Bennito L. Kelty
Audio By Carbonatix
The City of Denver joined a lawsuit against the federal government for the “unlawful invasion of Minneapolis” by President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the mayor’s office announced on Wednesday, January 28.
“The Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal agents to the Twin Cities is the latest in a series of tactics designed to commandeer state and local governments for federal purposes in violation of the Tenth Amendment,” reads a court filing by the City of Denver, dated Thursday, January 22. “ICE is not in the Twin Cities because of an urgent need for significantly enhanced and aggressive immigration enforcement — it is in the Twin Cities because the federal government does not agree with Minnesota’s state and local politics.”
The Minnesota Attorney General first filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on January 12 in response to Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement campaign that started in the Minneapolis metro area in December. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to stop Metro Surge because “agents have brazenly and repeatedly deployed excessive force against the people of Minnesota,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison wrote when announcing the lawsuit.
Denver’s court filing mentions the “frequent use of tear gas” and pepper spray, including against children, in Minnesota, as well as “agents’ deliberate targeting of workers in heavily Latino jobs and neighborhoods,” across the country.
Minnesota’s lawsuit was filed less than a week after ICE agents fatally shot activist Renee Good on January 7, and a couple of weeks before federal immigration officers killed Alex Pretti. Law enforcement and Minneapolis protesters have been clashing in the wake of those killings, as other cities demonstrate in support of the Twin Cities and against ICE.
Denver is now one of 37 other cities and counties that have filed an amicus brief to support Minnesota’s lawsuit, including Boston, Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle. The mayor’s office wrote that it joined the lawsuit to protect the Tenth Amendment, which protects states’ rights, and because Metro Surge has “cost two people their lives, harmed countless others, eroded trust in federal law enforcement, and created widespread fear.”
In a written statement, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston called ICE agents “the bad guys” and declared that “ICE’s occupation of American cities must end now.”
“It’s not enough that two innocent people are dead, or that their families are unlikely to ever see justice served,” Johnston said. “President Trump unleashed this reckless and lethal ICE invasion, and now parents are so afraid of being abducted they’re scared to take their kids to the hospital or leave the house without their passports or birth certificates.”
Ahead of Trump’s return to office, Johnston predicted a “Tiananmen Square moment” where he would face off with ICE agents if they tried to come to Denver. According to media reports, ICE arrested an estimated 3,500 people in Colorado in 2025, with about half taking place in Denver.
On Monday, January 26, Johnston answered questions about how he’s responding to Trump sending federal agents to Minneapolis and other Democrat-led cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. According to the mayor, local efforts to reduce crime and homelessness and connect migrants to services “helps make the case that there is no need for any intervention here.”
Denver has filed five other lawsuits and joined two more against the Trump administration since he returned to office last January. The lawsuits were filed in response to the Trump administration withholding transportation and airport infrastructure grants, reimbursements for migrant sheltering and funding for large-scale security threats and emergency preparedness.
The Trump administration withheld some funding because of Denver laws prohibiting city cooperation with federal law enforcement, often called “sanctuary city” policies, and later for its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies. Denver and the State of Colorado are also defendants in a Department of Justice lawsuit against their sanctuary policies.
The City of Denver won a preliminary injunction to unfreeze federal transportation and airport infrastructure funding in June. The Trump administration also delivered $500,000 in withheld security funding in August.
The city also joined a lawsuit in September against Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to cities like L.A. and D.C., and another in October filed by Planned Parenthood against federal funding cuts to reproductive healthcare.
