Left: Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota). Right: Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs. Enforcement (ICE), is interviewed on TV on the White House grounds, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta). Inset: President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A federal judge in Minnesota has demanded that the leader of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appear before him over the agency's "failure to comply" with "dozens" of court orders in the North Star State.
"The Court's patience is at an end," Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz wrote in a three-page order instructing acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear in his Minneapolis courtroom on Friday. The frustrated jurist also said that in addition to appearing "personally," the agency head must "show cause why he should not be held in contempt of Court."
After the Trump administration initiated Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota last month in a stated effort to arrest "the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens," ICE agents have maintained a presence in the state, especially in large urban centers such as Minneapolis. But residents contend that the agency is acting illegally and without proper oversight, snatching people off the streets, racially profiling residents, and denying individuals due process.
Emergency lawsuits have been brought against ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with one of them being the filing to which Schiltz has responded. A detained man named Juan Robles on Jan. 8 sought a writ of habeas corpus — a determination of whether his detention was lawful. On Jan. 14, Schiltz ordered the administration to give Robles a bond hearing within seven days or release him.
According to the chief judge, the detained man was granted neither.
"This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks," the George W. Bush appointee wrote. "The practical consequence of respondents' failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens (many of whom have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong): The detention of an alien is extended, or an alien who should remain in Minnesota is flown to Texas, or an alien who has been flown to Texas is released there and told to figure out a way to get home."
Schiltz then chastised the administration overall, suggesting poor planning has led to the legal chaos surrounding the operation, which has been amplified to international attention after two protesters — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were shot and killed by ICE agents despite posing no apparent threat, based on videos of the incidents.
"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," he wrote. "Respondents have continually assured the Court that they recognize their obligation to comply with Court orders, and that they have taken steps to ensure that those orders will be honored going forward. Unfortunately, though, the violations continue."
Schiltz acknowledged that commanding the head of a federal agency to personally appear before him is an "extraordinary" step, "but the extent of ICE's violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed."
On Monday, a different federal judge in Minnesota considered whether the Trump administration's immigration crackdown is an unconstitutional attempt at bullying state and local officials into acquiescing with President Donald Trump's policy preferences. Responding to the state's lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order immediately blocking Operation Metro Surge, U.S. District Judge Katherine M. Menendez appeared skeptical both of the federal government's reason for sending thousands of federal troops into the city and her own authority to curb the campaign.
The deaths of Good and Pretti have been followed by calls for ICE to leave the state and, in some cases, to be abolished altogether.
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