A extensively lined Minnesota courtroom listening to wherein a federal prosecutor advised a choose “this job sucks” noticed the identical choose reveal that “a whole bunch” of the individuals introduced earlier than him for immigration proceedings throughout Operation Metro Surge have the authorized proper to stay in the USA.
U.S. District Courtroom Decide Jerry W. Blackwell mentioned the “overwhelming majority” of individuals dropped at his courtroom by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs & Border Safety (CBP) because the Trump administration’s crackdown began have been “lawfully current” within the nation.
It backs up the rising variety of witness accounts and sufferer testimonies that the federal operation has expanded means past the supposed scope of focusing on undocumented immigrants with violent prison histories, with refugees, authorized everlasting residents, and even U.S. residents being swept up within the crackdown.
“The overwhelming majority of the a whole bunch seen by this courtroom have been discovered to be lawfully current,” Blackwell mentioned in the course of the Feb. 3 listening to in St. Paul. “They stay of their communities. Some are separated from their households.”
Quite a few examples of detainees’ orders for launch being violated
The explanation for the listening to on Tuesday was “compliance with courtroom orders,” with Blackwell seeeking solutions from the federal authorities on why lawful residents are being held in custody after they “ought to have been left alone” and “not arrested within the first place.”
Blackwell mentioned the Division of Justice, the Division of Homeland Safety, and ICE “usually are not above the regulation,” including: “They wield extraordinary energy, and that energy has to exist inside constitutional limits.”
The problem at hand in the course of the listening to was the detention of “massive numbers of individuals, together with people who’re lawfully current in the USA,” and the DOJ, in some instances, failing to fulfill its obligation of releasing them from custody upon order, and thus violating their constitutional rights.
Throughout the listening to, federal prosecutor Julie T. Le bemoaned the best way immigration instances are being dealt with , saying: “What would you like me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I’m attempting [with] each breath that I’ve in order that I can get you what you want,” saying it is like “pulling enamel” to get federal companies into compliance.
“I’m right here simply attempting to be sure that the company understands how essential it’s to adjust to all of the courtroom orders, which they haven’t accomplished prior to now or at present,” she mentioned.
However Blackwell responded: “Having what you’re feeling are too many detainees, too many instances, too many deadlines, and never sufficient infrastructure to maintain up with all of it, isn’t a protection to continued detention. If something, it should be a warning signal.”
Blackwell mentioned he is discovered himself having to ship upwards of a half a dozen emails asking for the date, time, and site of somebody who was ordered to be launched, solely to be ignored because the people remained in custody towards their rights.
Blackwell was addressing Ana H. Voss, an assistant U.S. legal professional for the District of Minnesota, and Le, who mentioned she was working as an ICE legal professional for DHS in immigration courtroom earlier than she “stupidly” volunteered to work the element in Minnesota.
“I’ve to be sincere, we’ve got no steerage or path on what we have to do,” Le advised Blackwell. “And so whenever you confirmed up, they simply throw you within the nicely, after which right here we go.”
Le mentioned she was receiving orders to have detainees launched through her DOJ e-mail, which she claimed she was having hassle accessing.
“So are you telling the courtroom that you just have been introduced in model new, a shiny, model new penny into this function, and also you acquired no correct orientation or coaching on what you have been imagined to do?” Blackwell mentioned.
“I’ve to say sure to that query, Your Honor,” Le replied.
ICE violated launch order for almost two weeks
Blackwell offered an instance the place a person was arrested by ICE on Jan. 10, a person Blackwell mentioned had no prison historical past “that warranted obligatory custody,” and as such he ordered his launch on Jan. 15.
Whereas the order mandated his launch inside 48 hours, Le claimed she did not see it till Jan. 17. The choose once more ordered the person’s launch on Jan. 19, by which level he had been despatched to a detention middle in Texas.
The person was then scheduled to be flown from El Paso, Texas, to Minneapolis on Jan. 20 for launch, however he wound up being transferred to a detention middle in New Mexico, and he wasn’t due again in Minnesota for his launch till Jan. 24.
“And that is already 9 days after this particular person has been ordered launched and located to have been unlawfully detained within the first place,” Blackwell mentioned.
In the long run, the person wasn’t launched till Jan. 28 – a full 13 days after Blackwell ordered he be let out.
Blackwell mentioned he needed to ask a number of instances for a proof from Le about why the person’s flight from New Mexico to Minnesota was delayed for alleged “security issues,” however Le allegedly by no means responded.
Based on the transcript, Le mentioned she “was advised if we offered all info, the protesters will present up on the airport, and the agent and different individuals will probably be in peril.” Le didn’t say who instructed her to not reply.
“So I took it to coronary heart,” Le defined, “as a result of throughout that point, it was very heated right here in Minnesota with all of the protests that was happening. Any public factor that was happening is in danger. Even myself can be in danger for placing my identify and myself in right here, Your Honor. That is the protection concern that I’ve.”
Notably, Jan. 24, the day the person was on account of return to Minnesota and be launched, is the day that CBP brokers fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti in south Minneapolis.
The choose replied to Le: “What we actually need is just compliance, as a result of on the opposite facet of that is any individual who mustn’t have been arrested in some cases within the first place, who’s being held in jail or put in shackles for days, if not a week-plus, after they have been ordered launched.”
Blackwell famous that he is realized of conditions the place somebody ordered for launch “is put out on the road with simply the garments on their backs and have to determine how you can get again right here when they need to not have been arrested right here within the first place, not to mention flown midway throughout the continent of North America.”
DHS officers tout greater than 4,000 arrests below Operation Metro Surge, however the division has not offered stable knowledge to substantiate the assertion, nor addressed whether or not the lawfully current residents cited repeatedly by Blackwell are mirrored in that tally.
Division of Homeland Safety
(Division of Homeland Safety)
This story was initially revealed by Deliver Me The Information on Feb 6, 2026, the place it first appeared within the MN Information part. Add Deliver Me The Information as a Most well-liked Supply by clicking right here.