A federal judge on Saturday rejected a request from Minnesota officials to halt Operation Metro Surge, allowing federal immigration enforcement to continue.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez acknowledged that while the operation is having “profound and heart breaking” consequences for the residents in the state, “those are not the only harms to be considered.”
“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry or injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,” Judge Menendez wrote.
Officials in Minnesota have asserted that the operation violates the Tenth Amendment by pressuring the state to change sanctuary policies and cooperate with federal immigration edicts. Judge Menendez, however, found that the argument was not solid enough to end the operation.
“The inferences to be drawn regarding the allegedly coercive purpose of Operation Metro Surge are not as one-sided as Plaintiffs suggest,” the judge wrote.
Minnesota has been plagued with the presence of federal immigration officers. Within two weeks, two residents were shot and killed by ICE agents under circumstances that many Americans deem unlawful.
On January 6, Renee Good was fatally shot in the face by an ICE agent. On January 24, an ICE agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse attempting to assist a woman that an agent had pushed down to the ground.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has not yet responded to this ruling.
