Deported for Possession of Toy BB Gun?

Anna Pratt reports in the Minnesota Monitor:

Jorge Emilio Esquivel-Munoz, 31, who is from Mexico but has lived in Minneapolis over the past four years, probably didn’t imagine that hanging out with a friend who was drunkenly fooling around with a toy BB gun would trigger his arrest and deportation. But last Sunday, April 20, that’s exactly what happened, according to his girlfriend, a 24-year-old Latina who says her name is Judy.

Esquivel-Munoz, who doesn’t speak English, was wrongly identified as the owner of the toy pistol, says Judy, who wasn’t present at the scene. (“Toy” is no excuse under the law; it’s illegal to have a replica gun in Minneapolis.) Currently, Esquivel-Munoz is located at an Elk River facility, awaiting deportation. Judy said she’s been told that he will be dropped off somewhere around the Texas border in about a week.

It’s instances like these, Judy says, that raise questions about the crossover between the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In Minneapolis, police officers are prohibited through a Separation Ordinance from doing double-duty as federal immigration agents (same thing goes for St. Paul) by inquiring about or taking action on the immigration status of people they encounter. While officials from both agencies claim that there’s an element of natural overlap in their duties at times, such as joint handling of people who are in jail, MPD officials claim they strive to stay out of immigration affairs altogether, adopting a “don’t ask, don’t tell” philosophy. They say building trust in immigrant communities makes day-to-day police work easier. But some local residents say that doesn’t stop the police from overstepping that boundary at times. They claim reports of racial profiling by police and/or getting hassled on the basis of immigration status are fairly commonplace among ethnic-looking minorities.

In the case of Esquivel-Munoz, Judy believes he was unfairly arrested” “Jorge is not the owner of the toy gun and he never played with it. He had no idea the other guy had it. I think the police made up that excuse so he could be arrested… They took him in an arbitrary way, as the owner of the gun, so that he looks like he did a crime so they could take him to immigration.” Click here for more.

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