A federal judge says he won’t stop a wave of immigration enforcement in Minnesota and the Twin Cities because of a lawsuit against it.
The judge said he would not stop the immigration enforcement wave as a lawsuit continuesJudge Catherine M. Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
It argued that the Department of Homeland Security was violating constitutional protections. The suit sought an expedited order to stop the enforcement action or limit its scope. US Justice Department lawyers called the case “legally frivolous”.
The ban ruling focused on Minnesota officials’ argument that the federal government was violating the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which limits the federal government’s power to infringe on states’ sovereignty. In his ruling, the judge relied heavily on whether that argument was likely to ultimately succeed in court.
The federal government argued that the surge, called Operation Metro Surge, was necessary in an effort to get criminal immigrants off the streets and because federal efforts were hampered by state and local “sanctuary laws and policies.”
State and local officials have argued that the increase amounts to retaliation after the federal government’s initial efforts to withhold federal funding to try to force immigration cooperation failed. They also maintain that the surge amounts to an unconstitutional drain on state and local resources, noting that schools and businesses have been closed in the face of what local officials say are aggressive, poorly trained and armed federal officers.
“Because there is evidence supporting both sides’ arguments regarding motivation and the relative merits of each side’s competing positions are unclear, the court is reluctant to find that the probability of success factor weighs sufficiently to warrant a preliminary injunction,” the judge said in the ruling.
The judge also said he was impressed by the government’s recent victory in the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The court set aside its ruling on limits on the use of force by immigration officials against peaceful Minnesota protesters.
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“If that ban goes too far, then the one at issue here — shutting down the entire operation — must,” Menendez said.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi took to social media on Saturday to praise the ruling, calling it “another huge” legal victory for the Justice Department in X.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement that he was disappointed by the ruling.
“This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — the fear, disruption and damage caused by a federal operation that wasn’t in Minneapolis in the first place,” Frey said. “This operation has not brought about public safety. It has brought about the opposite and detracted from the order we need for a functioning city. This is an attack, and it needs to stop.”
Neither the Minnesota attorney general’s office nor the St. Paul city attorney immediately responded to phone and email messages left Saturday for comment.
The state, particularly the city of Minneapolis, is on edge after federal officers shot and killed two men on the streets of Minneapolis: Renee Goode on January 7 and Alex Pretty on January 24. Thousands of people took to the streets in Minnesota and across the country to protest the federal action.
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Writer Ed White contributed to this report from Detroit.
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