Minnesota rebuffs DOJ’s knowledge calls for after Pretti capturing : NPR

Minnesota officers are rebuffing a sequence of calls for from U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, because the state continues its conflict with the Trump administration over the surge of federal immigration enforcement within the North Star state.

In a letter to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Bondi wrote: “You and your workplace should restore the rule of legislation, help ICE officers, and convey an finish to the chaos in Minnesota.”

The letter — which NPR has not obtained however which has been revealed by different media retailers — was dated Saturday. That is the identical day Alex Pretti, a nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by immigration officers — the second deadly capturing by federal brokers this month.

Bondi urged Walz to embrace what she known as “widespread sense options,” together with repealing what the Trump administration phrases “sanctuary insurance policies” and cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Minnesota state officers say the Trump administration is making false claims about its cooperation with ICE.

Walz, who’s known as on the Trump administration to finish its operation in Minnesota, dismissed the letter in a information convention Sunday.

The letter additionally calls on the state to “share all of Minnesota’s data” regarding Medicaid and meals help packages, together with SNAP, with the federal authorities.

The Trump administration has cited allegations of fraud, particularly regarding immigrants of Somali descent, in its immigration crackdown.

Minnesota is one in every of greater than 20 states that has to date refused to adjust to a requirement from the U.S. Division of Agriculture to show over private details about individuals who have utilized for or obtained SNAP advantages during the last six years. The states have argued the demand is illegal and a federal decide in California issued a preliminary ruling indicating they have been prone to prevail in that declare.

Minnesota was additionally one in every of 22 states that sued to dam the Division of Well being and Human Providers from sharing delicate Medicaid knowledge with the Division of Homeland Safety to help in immigration enforcement efforts. In December, a special federal decide in California dominated that restricted knowledge sharing, together with addresses and immigration standing, might go ahead.

Bondi makes new demand for voter knowledge

Bondi additionally made a seemingly unrelated request: for Minnesota’s voter knowledge.

It is not the primary time the Division of Justice has sought the state’s voter data — and it is an ask that is not remoted to Minnesota.

As a substitute, it is the most recent escalation within the Trump administration’s nationwide try to consolidate knowledge and execute unprecedented oversight into the nation’s voting programs.

The DOJ is presently suing Minnesota and roughly two dozen different states — all states Trump misplaced within the 2020 election — making an attempt to compel them to share unredacted variations of their voter lists with the federal authorities. The DOJ has claimed it wants the information to implement federal election legislation.

These fits have but to achieve success anyplace, although.

A federal decide in California lately dismissed a swimsuit there, writing that the request was “unprecedented and unlawful,” and one other decide in Oregon signaled that he deliberate to do the identical. A 3rd decide in Georgia dismissed the swimsuit in that state primarily based on a jurisdictional difficulty.

Minnesota’s chief voting official, Democrat Steve Simon, alluded to these outcomes in a press release declining Bondi’s request.

“The legislation doesn’t give the federal authorities the authority to acquire this personal knowledge,” Simon mentioned. “It’s deeply disturbing that the U.S. Lawyer Common would make this illegal request part of an obvious ransom to pay for our state’s peace and safety.”

Election legislation knowledgeable Rick Hasen, of UCLA Faculty of Regulation, echoed these considerations in a strongly worded weblog publish over the weekend.

“That is outrageous and reprehensible,” Hasen wrote. “It exhibits ICE will not be in Minneapolis for legislation enforcement or immigration functions. They’re there to fire up s*** in blue states and attempt to extort them …”

The federal authorities has not been clear on precisely the way it plans to make use of or securely retailer the information, however it’s grow to be clear that a part of their plans embody operating voting lists via a revamped system on the Division of Homeland Safety meant to seek for noncitizens.

NPR was the primary information outlet to report on the main points of the system, referred to as SAVE, however tens of thousands and thousands of data have now been run via it, and no proof of the form of widespread voter fraud Trump has lengthy talked about has come to mild.

It is also unclear how correct the system is. In a single county in Texas, a state that voluntarily agreed to run its record via the system, a minimum of 15 of the 84 voters the system flagged as noncitizens there have been false positives.

NPR’s Jude Joffe-Block contributed reporting.