On the Evidence the Federal Government Could No Longer Hide

Written By Akhilesh Menawat

DISCLAIMER: This statement contains references to murder by federal agents that may be distressing to readers. If you are concerned for your safety, help is available.

For Hennepin County residents in fear of their safety and needing legal representation, please contact Hennepin's Adult Representation Services by calling 612-348-7012.

Six months ago, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in her own neighborhood in South Minneapolis. She was a legal observer, driving away from a scene where she had come to protect her neighbors. She was a mother, a U.S. citizen, and one of ours. In the days and weeks that followed, an ICE agent shot Julio Sosa-Celis in North Minneapolis, and Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti. For six months, the federal government withheld the evidence of what happened to all three — from our state investigators, from their families, and from a community that has refused to look away.

That is finally changing.

What We Know

On May 18, the Hennepin County Attorney charged Christian Castro — the ICE agent who shot Julio Sosa-Celis — with four counts of assault and with falsely reporting a crime, after investigators found he had fired through the front door of a home with children inside and then lied about it. His case will be in Hennepin County, under Minnesota law, because a federal badge is not a license to break laws.

On June 22, a federal judge quashed the Department of Justice subpoenas issued to Hennepin County and others during Operation Metro Surge. These subpoenas were issued primarily to local government elected officials across the Twin Cities area in an attempt to block governing and representation on behalf of our residents. Chief Judge Schiltz's decision underscores the importance of an independent judiciary and the role it plays in safeguarding our democratic values and institutions. By quashing these subpoenas, the court upheld the rule of law and the principles of fairness, accountability, and constitutional process that protect our institutions and enable public trust.

On July 13, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), and the Minnesota Attorney General's Office announced they had obtained the evidence the federal government spent more than half a year concealing — hard drives long withheld from state investigators, and Renee Good's car, now in the BCA's custody.

For the first time since January, the people charged with finding the truth have what they need to find it. It is not closure. This is the beginning of accountability, and we’re here because our community refused to stop demanding it.

The federal government fought transparency at every turn. But we are a community that will not be silenced. Thank you to every neighbor who documented what they saw and refused to accept a lie, for every phone call you made, every vigil you attended, and every way you supported your neighbors. Your care and commitment, combined with the work of County Attorney Mary Moriarty, Attorney General Keith Ellison, the BCA, and the pro bono partners who have stood with our neighbors and Renee Good’s family since January, made this happen.

What Has Not Changed

And still, the violence that came to Minnesota in January has not stopped. It has spread — across Minnesota and across our nation.

On July 7, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. He was 52 — a homebuilder, a longtime resident, driving his crew and his own brother to a worksite. On July 13, an ICE agent shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. He was 25 — a husband, and the father of a three-year-old daughter, holding two jobs to provide for her.

In both cities, the agents wore no body cameras. In both cities, the federal government claimed the men "weaponized" their vehicles — the very same words used to smear Renee Good. That is inaccurate, fascist propaganda, and I firmly reject narratives that distort the facts to demonize the dead.

I honor the humanity and lives of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero, and I acknowledge the deep pain felt by their loved ones and neighbors. Their families deserve exactly what Renee's, Alex's, and Julio's families deserve: justice through a complete, transparent, and independent investigation.

Unfortunately, this story has become familiar — and that familiarity is by design. These calculated atrocities are meant to numb us, to divert our attention from the evil that our taxpayer dollars are funding.

And last week, that funding took permanent form in Minnesota. On August 4, the Department of Homeland Security purchased the shuttered prison in Appleton, MN, for $495.6 million. After sixteen years empty, it will reopen this fall as the first dedicated immigrant detention facility in our state's history — 1,600 beds in a town of 1,400 people, three hours from here, under a five-year contract worth more than half a billion dollars. The company operating it expects roughly $75 million a year, and to be at full capacity by the middle of 2027.

Minnesota's own Corrections Commissioner has said plainly that this is about making an example of our state again — holding people far from their legal counsel, far from their families, and far from meaningful oversight.

We have spent six months forcing evidence into the light, and the federal government has spent half a billion of our tax dollars building a place designed so that there is no evidence to force. This is the same instinct that withheld hard drives from our investigators, now poured into concrete in western Minnesota. And it is not only concealment — it is profit. A federal administration that dehumanizes and weaponizes immigrants is capitalizing on kidnapping our neighbors and separating our families, and it has now built a business model that requires a steady supply of human beings to fill those beds.

Minnesotans get to decide how Minnesotans show up and stand up. We will not accept a detention economy in our state, and we will not let this administration strip us of our empathy or our shared humanity.

Together, we must resist the urge to give into this numbness. Each new killing, each new facility, is designed to exhaust us into looking away — and looking away is precisely what clears the road for the next stop, the next vehicle, the next family. Numbing our pain also numbs our shared humanity, and it is through the collective wisdom in our bodies and ancestral storylines that we will stay awake to this harm and carry one another through to the other side.

Where I'm At

As a proud daughter of immigrants, I am appalled at the dehumanization and mistreatment taking place across the country. Let me be clear: what is happening at the federal level is not immigration policy. It is state-sponsored violence. This taxpayer-funded harm and violence we are experiencing right now is inhumane, unlawful, and unconstitutional. United States' due process means that justice is pursued through legal action and the courts, not through guns and murder on our streets.

We were told, in January, that we were exaggerating. We were told the chaos was the fault of unruly residents and incompetent local leaders. That narrative was never true. The Federal Administration has constructed this chaos in order to dehumanize our neighbors, crush our spirits, and distract from their unlawful and fascist agenda.

In December, I wrote about the steps toward authoritarianism — and about how we fight back. Authoritarianism rises when we look away — and it falls when public servants share the facts, when a community refuses to be numbed into silence, and when an independent judiciary holds. Right here in Minnesota, all three of those defenses held. We must keep using every one of them.

In Hennepin County, we have not waited for others to fight back for us. We closed county property to ICE staging, our Board unanimously condemned these operations and called for the removal of ICE personnel and assets from Minnesota, and I authored a resolution reaffirming that no federal operation changes our constitutional obligations. We launched Operation Reconnect to reach the residents harmed by Operation Metro Surge and our Adult Representation Services stands ready for anyone who fears for their safety. Local government is a last line of defense for our residents, and I will not surrender that line.

To the families of Renee, Alex, and Julio: I consider you my constituents and promise to continue to fight for your safety, dignity, and justice. To the families of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero: though you live far from Hennepin County, your grief is not foreign to us. Residents do not experience this violence along jurisdictional lines, and neither will our resolve to answer it.

To the federal government: the evidence you were forced to surrender here in Minnesota, you must surrender everywhere — in Houston, in Biddeford, and in every city where you have left a family and community without answers. You concealed the truth for half a year, and you gave it up only when a court and a community left you no other choice. Accountability that arrives only when it is compelled is not accountability; it is delay. We will not stop until the full truth is told — for Renee, for Alex, for Julio, for Lorenzo, for Joan, and for every family still waiting for answers.

Find courage. Take risks. Get creative. Don't waver. Our collective shared humanity has fought against and overcome tyranny before — and we will do so again — together. I remain in this fight with you: speaking our truth, caring with compassion, and leading toward accountability and justice.

Resources

Akhilesh Menawat
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Statement on the Hennepin County Board's $2.254 Billion Funding Commitment to the METRO Blue Line Extension