‘Shocking, Unusual Times’: Federal Judge Weighs Constitutionality of Trump’s Surge in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota is considering whether it is time to take a “high-level step” of “ending the surge” of federal agents in the state, she said during a court hearing Monday, calling the circumstances of the Trump administration’s immigration operation “shocking, unusual times.”

U.S. District Judge Katherine M. Menendez wasn’t ready to rule from the bench Monday, and indicated her decision could take time as she weighs whether the Trump administration’s actions violate the Tenth Amendment and the state rights it affords.

Still, Menendez signaled an openness to the state’s pleas to push out the administration’s influx of federal agents. Menendez described the federal operations as roving patrols of masked men who are “engaged in retaliation” against locals trying to record their actions.

During the hearing, state officials said the agents were “terrorizing” its people.

The state is alleging so many violations of the Constitution — amid hundreds of individual cases challenging arrests, assaults, and searches — that the judge wondered where to start when considering this fight between the state and the federal government.

“What helps me decide when this very rarely used doctrine is needed to kick ICE out of the state?” she asked, referring to the principles of state rights as stated in the Tenth Amendment.

Brian Carter, a Minnesota assistant attorney general, eventually pointed to President Donald Trump’s own words earlier this month that “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”

“That’s crazy. How can that not violate equal sovereignty?” Carter asked. “If this is not stopped right here, right now, I don’t think anybody who is seriously looking at this problem can have much faith in how our republic is going to go in the future.”

The legal discussion took a somber tone in the hearing’s final moments, as Sara Lathrop, an attorney representing the city of Minneapolis, appeared to hold back tears.

“The current situation is absolutely untenable,” she said, her voice audibly shaking.

The judge, who appeared cooly inquisitive for the previous three hours, grew deadly serious as she hinted at personal concerns over the actual power of judicial intervention at this point — a remarkable admission at a time when the Trump administration is increasingly hostile toward the courts.

“Not all crises have a fix from a district court injunction. And there are other things that are supposed to rein in this kind of conduct. All branches of the federal government are supposed to honor separation of powers within themselves and federalist interests of the state,” Menendez said.

“You’re absolutely right, Your Honor. You’re not the only solution,” Lathrop responded, her voice now firm. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act and can’t act.”

Monday morning’s hearing was weeks in the making. The judge pushed off the state’s emergency request for an immediately employed temporary restraining order on Jan. 12 and opted instead for a full-throated debate in court over Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge.”

In the ensuing two weeks, federal agents have grown more aggressive with citizens who record ongoing operations. Videos and bystander accounts show federal agents routinely breaking car windows and detaining residents, with accounts of federal officers releasing them in subzero temperatures without appropriate clothing. Local activists have responded, showing up to provide warm clothes to released detainees.

During the hearing, federal prosecutor Brantley Mayers visibly struggled when the judge asked him what she should do with that.

“Let me understand. Chicago … had a law enforcement reaction from the federal government of fewer than 400 officers. Minnesota, a much smaller state with cities with a much smaller population, generally, and of undocumented people, has 10 times that,” Menendez said. “Is there a point at which it can no longer be reasonably defended as a rational law enforcement response?”

“Would 10,000 ICE agents on the ground in the Twin Cities be too much? I mean, is there no limit to what the executive can do under the guise of enforcing immigration law?” she added.

Mayers said that the limits were being argued in other cases, but that the Tenth Amendment was not one of them.

Menendez pressed again. She mentioned a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi directing Gov. Tim Walz to repeal the state’s sanctuary laws and urging state officials to share health and food assistance records with federal officials to “investigate fraud,” as well as the state’s voter rolls.

The letter, Menendez said, “concerns me. … Is the executive trying to achieve a goal through force that it cannot achieve through the courts?”

“We’re here, as I’ve said, to enforce federal immigration law. There is nothing to back up this claim that we are here for another reason,” Mayers responded.

Ultimately, Mayers argued that if the judge concluded that Operation Metro Surge violates the Tenth Amendment, “it would still create a very difficult administrability problem.”

“If we conclude next week, there’s a need for federal law enforcement in the state, unconnected to all of this, and we have to come to Your Honor and say, ‘Hey, we need five people here for this specific purpose,’ it would still create a very difficult separation of powers problem,” Mayers continued.

Much of Mayers’ arguments attempted to shift the burden to Minnesota or the judge to determine when exactly Operation Metro Surge would have become a constitutional violation. But the judge wasn’t having any of it, shifting the burden right back and asking the government to clarify exactly how many federal agents — which she referred to as “troops” — are currently deployed in the Twin Cities.

Lindsey Middlecamp, a special counsel at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, described how schools are on lockdown, businesses are keeping their doors closed and streets are being suddenly blocked off as groups of unidentified, heavily armed men assault locals — with people unable to know if they are witnessing a crime or a law enforcement arrest.

She said the question boils down to, “Can we keep our people safe if they will not call the police to report crimes that are happening?”

Middlecamp pointed to federal agents shooting and killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and deploying chemical weapons on a street, which injured six children in a car en route to a scheduled basketball practice.

Carter, Minnesota’s assistant AG, called the immigration operation unfolding in Minneapolis “unprecedented in the 250-year history of our country.”

“We have never had a federal government amass what is essentially an army of three-to-four thousand masked, heavily armed federal agents, and send them into a state to basically stir the pot with conduct that is pervasive, and includes widespread illegal violent conduct,” Carter continued.

“They’re trying to coerce plaintiffs to legislate in the way that they want. They’re trying to hijack the state’s legislative process. They’re trying to get us to turn over voter rolls — what does that have to do?” Carter continued. “This kind of coercion, it has to” violate the Tenth Amendment, he said. “It’s beyond debate.”