Democrats condemn ‘trauma and terror’ of Trump’s ICE surge in Minnesota

A large group of Democratic Congress members, senators and state politicians on Friday condemned the “intense trauma and terror” caused by Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.

One lawmaker warned the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to preserve records for an investigation into the administration’s deadly use of force.

The dozens of leaders staged an “accountability” hearing at the state capitol in St Paul into Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) actions as demonstrations continued to spread in the city and elsewhere, along with sporadic clashes with federal officers nine days after Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer.

The US president has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify sending in troops to quell the protests, which have remained largely peaceful despite the occasional skirmishes and continued arrests.

The gathered lawmakers and officials on Friday labeled their special panel hearing “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s deadly assault on Minnesota”.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who has been singled out for vitriolic and racist public attacks by Trump, decried aggressive treatment of residents, including US citizens, and their vehicles by federal agents and officers.

“Dozens of US citizens have been taken into custody and released hours later. We have yet to see charges materialize, because in nearly all instances, no federal charges are possible,” Omar said, adding that others were taken from their own vehicles.

“Abandoned cars with broken windows have become a normal sight of daily life in the Twin Cities,” she said, referring to the adjacent cities of Minneapolis and St Paul.

As ICE raids and traffic stops have increased, families are being torn apart.

Related: ‘I couldn’t save my husband’: the Minnesota families ripped apart by ICE

Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, was present and has spoken out against the FBI shutting state and local investigators out of the examination of Good’s killing. And Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, attended, having told ICE to leave and citing the federal government’s aggressive approach as making the city less safe.

From further afield, the Washington state congresswoman Pramila Jayapal attended and chaired Friday’s panel. Jayapal sits on several House committees dealing with immigration and the constitution and she is the senior whip of the Democratic caucus and chair emerita of the progressive caucus.

“The Trump administration has targeted and terrorized people of all immigration statuses, including US citizens, violating constitutional rights and court orders, destroying our existing immigration system and eroding all of our rights,” she said.

Quoting a Minnesota Star Tribune editorial suggesting that the state was “under siege”, she added: “Battalions of armed federal agents are moving through neighborhoods, transit hubs, malls and parking lots and staging near churches, mosques and schools. Strangers with guns have metastasized in spaces where daily life should be routine and safe. It feels like a military occupation.”

Kaohly Her, the mayor of St Paul, was pointed. “We are ground zero for Trump’s war on America, a war on our democracy, on our freedoms, on our rights as Americans,” she said.

Scrutiny of ICE operations has increased in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Good as she attempted to drive away from ICE agents last Wednesday while they ordered her out of the car and tried to open the door. She was not armed and addressed officers calmly, but the White House quickly called her a domestic terrorist.

Related: ‘Poet, writer, wife, mom’: who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent?

Protests have escalated over her killing, and the exclusion of state investigators from an FBI inquiry. Polling released by the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday showed that 71% of voters supported an independent investigation into the shooting, and 84% said people had the constitutional right to observe and document ICE activity in public.

ICE agents, meanwhile, have continued to engage in violent confrontations with residents, protesters and those being sought as allegedly undocumented or otherwise in violation of immigration law. Many of the more violent encounters have been caught on video and posted to social media.

The Minnesota congresswoman Betty McCollum condemned “Trump’s abuse of power”.

“High school students have been thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed on their own school grounds, and it’s happening right here, right now,” she said.

“The actions of these agents, which are totally unprofessional and illegal, create great harm and fear. Secretary Noem, you better be preserving your documents unaltered, because you are going to be held to testify and you will be subpoenaed.”

Jayapal called for ICE to cease its surges.

She said: “This pattern of reckless, even lethal use of force cannot continue, and we will do everything in our power to hold the administration accountable and stop this lawlessness.

“What is happening in Minnesota is a pattern that is dangerous to every single person in America, because if they can erode the rights of some, they can do it to you. No one is safe.”