Federal judge blocks effort to end Trump administration’s ICE surge in Minnesota

"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," Judge Katherine Menendez wrote.

A sign outside the Whipple Federal Building is vandalized by anti-ICE agitators. The building is the local ICE headquarters and a frequent scene for protests. (Photo by Chris Birt)

(Just the News) — On Saturday, a federal judge refused Minnesota’s bid to halt the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, leaving in place the deployment of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents.

Minnesota state officials had asked the court for an emergency injunction to stop “Operation Metro Surge,” a surge of roughly 3,000 federal immigration officers that they argued went beyond lawful federal authority and violated state sovereignty.

They had accused the administration of using enforcement as political leverage against the predominantly Democratic state, alleging civil-rights violations and disproportionate targeting.

“Plaintiffs ask the Court to extend existing precedent to a new context where its application is less direct — namely, to an unprecedented deployment of armed federal immigration officers to aggressively enforce immigration statutes,” U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez wrote in the decision.

“None of the cases on which they rely have even come close,” the judge added.

This article was originally published by Just the News

 

Nicholas Ballasy | Just the News