ICE agents' crowd-control tactics in Minneapolis raise training, safety concerns

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal immigration agents deployed to the Twin Cities have pointed rifles at demonstrators, deployed chemical irritants at the outset of confrontations, broken vehicle windows and pulled occupants from cars during ongoing protests, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Criminologists and former law enforcement officials said the tactics deviate from accepted crowd-management standards and risk turning volatile demonstrations into deadly encounters.

The Department of Homeland Security defended the conduct as necessary to protect officers from violent attacks. Experts said agents who normally conduct arrests, deportations and criminal investigations lack the specialized training that local police departments develop for managing large public demonstrations.

The confrontations reflect a broader federal strategy that has placed more than 2,000 DHS officers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since early December to conduct immigration enforcement — agents whose training focuses primarily on arrests and deportations, now performing crowd-management roles that experts say require preparation most immigration officers have not received.

Experts: tactics fall below accepted standards

Ed Maguire, a criminology professor at Arizona State University who has written extensively about crowd-management and protest-related law enforcement training, said what he observed in Minneapolis fits a pattern set for serious harm.

“You can’t even say this doesn’t meet best practices. That’s too high a bar. These don’t seem to meet generally accepted practices,” Maguire said.

“We’re seeing routinely substandard law enforcement practices that would just never be accepted at the local level,” he added. “Then there seems to be just an absence of standard accountability practices.”

Ian Adams, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said the majority of crowd-management training in policing happens at the local level — typically at larger departments with dedicated public order units.

“It’s highly unlikely that your typical ICE agent has a great deal of experience with public order tactics or control,” Adams said.

Adams said police departments have shifted over decades from the approach prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s of meeting protests with force — an approach that, he said, produces “blowback effects that actually make the disorder worse.” Modern departments, he said, try to open communication with protest organizers, set boundaries and show deference within reason, with an understanding that using unnecessary force inside a crowd can trigger escalation from protesters and officers alike.

“I think at the heart of this is the challenge of calling what ICE is doing even policing,” Adams said. “Police agencies have a relationship with their community that extends before and after any incidents. Officers know we will be here no matter what happens, and the community knows regardless of what happens today, these officers will be here tomorrow.”

DHS defends officer training

DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a written statement, said ICE officer candidates receive more than eight weeks of training that includes conflict management and de-escalation, and that about 85% of candidates have prior law enforcement experience.

“All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where they are trained in everything from de-escalation tactics to firearms to driving training. Homeland Security Investigations candidates receive more than 100 days of specialized training,” McLaughlin said.

Former ICE director raises concerns

Sarah Saldaña, who served as ICE director until early 2017, said the current situation differs significantly from traditional immigration enforcement practice.

“There’s so much about what’s happening now that is not a traditional approach to immigration apprehensions,” Saldaña said.

Saldaña said she cannot speak to how the agency currently trains its officers, but noted that during her tenure agents received instruction on interacting with bystanders or people filming — not on managing crowds or protests.

“This is different. You would hope that the agency would be responsive given the evolution of what’s happening — brought on, mind you, by the aggressive approach that has been taken coming from the top,” she said.

Saldaña added that she has grown concerned about conduct on both sides of the confrontations.

“You cannot put yourself in front of an armed officer, you cannot put your hands on them certainly. That is impeding law enforcement actions,” she said. “At this point, I’m getting concerned on both sides — the aggression from law enforcement and the increasingly aggressive behavior from protesters.”

ACLU seeks court limits on protest response

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit Jan. 12 on behalf of six residents, seeking an emergency injunction to restrict how federal agents operate during protests. The suit seeks prohibitions on the use of chemical agents, the pointing of firearms at non-threatening individuals, and interference with the lawful recording of officers.

Background: fatal shooting intensified protests

The demonstrations grew after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, 37, by a federal immigration agent the previous week. Federal officials defended the shooting as self-defense, saying Good had weaponized her vehicle. Her death drew increased scrutiny of the federal enforcement presence in the region.

Humberto Cardounel, senior director of training and technical assistance at the National Policing Institute, said agencies often fail to reinforce training sufficiently over time.

“They go through it once in basic training then expect (officers) to know how to comport themselves two years later, five years later,” Cardounel said. “We encourage them to understand and know their training, but also to simulate their training.”

There is no nationwide standard of best practices for crowd-control policing in the United States, according to the AP. Some departments bar officers from spraying pepper spray directly into the face of people exercising constitutional speech; others prohibit the use of tear gas or other chemical agents in residential neighborhoods. Experts recommend that departments maintain written policies and review them regularly.