The chief federal judge in Minnesota is fed up with the Trump administration’s persistent violation of court orders and the rights of detainees amid increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement actions.
Patrick Schiltz
As a result, Judge Patrick J. Schiltz has ordered the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, to appear in court Jan. 30 for a contempt-of-court hearing.
“This court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” Schiltz said in his Jan. 26 order.
“Respondents have continually assured the court that they recognize their obligation to comply with court orders, and that they have taken steps to ensure that those orders will be honored going forward. Unfortunately, though, the violations continue.”
“The court’s patience is at an end.”
Immigrants, including many in the country legally, have suffered significant hardships, such as being detained without hearings and often being released in other states “and told to figure out a way to get home,” Schiltz said. “The court’s patience is at an end.”
What the judge termed an “extraordinary step” to deal with a “likewise extraordinary” violation of court orders adds to the rapidly mounting pressures facing the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
While violence against clergy and other demonstrators has been on display for weeks, the stakes skyrocketed after what some called the “execution-style” shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti on Jan. 24 by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.
It was the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration agents in the city since the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good. She was shot multiple times as she observed an anti-ICE protest.
But Pretti’s shooting at point-blank range has intensified opposition to the Department of Homeland Security’s detention and deportation tactics, and to the level of force it has authorized against immigrants and Americans alike.
A growing number of Republicans in Congress have joined Democrats in calling for an investigation into the killing. In addition, CBP Commander Greg Bovino has been demoted and removed from the state, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is reportedly facing heavy scrutiny from the Trump administration, CBS News reported.
Civil rights and humanitarian organizations reacted vehemently to the shooting, and more than 1,000 faith-based, immigrant and labor rights groups sent a letter to Congress Jan. 27 demanding termination of ICE funding.
The groups expressed “horror, outrage and deep grief about the news that federal agents have executed a human being in broad daylight.”
The developments come as the Senate prepares to debate spending measures for numerous government departments, including DHS.
Casey Carter Swegman
“As long as ICE and CBP continue to inflict unchecked violence and evade responsibility for the harm they cause, immigrant survivors — and our communities as a whole — cannot truly be safe,” said Casey Carter Swegman, director of public policy at Tahirih Justice Center.
“Without accountability and justice for the victims and an end to the state-sanctioned violence we are seeing ICE and CBP perpetuate in our communities, no lawmaker can in good conscience give DHS one more cent of taxpayer money.”
“No lawmaker can in good conscience give DHS one more cent of taxpayer money.”
Reining in immigrant enforcement also is a way to protect children, especially after reports of students being tackled and taken away from Minnesota public schools by federal agents, according to Kids in Need of Defense.
“Over the past year, KIND has witnessed firsthand the severe harms suffered by children due to misguided DHS immigration enforcement actions that disregard children’s vulnerability and basic safety,” KIND President Wendy Young said.
Another twist came when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz blaming him and other state politicians for stoking violence by opposing immigration actions.
Minnesota could improve its situation by sharing Medicaid, food assistance and voter registration data with the federal government, and by rescinding sanctuary policies that protect immigrants, Bondi said. “I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans.”
Skye Perryman
Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman called Bondi’s letter an attempt “to extort the state with an offer to pull federal agents out in exchange for access to state voter rolls, among other things.”
The information could in turn be used to aid the administration’s ongoing efforts to undermine upcoming elections, she said. “New filings from the government revealed that DOGE accessed and may have shared Americans’ personal Social Security information with an external election-denial group as part of its efforts to undermine election integrity.”
Vanessa Cardenas
Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, urged Americans not to celebrate the apparent setbacks the administration is experiencing in Minnesota.
“Let’s not be fooled: The news and rumors about Greg Bovino and Kristi Noem sound encouraging, but nothing will change until DHS is held accountable for the deadly and out-of-control ICE and Border Patrol and until we recognize and hold accountable those who are ultimately responsible for what is playing out before our eyes.”
And that means holding President Trump accountable, she added. “Moving around some chess pieces among his flunkeys is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”