressively assaulted and terrorized our communities and neighborhoods in Illinois, undermining Constitutional rights and threatening public safety,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Chicago as well as Minneapolis and Saint Paul also sued the Trump administration.

The federal government has stepped up operations in Chicago and the Twin Cities, both Democratic strongholds, during the fall and local officials have criticized them for sowing chaos and confusion. An ICE-involved shooting last week in Minneapolis left a mother of three dead and kickstarted a series of nationwide protests.

Both Minnesota and Illinois are asking for an injunction to halt the immigration operations in their states.

The suits were filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as reporting agencies, including ICE, US Customs and Border Protection and US Border Patrol.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Constitution was on the administration’s side. The surge of federal officers, she said in a statement Monday in response to the lawsuits, was needed because sanctuary politicians in Illinois and Minnesota were not protecting their citizens.

Here are the key claims from both lawsuits.

Suits claim unprecedented immigration operations violated 10th Amendment

Both lawsuits invoke the 10th Amendment to defend their states’ rights, alleging the Trump administration has commandeered local resources for its crackdown on immigration in Minnesota and Illinois.

The “unlawful and violent tactics, have disrupted the lives and undermined the liberties and property rights of the people,” and have prevented Illinois and Chicago from enacting the policy their citizens want, their lawsuit said,

Minnesota’s suit specifically emphasized strains on local police resources. The complaint asserts that Minneapolis and Saint Paul have been forced to divert officers from their usual duties to respond to incidents involving federal immigration enforcement, undermining local efforts to protect the community.

The deployment of “armed, masked, and poorly trained federal agents” is a federal invasion, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday.

CNN reported early last week about 2,000 more federal agents would be sent to Minneapolis. That number, Minnesota’s lawsuit said, “greatly exceeds the number of sworn police officers that Minneapolis and Saint Paul have, combined.”

Minneapolis police officers have worked thousands of combined overtime hours as a direct result of federal agents’ presence, the suit said, costing the city over $2 million in overtime pay.

Political retaliation by Trump motivated immigration crackdown, states say

Minnesota’s lawsuit claims Operation Metro Surge, the immigration crackdown effort in the Twin Cities, is not a legitimate law enforcement action, but the result of a desire to “retaliate” against the Democratic-led state.

The complaint details disparaging statements about the state President Donald Trump has made, saying it shows a clear intention to punish political opponents and jurisdictions with sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with the federal government during immigration efforts.

Illinois’s lawsuit made a similar claim, saying Trump and his administration “have long directed threatening and derogatory statements towards jurisdictions that do not invest in enforcing federal immigration law.”

“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said Monday in response to the lawsuits.

Both states said they have had funds, such as those for social services programs, withheld because the administration says they haven’t complied with immigration policies.

“Defendants have repeatedly made statements that reflect their true intent—to punish Minnesota’s elected officials and residents for their perceived political leanings, to target so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, to create false political narratives of lawlessness in Minnesota, and to incite flashpoints between Minnesota residents and immigration agents,” the Minnesota lawsuit says.

Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon previously told CNN the funding was revoked because “Democrat-led states and Governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch” and they were ensuring “these states are following the law.”

Federal agents ‘unlawfully terrorized’ communities, Minnesota suit says

Both lawsuits allege tactics used by federal agents during their operations are detrimental to the community and terrorizing everyone who lives there.

Illinois and Chicago said in their lawsuit DHS had “cast aside longstanding policies” which they argued was not only illegal but “arbitrary and capricious.”

The lawsuit is asking the court to stop the agencies from using tactics like “roving patrol, biometric scanning, warrantless arrest,” among other methods. The suit also alleges agents regularly trespassed on private property and used riot weapons, like tear gas, on people who weren’t resisting.

The tactics have left residents fearing for their safety as ”uniformed, military-trained personnel, carrying semi-automatic firearms and military-grade weaponry, armed with semi-automatic rifles” roam the city, they said.

The complaint from Minnesota says DHS agents would “unlawfully terrorize” communities in the Twin Cities with continued aggression just hours after Renee Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE agent.

“DHS agents were met with unsurprising protests after the fatal shooting two hours earlier but used pepper spray and rammed vehicles when leaving,” it says.

Minnesota’s suit also asserts that federal agents have engaged in widespread racial profiling, particularly against Somali and Hispanic communities, as they conduct immigration operations in the Twin Cities.

“On December 10, 2025, two masked DHS agents tackled and arrested Mubashir, a Somali American man … despite Mubashir repeatedly asking that he be allowed to show them his legal identification,” the complaint says. “DHS agents then detained Mubashir for two hours for no apparent reason other than his perceived national origin.”

The complaint offered several other incidents of citizens being detained or questioned – including young workers at Target, Minneapolis Public Works employees or people on their way to work – it says, because of their perceived ethnicity.

The states have experienced immigration enforcement for decades – but this is different

Illinois and Minnesota have long complied with immigration enforcement under different administrations, they said in their respective lawsuits. But the tactics and intensity now make these specific operations more like a war zone, they said.

“For decades, federal immigration agents enforced immigration laws in the Chicago area by targeting and arresting individuals subject to removal without significant impact on public order and safety in Illinois or Chicago,” the Illinois lawsuit said. But now, the way agents conduct themselves is acting more like “occupiers rather than officers of the law.”

“This has left many Illinois and Chicago residents, regardless of immigration status, frightened to avail themselves of public services, or even venture outside to engage in normal daily activity,” the suit said.

Aside from the unprecedented size and force of the operation, Minnesota and Illinois’ lawsuits allege DHS has also abandoned its longstanding practice of avoiding conducting immigration operations in “sensitive” public places.

The policy, the complaints claim, was revoked to make way for the operations.

“Thousands of armed and masked DHS agents have stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids and carry out dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests in sensitive public places, including schools and hospitals—all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement,” Minnesota’s complaint says.

No end in sight for immigration enforcement

The states say more harm to their residents is sure to come as there is no end in sight for immigration enforcement.

Illinois has had an increased federal law enforcement presence since September, and officials have repeatedly said they aren’t planning on leaving.

“If you think we’re done with Chicago, you’d better check yourself before you wreck yourself. Don’t call it a comeback; we’re going to be here for years,” CBP Commander Gregory Bovino said last month.

Minnesota’s complaint also says the federal government appears poised to continue operations in the state, despite weeks of escalation and public outcry.

In a social media post last week cited in Minnesota’s suit, DHS wrote: “We’re not leaving until the problem is solved.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Sylvie Kirsch, Sydney Bishop, Taylor Galgano, Sharif Paget, Kaanita Iyer, Camila DeChalus and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.

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