MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Liberian man arrested over the weekend after heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break down the front door of his Minneapolis home had been checking in regularly with federal authorities for years, his attorney said Tuesday.
The arrest of Garrison Gibson, 37, during a Minnesota immigration crackdown that the Department of Homeland Security called its largest enforcement operation ever, was a “blatant constitutional violation,” because the agents did not have a proper warrant, attorney Marc Prokosch said.
The arrest on Sunday took place in a city that has become increasingly agitated after an immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good last week, sparking waves of angry protests and clashes between authorities and activists.
“This was an illegal search, absolutely,” Prokosch said, because the agents had only filed an administrative warrant, which authorizes the arrest of someone but does not allow officers to forcefully enter private homes. Forcible entry requires a criminal warrant signed by a judge.
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 thrown out by the courts. But he had remained in the country legally under what is known as a supervision order, with the requirement to meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Just days before his arrest, Gibson had checked in with immigration authorities at the regional immigration offices — the same building where agents had been conducting enforcement raids in recent weeks.
“He would have another check-in in a few months,” Prokosch said. “So if he is this dangerous person, then why are they letting him go?
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said earlier this week that Gibson has a “long rap sheet (that) includes burglary, possession of drugs 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.
But court records indicate Gibson’s legal history — dominated by a few traffic violations, minor drug arrests and an arrest for riding public transportation without paying a fare — shows only one felony, a 2008 conviction for third-degree narcotics sale that was later dismissed.
Prokosch said Gibson was flown to Texas by immigration authorities in the hours after his arrest, then quickly flown back to Minnesota on a judge’s order after the attorney filed a habeas corpus petition, used by courts to determine whether imprisonment is legal. The courts have not yet ruled on the petition.
Gibson is currently being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea, Minnesota, after being held in a large camp at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas. according to the ICE detainee locator.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an email from The Associated Press with follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.
Guns, activists and pepper spray
Gibson’s wife, Teyana Gibson Brown, a nurse who was inside the home with the couple’s 9-year-old son during the raid, was very shaken by the arrest, Prokosch said.
During their conversations, she “was having a hard time completing the sentences because she was so troubled,” he said.
Activists who had been following immigration agents before Gibson’s arrest beat drums, blew whistles and honked car horns in attempts to disrupt the operation and alert neighbors, some of whom took to the streets.
Video shot on the scene by the AP shows agents pushing and pepper-spraying protesters.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — were rocked by the killing of Good, who was killed Jan. 7 during a confrontation with agents.
The Trump administration defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and her fellow agents and that Good had “armed” her vehicle.
City and state officials rejected those explanations based on video footage of the confrontation.
State and local authorities are urging the public to share video and any other evidence as they seek to investigate Good’s death after federal authorities insisted they work alone and not share information.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began in early December, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News over the weekend that the administration would send additional federal agents to the state to protect immigration officials and continue enforcement.
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AP correspondent Elliot Spagat contributed to this report from San Diego.