Minneapolis council members taking on update of city’s separation ordinance

Three progressive Minneapolis City Council members are quietly working to strengthen the city’s 22-year-old separation ordinance that limits coordination between the city’s police department and federal immigration authorities, hoping to set a national standard for pushback against what they say is illegal overreach by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies.

“We want to make sure that we are not doing the work of a federal government that seeks to kidnap our neighbors without due process,” City Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said in an interview with MinnPost.

Chowdhury is working on the measure with Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and fellow member Jason Chavez, in consultation with the Minneapolis City Attorney’s office, she said. A city spokesperson decli