Submission of the ACLU and ACLU MN to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Minnesota sent an urgent submission late last night to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), requesting the committee to use its early warning and urgent action procedure in response to the human rights crisis following the Trump administration's deployment of federal forces in Minneapolis and the St. Paul metropolitan area. The submission details how federal agents have ignored basic human rights in their enforcement activity against Minnesotans, especially targeting Somali and Latino communities. The ACLU and ACLU of Minnesota call on CERD to issue a decision under its early warning and urgent actions procedures to intervene and investigate the U.S.’s grave violations of its human rights obligations. “The Trump administration’s egregious crackdown in Minnesota is not only flouting the Constitution but also United States international human rights obligations that prohibit the use of racial and ethnic profiling, extra-judicial killings and unlawful use of force against protesters and observers,” said Jamil Dakwar, director the Human Rights Program at the American Civil Liberties Union. “We are calling on the United Nations to hold the U.S. government accountable for its blatant violations of international law and to officially report on its disregard for their human rights treaty obligations.” The submission underscores how ICE’s unlawful and unconstitutional stops and arrests of Minnesotans on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin represent flagrant violations of the freedoms and rights enshrined in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) — guarantees that the United States is legally bound to uphold and protect at federal, state and local levels as a state party to the treaty since 1994. “The Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota are being carried out by thousands of masked federal agents in military gear who are ignoring basic constitutional and human rights of Minnesotans,” said Teresa Nelson, legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota. “Their targeting of our Somali and Latino communities threatens Minnesotans’ most fundamental rights, and it has spread fear among immigrant communities and neighborhoods.” For more information about ICERD and the Committee’s Early Warning and Urgent Action procedures here.