Controversial debates over immigration issues highlight growing confrontations between judges and the Justice Department

street. PAUL, Minn. — A federal judge clashed Tuesday with Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor during an unusual contempt hearing that highlighted growing confrontations between increasingly frustrated judges and Justice Department officials. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan called a hearing Tuesday to determine whether U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel N. Rosen and others were charged with contempt for failing to respond to orders to return the personal property of 28 immigrants who were detained and then ordered released. Possessions range from cash to identity documents to clothing. Bryan, who said in his call for the hearing that there had been “numerous unlawful violations of court orders,” began Tuesday by saying it would be a “historic low point” for the U.S. Attorney’s Office if anyone was charged with contempt of court. “Your Honor has made a statement that discredits me,” Rosen replied. The judge later called a break in the hearing to allow things to reset, admitting that the two were “a bit nervous and frozen with each other”. There has been an increase in recent weeks in judges issuing critical and sometimes scathing statements and rulings on the fallout from the administration’s attempts to mass deport immigrants, with the Justice Department at times appearing unable to keep up with the flood of cases resulting from the crackdown. Among other cases around the country, a district judge in Minnesota took the rare step last month of holding an administration lawyer in contempt of court for failing to return identity documents to an immigrant, and a West Virginia judge criticized U.S. and state officials for imprisoning noncitizens indefinitely, saying it violated their constitutional right to due process. “Continued detention without individual decisions to detain, after this Court’s repeated assertions that such detention violates the Fifth Amendment, will result in legal consequences,” U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin said in his order. But Minnesota’s top federal judge has repeatedly attracted national attention with his warnings. Last week, Chief Justice Patrick Schiltz said Rosen and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials must comply with court orders or risk criminal contempt of court charges. “The Court is not aware of another event in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt of court — repeatedly — to compel the United States government to comply with court orders,” wrote Schiltz, who was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush and is seen as a conservative. The administration blamed judges for the crisis, accusing them of not following the law and rushing cases.