On the heels of Operation Metro Surge, the massive immigration enforcement that uprooted everyday life for many people in the Twin Cities, local community members are being honored for their bravery in documenting the events.

Community observers in Minnesota were awarded Wednesday night by Minnesotans for Open Government with the 37th annual John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award, given for peacefully recording masked federal agents in order to hold federal power to account, according to the organization.

By recording the activities of masked federal agents, the award winners “widened the lens of journalism to provide Minneapolis — and the world — a panoramic view of events that otherwise would have been lost to history,” said MaryJo Webster, chair of MNOG. “They showed the nation how defenders of truth can mobilize the power of single individuals to shape public dialogue.”

A nonprofit, nonpartisan, volunteer organization, Minnesotans for Open Government advocates for citizens’ rights to access government information.

Founded in 1989, the organization previously called Minnesota Coalition on Government Information educates members of the public on how to obtain government information, advocates in the state Legislature to improve and update freedom of information laws and litigates to defend the public’s right to know, according to the organization.

John R. Finnegan, namesake of the award, was a former editor of the Pioneer Press and nationally known as an advocate for open meetings and open-records laws before he died in 2012.

The award, given “to all who participated in the effort,” was accepted by a small group that included Susan Tincher, who was reportedly the first community observer to be arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in December, and ACLU-MN attorney Alicia Granse during Wednesday’s ceremony at the University of Minnesota campus.

Tincher, of Minneapolis, is part of a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against ICE. She was detained Dec. 9 while observing immigration enforcement actions. After she was brought to the Whipple Building, where federal immigration activities were headquartered, agents cut off some of her clothing and her wedding ring, put her in shackles and left her in a cell for hours, according to the lawsuit. She was released later that day without charges being filed.

The Department of Homeland Security sent a statement to the Pioneer Press in response to the Dec. 17 lawsuit filing: “The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting. DHS is taking reasonable and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers. ICE officers are facing a nearly 1,150% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, and gang members.

“We remind law-abiding members of the public to exercise caution around violent riots and remind journalists that covering violent and unlawful activities in the field does come with risks — though our officers take every reasonable precaution to mitigate those dangers to those exercising protected First Amendment rights.”

Tincher was arrested after she assaulted a federal agent, tried to break through a security perimeter set up for public safety, ignored lawful commands and became violent, DHS said.

Constitutional observers

During the enforcement, federal agents killed two Minneapolis residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and arrested more than 3,700 people as constitutional observers stood watch.

A constitutional observer is a trained community member who observes and documents federal law enforcement activity to help ensure constitutional rights are followed. The Immigrant Defense Network, which is made up of more than 90 nonprofits, registered nearly 30,000 constitutional observers this past winter, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

Using encrypted messaging apps, neighbors across the Twin Cities organized to patrol their communities looking for ICE agents, make deliveries to families in hiding and serve as lookouts at schools, churches and other institutions.

“The scale of their effort in terms of numbers and duration, the coordinated use of technology and the interaction between journalists and the greater community was precedent-setting,” Webster said of the award winners, adding, “and they did all this in the dead of Minnesota winter.”

U professor awarded

Jane Kirtley, a former reporter, lawyer and longtime University of Minnesota professor, was awarded the John Borger Lifetime Achievement Award Wednesday night.

For nearly 27 years, Kirtley has served the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication as the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law. Since 2000, Kirtley has also served as the director of the Silha Center.

Throughout her career, Kirtley educated the public on the importance of freedom of information and “made a substantial, sustained and lasting contribution to open government in Minnesota and elsewhere,” according to MNOG.

Kirtley, who is also an affiliated faculty member of the university’s law school, previously practiced law in New York, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

She has written friend-of-the-court briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court, two books and more than a few articles for scholarly journals. “It would probably take me all day to list them,” Webster said of Kirtley’s published works.

Kirtley, who retired this week, is the fourth winner of the John Borger award, which was named after the First Amendment attorney who died in 2019.

A friend of Borger’s, Kirtley said he was “instrumental” in persuading her to move to Minnesota. “So I’m in his debt many times over,” she said.