MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Liberian man arrested over the weekend after heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break down the front door of his Minneapolis home had been checking in regularly with federal authorities for years, his attorney said Tuesday.
The arrest of Garrison Gibson, 37, during a Minnesota immigration crackdown the Department of Homeland Security has called the largest enforcement operation ever, was a “clear constitutional violation” because agents did not have a proper warrant, attorney Mark Prokos said.
Sunday’s arrests came in a surge in the city after an immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Goode last week, sparking waves of angry protests and clashes between officers and activists.
“It was an illegal search, absolutely,” Prokos said, because the agents had only an administrative warrant, which authorizes someone’s arrest but does not allow officers to forcefully enter private homes. Forcible entry requires a criminal warrant signed by a judge.
Gibson, who fled Liberia’s civil war as a child, was ordered removed from the U.S. in 2008 after a drug conviction was dropped by a court. But he remained in the country legally, known as an order of supervision, under an obligation to meet regularly with immigration officials.
Days before his arrest, Gibson checked in with immigration officials at the regional immigration offices — the same building where agents have been conducting enforcement raids in recent weeks.
“He had another check-in in a few months,” Prokos said. “So if he’s this dangerous, why are they letting him roam?
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said earlier this week that Gibson had “a lengthy rap sheet (that) includes robbery, possession of drugs with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, malicious destruction and theft. She did not indicate if those were arrests, charges or convictions.”
McLaughlin did not respond to questions about whether the agents’ use of force was justified.
But court records indicate Gibson’s legal history — a few traffic violations, a minor drug arrest and an arrest for riding public transportation without paying fare — shows only one felony, a 2008 conviction for third-degree drug sales that was later dismissed.
Prokos said Gibson was sent to Texas by immigration officials within hours of his arrest, then immediately returned to Minnesota at the judge’s order after the lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition, which the court used to determine whether the prison was legal. The court has not yet decided on the petition.
Gibson is currently being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea, Minnesota, after being held at a large camp at Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, Texas. According to ICE’s detainer locator.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an email from The Associated Press with follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.
Guns, activists and pepper spray
Gibson’s wife, Teyana Gibson Brown, a nurse who was inside the home with the couple’s 9-year-old child during the raid, was deeply shaken by the arrest, Prokos said.
During their conversation, she was “having a hard time completing sentences because she was just distracted,” he said.
Activists monitoring immigration agents before Gibson’s arrest beat drums, blew whistles and honked car horns to disrupt the operation and warn neighbors, some of whom poured into the street.
Video taken at the scene by the AP shows agents shoving and pepper-spraying protesters.
The Twin Cities — the latest target of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — have been rocked by the Jan. 7 killing of Goode, who was shot during a standoff with agents.
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in his car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” his vehicle.
City and state officials have dismissed those explanations based on videos of the confrontation.
State and local officials are asking the public to share video and any other evidence as they try to investigate Goode’s death after federal officials insisted they would do their own work and not share information.
More than 2,000 immigrants have been arrested in Minnesota since the campaign began, which took effect in early December, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem told Fox News over the weekend that the administration would send more federal agents to the state to protect immigration officials and continue enforcement.
–
AP correspondent Elliot Spagat contributed to this report from San Diego.
