Judge Warns ICE Violations Threatened Rule of Law

Federal Judge Patrick J. Schiltz has warned that the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota created a "grave threat to the rule of law" due to repeated violations of court orders by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The operation, known as Metro Surge, ran from December 2025 to February 12, 2026, and resulted in over 4,000 arrests across the state, generating a flood of habeas corpus petitions that overwhelmed the federal court system. In a January 28, 2026 order, Schiltz documented 97 violations of court orders across 66 cases, with an additional 113 violations identified in a supplemental order on February 26. He stated that ICE was not following judicial directives, which undermined the authority of the courts. Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee who previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, emphasized that compliance with court orders is essential to prevent anarchy or authoritarianism. He noted that most failures appeared due to incompetence rather than conscious defiance, but the Justice Department should have anticipated the legal burden.