ICE and Border Patrol in Minnesota − accused of violating 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th amendment rights − are testing whether the Constitution can survive

Forcibly entering homes^[1] without a judicial warrant. Arresting journalists^[2] who reported on protests. Defying dozens of federal orders^[3]. Killing U.S. citizens^[4] for noncompliance. Asking^[5] constitutionally protected observers this chilling question: “Have you not learned?”

This is daily life in Minnesota. Operation Metro Surge^[6], ostensibly an immigration enforcement initiative, has become something more consequential: a constitutional stress test. Can constitutional protections withstand the actions of a federal government seemingly intent on aggressively violating the rule of law?

In Minneapolis, a city still reckoning with its own grim history^[7] of policing, the federal operation raises fundamental questions about law enforcement and the limits of executive power.

Legal scholars and civil rights advocates are especially worried about ongoing violations of the First, Second, Fourth and 10th amendments, as are other observers, including historians^[8] like us^[9].

Catalog of violations

First Amendment concerns stem from reports that agents from ICE – described by some scholars as a paramilitary force^[10] – and the Border Patrol^[11] have deployed excessive force as well as advanced surveillance^[12] methods on suspects, observers and journalists. When enforcement activity impedes the rights to assemble, document and criticize government action^[13], that chills those rights, and the consequences extend beyond any single demonstration. These rights are not peripheral to democracy. They are central to it.

Second Amendment issues erupted following the fatal shooting of a legally armed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis^[14]. Highly placed administration officials^[15] claimed Americans could not bring firearms to protests, despite a long-standing interpretation that in most states, including Minnesota, a person who was legally permitted to carry a firearm could bring it to such events. The assertion was in fact contrary to the Trump administration’s support^[16] for gun rights.

Thanks to the videos flooding social media, Fourth Amendment concerns are the most familiar. Allegations include entering homes without warrants,^[17] stopping, intimidating and seizing legal observers^[18], and detaining suspects by virtue of their appearance or accent^[19]. Those are clear violations of the Fourth Amendment’s safeguards^[20] against unreasonable searches and seizures, which were adopted to prevent the exercise of arbitrary government power^[21].

Finally, the 10th Amendment^[22] lies at the heart of Minnesota’s legal cases against the federal government.

One lawsuit contests the federal government’s refusal to allow the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate^[23] the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Another challenges efforts to pressure local governments into assisting^[24] federal immigration enforcement. These disputes implicate federalism itself^[25] – the constitutional division of authority between states and the federal government that is the foundation of the American system.

The massive and rapid accumulation of these alleged constitutional violations – now working their way through the courts – in a single geographic locale is striking. So are the mass resignations^[26] from the state’s U.S. attorney’s office, which is responsible for representing the federal government in these cases.

And so is the deeper historical context.

A retreat from federal constitutional oversight

Starting in 1994, federal intervention^[27] became a powerful corrective whenever local police violated constitutional rights.

From Newark^[28] to New Orleans^[29], federal oversight was not always welcomed, but it was frequently necessary to enforce equal protection and due process.

Federal oversight has been essential^[30] in enforcing civil rights when municipalities would not. Active monitoring of policing in those cities kept officers and administrators accountable and encouraged officers to follow constitutional standards. At its core, what experts call “constitutional policing^[31]” requires that government’s use of authority to ensure order be justified, limited and subject to oversight.

In that vein, after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, the 2023 U.S. Department of Justice report^[32] on policing in Minneapolis identified questionable patterns and practices. Those problems included the “unreasonable” use of deadly force, racial profiling and retaliation against journalists. The Department of Justice’s proposed consent decree^[33] – grounded in constitutional policing^[34] – offered a way forward.

But in May 2025, the Department of Justice, under the leadership of President Donald Trump’s appointee Pam Bondi, withdrew the recommended agreement^[35].

Seven months later, Operation Metro Surge deployed thousands of federal agents to Minnesota^[36] with a markedly different enforcement philosophy.

Indeed, the recent expansion of federal enforcement authority in Minnesota followed a retreat from federal constitutional oversight.