"No Such Thing as Absolute Immunity" — ICE Agent Finally Faces Felony Charges
A Hennepin County prosecutor just charged an ICE agent with felony assault. The Trump administration won't be happy. She doesn't care.
WASHINGTON — The man had a federal badge, a rented black SUV, and a gun he pointed at two people who were just trying to get out of his way.
On Thursday in Minnesota, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced felony assault charges against Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., 35, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from Temple Hills, Maryland — making him the first federal law enforcement officer to face criminal charges stemming from Operation Metro Surge, the winter immigration sweep that occupied the Twin Cities, killed two U.S. citizens, and left a community still counting its wounds.
Morgan faces two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. There is now a warrant for his arrest. He is not in custody.
What Happened on the Crosstown
The incident was a February afternoon on Highway 62 — the Crosstown — near the interchange with Interstate 35W in Richfield. Traffic was backed up, the highway narrowing to one lane.
According to charging documents and Moriarty’s account Thursday, Morgan was driving illegally on the shoulder, cutting around slower traffic in an unmarked, rented SUV with no markings identifying it as a federal vehicle.
The driver of another car briefly pulled into the shoulder to slow him down — the kind of thing Moriarty acknowledged people do, even if it’s inadvisable. The driver then moved back into the legal lane.
That’s when Morgan allegedly sped up to pull alongside them, slowed his vehicle to match their pace, rolled down his window, and pointed his duty weapon directly at the driver and passenger.
Both victims believed they were being threatened. One called 911. The other started recording. They had no idea the man with the gun was a federal agent.
“All they saw was the gun pointed at their heads,” Moriarty said.
They were, she noted, on their way to go shopping.
Morgan’s Own Words
The next day, February 6, Minnesota State Patrol investigators interviewed Morgan voluntarily at the Whipple Federal Building — the same building he said he and his partner were headed back to when the incident occurred.
He admitted he was driving the rented SUV. He admitted drawing his firearm. And critically, he admitted doing so after the victim’s vehicle had already rejoined normal traffic — corroborating the victims’ account.
He said he yelled “Police.” The victims’ windows were rolled up. They heard nothing.
No badge was flashed. No ICE insignia was visible. Nothing told the two people in that car that the man pointing a gun at their heads was a federal agent.
“No Such Thing as Absolute Immunity”
The Trump administration has spent months insisting that federal agents operating under its immigration directives enjoy what Vice President JD Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller have called “absolute immunity.”
Moriarty did not blink.
“They are wrong,” she said Thursday. “There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the State of Minnesota or any other state.”
She acknowledged Morgan’s team could seek to move the case from state to federal court and assert a Supremacy Clause defense — that what he did fell within the scope of his federal authority. Her response: “Our opinion is that illegally driving on a shoulder, pulling up to a car, and pointing a gun at the heads of two community members who are not doing anything at the time is well beyond the scope of their authority as federal agents.”
Second-degree assault with a gun carries a presumptive sentence of 36 months in prison.
The Broader Ledger
This case did not happen in a vacuum.
Operation Metro Surge produced the January 7 killing of Renée Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen shot in her SUV by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. It produced the January 24 killing of Alex Pretti, a VA ICU nurse shot multiple times by Customs and Border Protection officers. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled both deaths homicides. Minnesota has sued DHS for refusing to share evidence.
Internal ICE records, pried loose through FOIA litigation by American Oversight, show that use-of-force incidents by ICE agents quadrupled in the first two months of Trump’s second term compared with the same period a year earlier — 67 incidents between January 19 and March 20, 2025, versus 17 during the same span in 2024. Window-smashing. Pepper spray. “Extreme physical force.”
A Wall Street Journal investigation found at least 13 instances of immigration enforcement agents firing at or into civilian vehicles since July 2025 — wounding at least eight people, killing at least two. At least five of those shot were U.S. citizens. Only one was armed, with a concealed weapon that was never drawn.
Morgan’s case, Moriarty said, moved faster than the Good and Pretti investigations because it followed “typical” processes — the State Patrol investigated, identified the agent, conducted an interview, built a file, and submitted it. The obstacles that have stalled accountability in the killings simply didn’t exist here.
It is also, she believes, the first case of its kind nationally — a state prosecution of a federal agent who was allegedly on duty, or at least claimed to be heading back to the office.
“Today’s charges reflect an important milestone in our efforts to seek accountability for the harms inflicted on our community during Operation Metro Surge,” Moriarty said. “We will not rest until we get the answers we seek.”
Morgan’s Maryland address is listed in the charging documents. His current employment status at ICE is unknown. A nationwide arrest warrant is now in effect.
This 'agent' is not in custody. Mark his name and residence. Make hi. known. Minnesota is still under occupation.
yes, start fixing the mistakes of MAGA