A Minnesota federal judge on Saturday declined to order a halt to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis, in a lawsuit by state officials accusing federal agents of widespread civil rights abuses.
US District Judge Kate Menendez in Minneapolis handed down the ruling. The lawsuit by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sought to block or rein in a US Department of Homeland Security operation that sent thousands of immigration agents to Minneapolis-St. Paul, sparking weeks of protests and leading to the killings of two US citizens by federal agents.
Trump said on Saturday that he has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to “under no circumstances” get involved with protests in Democratic-led cities unless they ask for federal help or federal property is threatened.
Menendez was appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden.
Menendez noted the federal appeals court recently stayed a much narrower injunction curtailing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics in Minnesota. “If that injunction went too far, then the one at issue here — halting the entire operation — certainly would,” she wrote.
