Paul, Rand: Today we will examine how immigration policy is carried out at the federal, state, and local levels in Minnesota and across the country. We are going to examine whether failures of coordination or communication contributed to the events that followed. Any time an American citizen is shot in the streets of this country, it is a tragedy. That is true whether the exercising their constitutional rights or a law enforcement officer performing official Loss of life demands scrutiny, The United States and the U.S. State and local officials tell one story, federal officials tell another story. have been affected by the pandemic in Minnesota and across Depending on the media source, the public may hear only one side. the country. The hearing today, though, is to evaluate the facts and not to defend any one particular We will hear from two panels. First, leaders from Minnesota will describe conditions on the ground, the level of cooperation with federal authorities, and how tensions escalated. Second, leaders from CBP and ICE will explain the challenges of conducting enforcement operations under intense public scrutiny. We've also heard repeated claims that Minnesota, or Minneapolis in particular, is a so-called sanctuary jurisdiction. That term is often loosely applied and means different things to different people, but we want to explore what that means and whether it's part of the problem today. State and local officials dispute the characterization. Federal officials cite limits on the cooperation. Not every state operates this way. We don't seem to have this tension or problem between state and federal government and other states. We need to understand what cooperation actually looks like in Minnesota and how it can be We need to look where communication has failed, and we need to determine whether this was In a free society, filming government officials in public is a constitutional right. It's not an act of aggression. Americans are led to believe, excuse me in the back, Americans are led to believe that exercising the right of being there and protesting shouldn't place them at the risk of lethal force. If it does, public trust collapses. At the same time, federal officials made public statements implying that firearms are prohibited Those statements were later clarified, but they're erroneous and not helpful. The First and Second Amendment are not suspended during periods of unrest or during protests. When officials speak imprecisely or rashly about constitutional limits, especially in volatile moments, they risk inflaming the situation rather than stabilizing it. Law enforcement officers perform difficult and dangerous work, and the vast majority But when a shooting occurs, the proper response is not to dismiss concerns or rush to judgment. Traditionally, the officers are removed from the line, even in very justified shootings. Even in shootings when they've been shot at multiple times, wounded, the officer is typically removed and there's an investigation because we think lethal force is such a thing that should be controlled and restricted that we always investigate it. That's what needed to happen here and should happen. The process protects both the public and the law enforcement officers, but what we must avoid on all sides is just resorting to inflammatory rhetoric, declaring nothing to see here, or rushing to label a U.S. citizen a domestic terrorist before the evidence is established undermines trust and escalates already volatile situations. Both parties have weaponized the term domestic terrorist to target those with opposing views, and it needs to end. Many Americans have seen the videos. Many see an individual retreating. Many see someone attempting to assist a woman on the ground before being seized from behind. Reasonable people may disagree about those videos, but the truth must be determined by But in order for ICE to be successful, they must restore public trust. We must acknowledge when federal agents are placed in chaotic, crowd-controlled situations that the risk of tragedy increases. At the same time, state and local decisions that limit cooperation affect how and where federal enforcement is carried out. Escalatory statements from any level of government only make it worse. Reports that cooperation in Minnesota is improving and that agents will return to their normal assignments and be repositioned outside of Minnesota are encouraging. Restoring trust, however, requires more than assurances. It requires independent review, clear standards for the use of force, and honest accountability. Government that values liberty must be willing to examine its own actions. That is how we protect civil liberties. That's how we protect law enforcement, and that's how we protect against future loss of life. Senator Peters.