ICE Agent Criminally Charged!

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]So friends, it's nice to see some progress being made on the rule of law front because for the first time, a federal ICE agent has been criminally charged for assaulting two people in Minneapolis.

[00:00:17]Moreover, the prosecutor in the case, Henipin County District Attorney Mary Morardi, said there are more than a dozen other ongoing criminal investigations involving federal agents and what they did as part of immigration sweeps in Minneapolis.

[00:00:39]And DA Morardi said more criminal charges are expected because justice matters.

[00:01:05]Hey all, Glen Kersner here. So friends, we all saw it. We saw it with our own eyes. The countless assaults and incidents of excessive force by masked federal immigration agents.

[00:01:24]And so many of the folks of Minneapolis used their voices, used their cell phones, used their courage to capture footage of some of those abuses.

[00:01:37]And now we have the first criminal charges with more to come according to Henipin County District Attorney Mary Morardi.

[00:01:48]Let's start with the new reporting. This from the Guardian. Headline, ICE agent charged with assault in Minnesota for allegedly pointing gun at motorists.

[00:02:01]Prosecutors say this is the first criminal case against a federal agent involved in Trump's immigration crackdown.

[00:02:09]And that article begins, "An ICE agent has been charged with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car while driving on a Minneapolis highway, prosecutors in Minnesota said on Thursday." Henipin County Attorney Mary Morardi said she believed it was the first criminal case brought against a federal immigration officer involved in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown that surged federal authorities into cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and New Orleans. An arrest warrant says Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr.

[00:02:50]was charged with two counts of secondderee aggravated assault. The warrant says Morgan was working as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE officer in the Minneapolis area on 5 February when he pointed a gun at the occupants of a vehicle on Minnesota State Highway 62.

[00:03:13]DA Mori Arti said during a news conference that Morgan was driving a rented unmarked SUV on the shoulder of the highway when a car on the road moved into the shoulder to try to slow Morgan down, not knowing he was a federal officer. After the car returned into the legal lane, Morgan pulled up alongside and pointed his service weapon at the people in the car. According to the charging documents, Morgan told a Minnesota State Patrol officer that he pulled up alongside the victim's vehicle, drew his firearm, and yelled, "Police, stop." The warrant says the victims couldn't hear him because their windows were up. Morgan was charged with two counts of assault because he threatened both people in the car and there is a warrant out for his arrest.

[00:04:11]Mori Arti said. She said Morgan's actions were beyond the scope of a federal officer's authority. Quote, "There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the state of Minnesota." She said, "Okay, friends, let's do five quick takeaways. One, ICE agents don't have the power or the authority to enforce state traffic laws.

[00:04:43]You can see the picture that emerges from the reporting and from the arrest warrant. This ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., is in a rented car riding on the shoulder of a highway because apparently he doesn't want to be inconvenienced by traffic. and a motorist decides to slow him down by kind of pulling out into the shoulder, you know, stop him from speeding by.

[00:05:10]It's not a police vehicle. It looks like, you know, a private vehicle.

[00:05:15]And so, what does this ICE agent do?

[00:05:18]Well, when the motorist pulls back into the lane of traffic, he pulls up next to the car, draws his gun, his service weapon, and points it at the occupants of the car. That is a criminal assault.

[00:05:35]When you pull a gun on someone with no lawful authority, you put them in fear of an imminent shooting. That is the very definition of an assault. If you are put in fear of an im imminent attack, an imminent battery, a battery is an unconented touching, including being shot with a bullet. So, he inarguably committed the crime under Minneapolis state law. It is a felony assault. Takeaway number two, a nationwide arrest warrant has been issued for this ICE agent, but he is not yet in custody.

[00:06:16]No word on whether the federal government will hide him out, help him try to evade being taken into custody by Minnesota state authorities.

[00:06:30]Takeaway number three. Once this ICE agent is taken into custody and presented in state court on this arrest warrant, his attorney will almost certainly file a motion to remove to transfer the case from state court to federal court. And there is a process for that. And that will be because this defendant, this federal ICE agent will want to assert that he's got qualified immunity or what is often referred to as supremacy clause immunity. You know, claiming that well, he was just acting within the scope of his official duties as an ICE agent.

[00:07:15]And that claim will fail because based on what has been described in the arrest warrant, assuming that is what the evidence proved, you know, this defendant, this ICE agent would have to prove that his conduct, his actions were necessary and proper as part of his duties as an ICE agent. And guess what?

[00:07:41]They weren't. They were unnecessary.

[00:07:44]They were improper because, you know, he's not out there to enforce the traffic laws of the state of Minnesota and you don't get to just pull a gun on, you know, the two occupants of a vehicle on a Minnesota highway. That's an assault. That is not an immigration enforcement operation or matter. And that is why his claim of immunity should fail and he should go to trial and his fate should be left up to, you know, 12 jurors sitting in a wooden box in a Minnesota state courtroom deciding whether the evidence that DA Mari and her prosecutors introduce at trial prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:08:38]Takeaway number four, District Attorney Mori Arti said her office is involved in more than a dozen other criminal investigations arising out of the, you know, federal immigration sweep in Minneapolis. And she said more criminal charges are expected.

[00:09:01]And the final takeaway, takeaway number five, you may be wondering what in the world happened to the criminal investigations into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Prey. Well, DA Morardi gave an interview recently and said that her office has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, the Trump administration, the Department of Justice to try to wrestle away from them. It's my characterization, not DA marriorities to try to wrestle away from them the evidence that Minnesota and Minneapolis need to pursue a full fair a-olitical investigation of the homicides of Renee Good and Alex Prey.

[00:09:49]And friends, I happen to believe that DA Mari will win that battle. She is in a pitched battle against the federal government to try to bring justice to Renee Good's family and friends and community to try to bring justice to Alex PR's family and friends and community. And I think she will succeed in obtaining the evidence from the federal authorities so she can simply conduct a full, fair, apolitical, thorough, professional investigation of those two officer involved fatal shootings so that she can try to bring justice to the people of her jurisdiction, her city, her Because justice matters.

[00:10:49]Friends, as always, please stay safe.

[00:10:51]Please stay tuned. And I look forward to talking with you all again tomorrow.