Liberian man arrested in Minneapolis raid had been checking in regularly with authorities

Gibson’s arrest is among more than 2,000 immigration detentions in Minnesota since federal enforcement began in December — in what the Department of Homeland Security has described as its largest enforcement operation ever. The legal challenge over whether agents could lawfully force entry using only an administrative warrant remains unresolved in the courts.

MINNEAPOLIS — The attorney for a Liberian man arrested Sunday in a Minneapolis immigration raid said Tuesday his client had been meeting regularly with federal immigration authorities for years and had checked in with agents only days before they used a battering ram to break down his front door.

Attorney Marc Prokosch called the arrest of Garrison Gibson, 37, a “blatant constitutional violation,” saying agents carried only an administrative warrant — which authorizes an arrest but does not permit forced entry into a private home. Forced entry requires a criminal warrant signed by a judge.

“This was an illegal search, absolutely,” Prokosch said.

Gibson’s arrest came in what the Department of Homeland Security has described as its largest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the operation began in early December, according to the department.

Regular check-ins, then a battering ram

Gibson had been living in the United States under what is known as an order of supervision — a status that permitted him to remain in the country with the requirement that he check in periodically with immigration officials, Prokosch said. He had done so only days before the Sunday raid, at the same regional immigration office where agents had recently been staging enforcement operations.

“He would have had another check-in in a couple of months,” Prokosch said. “So if he’s this dangerous person, then, why are they letting him walk around?”

Gibson, who fled the Liberian civil war as a child, had been ordered removed from the United States, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed by the courts, Prokosch said.

DHS account diverges from court records

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said earlier this week that Gibson has “a lengthy rap sheet (that) includes robbery, drug possession with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, malicious destruction and theft.” She did not indicate whether those were arrests, charges, or convictions. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about whether the agents’ use of force was justified. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an Associated Press email with follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.

Court records indicate Gibson’s legal history — dominated by traffic violations, minor drug arrests, and an arrest for riding public transit without paying the fare — includes only one felony: the 2008 conviction for third-degree narcotics sales, which was later dismissed.

Flown to Texas, then back to Minnesota

In the hours after his arrest, Gibson was flown to Texas by immigration authorities. A judge ordered him returned to Minnesota after Prokosch filed a habeas corpus petition — a legal filing used to challenge the legality of an imprisonment. Courts have not yet ruled on the petition. Gibson is currently held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea, Minnesota, according to ICE’s detainee locator.

Gibson’s wife, Teyana Gibson Brown, a nurse, was inside the home with the couple’s 9-year-old child when agents broke down the door. Prokosch said she “was having a hard time just completing sentences because she’s just been so distraught” in conversations since the arrest.

Protests and a broader confrontation

Activists who had been monitoring immigration agents before Sunday’s arrest banged on drums, blew whistles, and honked car horns in attempts to disrupt the operation and warn neighbors, some of whom poured into the streets. Video taken at the scene by the Associated Press shows agents pushing and pepper-spraying demonstrators.

Minneapolis has been on edge since Jan. 7, when a federal immigration agent shot and killed Renee Good, 37, during a confrontation with agents — a killing that set off waves of protests and clashes between authorities and activists. The Trump administration defended the officer who shot Good, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle. City and state officials dismissed those explanations based on videos of the confrontation.

State and local authorities have urged the public to share video and other evidence as they investigate Good’s death; federal authorities said they would work independently and not share information with local investigators.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said over the weekend that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.