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 has regularly checked in with federal authorities for years, his attorney said Tuesday.
The arrest of Garrison Gibson, 37, during an immigration crackdown in Minnesota that the Department of Homeland Security called the largest law enforcement operation ever was a “flagrant violation of the constitution” because agents did not have a proper warrant, attorney Marc Prokosch said.
Sunday’s arrest came in an increasingly tense city after an immigration agent shot and killed Renee Good, 37, last week, sparking waves of angry protests and clashes between authorities and activists.
“It was an illegal search, absolutely,” Prokosch said, because the agents brought only an administrative warrant, which authorizes the arrest of someone but does not allow officers to forcibly enter private homes. Forcible entry requires a criminal warrant signed by a judge.
Gibson, who fled Liberia’s civil war as a child, was ordered removed from the US, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later thrown out by the courts. But he remained in the country legally under what is known as a supervision order, with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Just days before his arrest, Gibson checked in with immigration authorities at the regional immigration offices — the same building where agents have conducted enforcement raids in recent weeks.
“He would have had another check-in in a few months,” Prokosch said. “So if he is this dangerous person, then why are they letting him walk around?
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said earlier this week that Gibson has “a lengthy record (that) includes robbery, 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 show Gibson’s legal history — dominated by several 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 sale of narcotics, which was later dismissed.
Prokosch said Gibson was flown to Texas by immigration authorities within hours of 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 a prison sentence 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 at a large camp at Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, Texas. according to ICE’s 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 in the home with the couple’s 9-year-old child during the raid, was deeply shaken by the arrest, Prokosch said.
During their conversations, “she had a hard time completing sentences because she was so distraught,” he said.
Activists monitoring immigration agents before Gibson’s arrest beat drums, whistled and honked car horns in an attempt to disrupt the operation and alert neighbors, some of whom spilled into the street.
Video taken at the scene by the AP shows agents shoving and pepper-spraying demonstrators.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — have been rocked by the killing of Good, who was shot on Jan. 7 during a standoff with agents.
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “armed” the vehicle.
City and state officials rejected those explanations based on videos of the confrontation.
State and local authorities are urging the public to share video and any other evidence as they try to investigate Good’s death, after federal authorities insisted they would work on their own 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 will send additional federal agents to the state to protect immigration officers and continue law enforcement.
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AP correspondent Elliot Spagat contributed to this report from San Diego.