Federal Judge in Minnesota Orders ICE to Comply with Court Deadlines, Return Immigrants by Wednesday as Tensions Mount
BeeNews Daily January 28, 2026
MINNESOTA — In the midst of escalating legal and political conflict over federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, a Trump-appointed federal judge issued a forceful order this week directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to cease unlawful detentions and take steps to return immigrants to Minnesota communities by Wednesday, sharply rebuking the agency for systemic non-compliance with court rulings.
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, appointed by President George W. Bush but often cited in reporting on the Minnesota litigation, has been at the center of a growing judicial effort to rein in what courts describe as Operation Metro Surge—a large-scale immigration enforcement initiative deployed by the Trump administration that has made thousands of arrests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and throughout the state. The operation has drawn widespread scrutiny after multiple fatal shootings involving federal officers and numerous lawsuits by immigrants claiming unlawful detention.
In a terse court filing late Monday, Schiltz ordered acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons to ensure the release and return of detained immigrants in Minnesota who should be free under prior judicial orders, setting a Wednesday deadline for compliance. The order followed repeated instances in which ICE failed to comply with earlier directives from judges, including demands for timely bond hearings and release of individuals who should not be in custody. “This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” Schiltz wrote in the order, according to court documents.
Schiltz explicitly warned that continued defiance of court orders could result in additional judicial sanctions or contempt proceedings. Under the terms of the order, the agency was compelled not only to release those held without legal basis but also to restore them to Minnesota, a rebuke to practices in which detainees were transferred out of state or released hundreds of miles from home. “The extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed,” the judge wrote.
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