Minnesota Judge Rips ICE for Ignoring 100 Court Orders

The top federal judge in Minneapolis backed off a plan to haul the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into court but delivered a scathing condemnation of the agency for repeatedly defying judges’ orders in cases stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein reported for Politico.

Tunheim ordered the Trump administration to release anyone detained on that basis and to return to Minnesota any individuals who had been transported out of state. (Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement X)

Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz tore into ICE in a Wednesday order for what he described as a pattern of unprecedented defiance—violating dozens of court orders in ways that abused the rights of immigrants facing deportation proceedings.

“ICE is not a law unto itself,” Schiltz wrote in the four-page order.

Several of Schiltz’s colleagues on the federal bench have also criticized the agency in recent rulings. One of them—Clinton appointee John Tunheim—backed an emergency effort to block ICE from targeting thousands of refugees residing lawfully in Minnesota who are still awaiting permanent residency.

Tunheim ordered the Trump administration to release anyone detained on that basis and to return to Minnesota any individuals who had been transported out of state.

Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday contends that ICE violated the constitutional rights of thousands of detainees who spent time in recent weeks at a makeshift detention center inside a major federal building in Minneapolis.