Federal Judge Refuses To Block Trump’s ICE Surge In Minnesota

by Tyler Durden

Saturday, Jan 31, 2026 – 01:00 PM

Authored by Jacob Burg and Troy Mayers via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge on Jan. 31 denied Minnesota’s emergency request to block the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal agents to the Twin Cities in a large-scale immigration enforcement operation.

In her ruling Saturday morning, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez wrote that the “Court must view Plaintiffs’ claims through the lens of the specific legal framework they invoke, and, having done so, finds that Plaintiffs have not met their burden… the motion is denied.”

She heard arguments from both the Department of Justice and attorneys representing Minnesota and its Twin Cities earlier this week, appearing somewhat skeptical of the district court’s authority over the separation of powers arguments the plaintiffs were advancing.

However, Menendez also probed the Justice Department’s intentions with Operation Metro Surge, the federal government’s deployment of more than 4,000 federal agents to Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and whether the Trump administration violated the 10th Amendment’s “anti-commandeering doctrine.”

That aspect of the 10th Amendment blocks the federal government from forcing state legislatures to pass laws or requiring state officials to administer a federal regulatory program.

Plaintiffs argued that the Trump administration’s actions amounted to a violation of Minnesota’s state sovereignty.

Minneapolis city attorney Brian Carter suggested that a letter Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, was meant to coerce the state into ending its so-called “sanctuary” policies at the threat of continued deployment of federal agents.

Plaintiffs are asking the court to apply the 10th Amendment to block the Trump administration from “coercing the state into legislating” or using state resources to enact a “federal regulatory scheme,” Carter said.

In her letter, Bondi said Minnesota has “refused to enforce the law” and demanded that Walz “restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” share state data on Medicaid and food stamps programs, repeal state sanctuary policies, and hand over state voter rolls to the Justice Department.

The Justice Department said in court that the state laws in question, which the Trump administration argues shield illegal immigrants from detention and deportation, violate federal law.

Department of Justice attorney Brantley Mayers argued that if a state made drug trafficking legal, against the federal government’s drug statutes, it wouldn’t amount to a 10th Amendment violation if the “federal government responded by increasing the amount of boots on the ground.”

However, Menendez pressed the Justice Department on Bondi’s letter and asked how it’s not indicative of a “quid pro quo” agreement that would directly violate the 10th Amendment’s “anti-commandeering doctrine.”

The judge said that throughout the 10th Amendment cases discussed between plaintiffs and defendants, there’s “no question” that they amount to situations where the federal government tells a state it must do something specific to receive a grant or funding. She said in the current situation, the executive action may be “in the street” rather than on paper, but that doesn’t “put it beyond the reach of consideration.”

“Let’s imagine that Attorney General Bondi said, ‘We are here until you change your policies.’ Wouldn’t that violate the anti-commandeering principle?” Menendez asked.

Mayers said “not necessarily,” arguing that the “vacuum of federal law enforcement” from Minnesota’s policies has led to the “need for federal law enforcement” and suggested that does not create an “anti-commandeering problem from the outset” when the Trump administration announced the deployment.

Plaintiffs said a temporary restraining order blocking the president’s Operation Metro Surge was necessary to calm tensions in the streets between residents and federal agents, which reached an inflection point on Jan. 24 after a Border Patrol officer fatally shot a protester just weeks after a driver was shot and killed. Federal authorities have said the officers acted in self-defense.

“I think that this weekend demonstrated, in a terrifying way, that the current situation is absolutely untenable,” Minneapolis city attorney Sara Lathrop said.

“We do not deny that these are serious questions. These are difficult questions, but the relief that we need needs to be now in order to take down the temperature and allow those important questions to be answered.”