A judge on Saturday declined to order the Trump administration to immediately scale back its
immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, rejecting pleas from state officials who said the campaign was stepping on their sovereignty and endangering the public.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez said Minnesota and the Twin Cities had not definitively shown that the administration’s decision to flood the state with immigration agents, an initiative dubbed Operation Metro Surge, was unlawful or designed to coerce local officials into cooperating with other administration objectives.
However, while she denied the state’s request for a preliminary injunction ending the surge, the judge stressed that she was making not making a final determination on the state’s claims, a step that would take place after further litigation. She also cautioned that she was not deciding whether specific actions taken by immigration authorities during the surge were unlawful.
“It would be difficult to overstate the effect this operation is having on the citizens of Minnesota, and the Court must acknowledge that reality here,” wrote Menendez, who was named to the bench by President Joe Biden. “However, those are not the only harms to be considered. … Defendants have presented evidence that entry of the injunction requested by Plaintiffs would harm the federal government’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law.”
Minnesota officials had said the immigration crackdown was endangering public safety in their state.
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During a
court hearing Monday, Menendez said that while “we are in shockingly unusual times,” she was skeptical about whether her authority let her decide if the immigration agents could remain deployed in Minnesota.
Menendez also questioned
a letter Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Saturday, the day Pretti was killed, demanding access to the state’s voter rolls and records relating to food assistance programs.
Bondi appeared to link these moves with a possible end to the immigration crackdown in Minnesota. During the hearing, Menendez asked whether the letter was akin to a ransom note.
Lawmakers need to get $1.2 trillion package to President Trump’s desk to fund Pentagon, DHS, other federal agencies
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