Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told senators Thursday that federal law enforcement agencies are still blocking state and local authorities from participating in the investigations into the shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.
“We haven’t had any cooperation up until now, which is very unusual, because in prior cases where there’s been a federal and state interest in a crime, we’ve seen collaboration between federal and state authorities,” Ellison told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Federal agents shot and killed two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — just days apart amid public protests over a major expansion of federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis in December and January.
Ellison said that in the case of the shooting of 37-year-old Good in early January, state officials still haven’t had any access to the car she was driving when ICE officers shot and killed her, or the bullet casings.
Ellison said federal officials are not investigating the shootings and added: “We still haven’t received any access to the evidence that is involved in that case. … But we’re with good faith hoping that things will change.”
The FBI declined to comment. The Justice and Homeland Security Departments did not respond to requests for comment.
Ellison’s comments Thursday follow earlier protests from Minnesota officials that they were not being included in the federal investigations that followed the Good shooting. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, prosecutors had begun investigating Good’s widow as opposed to the officers, though that probe appears to have stopped after federal prosecutors resigned in protest.
Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that the surge of thousands of immigration officers into Minneapolis will soon come to an end.
Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee said federal investigators need to be more transparent.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “really concerned that the failure to provide this evidence” and collaborate with local law enforcement “in fact, amounts to a cover up.”
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