A tearful federal agent facing assault charges tied to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown told a judge he “can’t live” because of a job he was “forced” to do.
Gregory Morgan Jr., an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, made the remarks while testifying at a federal court hearing, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel heard arguments on whether to move the assault case from Hennepin County court to federal court.
At the hearing this week, Morgan stopped to hunch over and cry as he described the hostility he faced from protesters and the toll on him and his family, the paper noted.
“I can’t live,” Morgan said, his voice barely audible. “Because I was doing a job I was forced to do.”
His attorney, Ryan Pacyga, portrayed Morgan as a single father who had been an agent for less than a year and wanted nothing to do with the Minnesota assignment. Morgan testified that he did not want to participate in the operation ordered by Trump because of reports of unrest in the Twin Cities and his father’s cancer.
That assignment was Operation Metro Surge, the deployment of federal immigration agents that Trump ordered into Minneapolis, according to Fox News Digital.
Once he arrived, Morgan said, people often threw rocks and sex toys at him and called him racial slurs.
“It was really overwhelming,” he recalled.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Morgan in April with two counts of second-degree assault, the Star Tribune reported. She has argued the charges bring accountability for “extremely dangerous conduct” during the 10-week operation.
According to charging documents, Morgan was driving an unmarked Ford Expedition on the shoulder of Hwy. 62 on Feb. 5 when a Cadillac moved over to block him.
One of the Cadillac’s two occupants later told police they did not know the people in the SUV were law enforcement. Morgan then pulled alongside the Cadillac and pointed his gun at the people inside, the documents say.
“A guy just aimed his gun at me … he just aimed a Glock at my face,” one of them told a 911 dispatcher, according to the documents.
Morgan testified that he flashed his gun near his chest for about five seconds while yelling “police, back off” because he feared for himself, his partner, and other drivers.
“That’s why I did what I did,” he said.
His partner, Myles Codner, who was in the SUV, testified that both agents felt under siege as they approached the swerving Cadillac. Codner said he believed the people inside were protesters who had been following them.
“I felt that we had been ambushed,” Codner said.
The newspaper reported that lawyers for the state pressed Morgan on whether his fast driving on the shoulder prompted the Cadillac’s reaction. They also asked whether showing a gun is a proper way for officers to identify themselves.
“It’s not within the realm of possibility that the Cadillac brake-checked you to pull behind this car?” asked Julia Gegenheimer, a lawyer for the state.
Morgan stood by his claim that the car was blocking the agents.
The two occupants did not testify. Their lawyer told the court they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent if called, the Star Tribune reported.
The charges against Morgan were the first state felony charges in the country over a federal agent’s actions on duty, according to the newspaper.
Brasel did not say when she will rule on whether to move the case.