A federal judge on Saturday denied a request by Minnesota officials to temporarily halt the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents to the state.
Judge Katherine M. Menendez ruled against granting a preliminary injunction state Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are seeking in a lawsuit they filed earlier this month.
She wrote that the court is not deciding on the legality of specific actions taken by federal agents, and it is not making any final determination about the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims at this time. Instead, she said, the court is solely ruling on whether plaintiffs meet the burden for a preliminary injunction.
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Around 3,000 federal immigration agents were sent to Minnesota as part of what the federal government is calling “Operation Metro Surge.” Ellison and the mayors’ lawsuit said armed and masked Department of Homeland Security agents are conducting militarized raids in places such as schools, hospitals, job sites and businesses.
Agents appear to be conducting these sweeps and detaining people based on their race and ethnicity, Minnesota officials argued.
“The unlawful tactics used by Defendants’ agents have left members of Plaintiffs’ communities afraid to shop, go to work, attend school, access basic government services, or otherwise live their lives,” the lawsuit says. “They have also resulted in school closures across the Twin Cities due to safety concerns.”
Also causing fear, the lawsuit said, are the recent fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal immigration agents.
DHS and other Trump administration officials maintain they are going after people with serious criminal histories, and accuse protestors of making threats and causing violence.
Menendez, in her ruling, said the plaintiffs made a strong showing that Operation Metro Surge has had “profound and even heartbreaking consequences on the State of Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minnesotans.”
Menendez wrote that the defendants “do nothing to refute the negative impacts” Minnesota officials described.
Still, she wrote, “those are not the only harms to be considered.”
“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry of an injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,” Menendez said.
Minnesota officials, she said, did not provide a metric on which to determine “when lawful law enforcement becomes unlawful commandeering.”
“A proclamation that Operation Metro Surge has simply gone ‘so far on the other side of the line’ is a thin reed on which to base a preliminary injunction,” she wrote.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on X called the judge’s decision “another HUGE” legal win for the Justice Department.
“Neither sanctuary policies nor meritless litigation will stop the Trump Administration from enforcing federal law in Minnesota,” she said.
Straight Arrow News reached out to Ellison’s office for comment.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on X that local officials are “disappointed,” but “this decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place.”
“This operation has not brought public safety. It’s brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It’s an invasion, and it needs to stop,” he said.
City officials said they will continue to pursue the lawsuit.
