The latest on ICE in Minnesota

A federal judge and two government lawyers expressed exasperation Tuesday at the Department of Homeland Security’s repeated failure to comply with court orders to release people arrested by federal agents during the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigration.

Attorney Julie Low told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell that she hates her job, is exhausted, and even asked Blackwell to hold her in contempt of court so she could get some rest.

On Wednesday, a Justice Department source who was not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that Lu was no longer on special assignment for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, where she had been helping process a large number of habeas corpus petitions.

Blackwell ordered Law and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Vos to appear in the St. Paul courtroom to explain why the Department of Homeland Security missed several deadlines to release five detainees who the judge said should not have been arrested in the first place.

In a document filed before the hearing, Law wrote that DHS released all five from custody effective Jan. 17. The latest to be released, an Ecuadorian man, was released late Monday night.

None of the five had criminal records that would require automatic detention under immigration law, but the Department of Homeland Security missed several deadlines to respond to his release orders and status update requests, Blackwell said.

“The court order is not advisory, and it is not conditional,” Blackwell said. “It’s not something that any agency can treat as optional when deciding how or whether to adhere to it.”

President Joe Biden specific Blackwell returns to the bench in 2022 after serving as a special prosecutor in the state murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd.

Blackwell’s warning follows suit Abrasive From the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee who clerked for the late conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the 1980s.

Schiltz ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear in person at a Minneapolis courtroom on Jan. 30 to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court for failing to release Juan Hugo Tupay Robles, a 43-year-old Ecuadorian man. Schiltz Canceled The hearing after the Department of Homeland Security released Tubay Robles, but Schiltz books “This does not end the court’s concerns,” he said included “96 court orders ICE violated in 74 cases.”

At Tuesday’s hearing in St. Paul, Law said she moved from her job as an ICE attorney to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota on Jan. 5 to help it respond to a “tidal wave” of civil lawsuits filed by detainees, known as habeas corpus petitions. Court records show immigration attorneys have filed more than 600 habeas corpus petitions in Minnesota since Jan. 1; The deluge began in December with the start of DHS’s targeted enforcement operation in the state.

Lo added that convincing DHS and ICE to comply with court orders was difficult work that required her around-the-clock attention.

“The system sucks. This job sucks,” Law told Blackwell. “I hope you despise me until I sleep for a full 24 hours,” the lawyer added.

Many DHS officials don’t understand the seriousness of the order issued by a federal judge, Lu said.

“It took a long time, a very long time, and many orders to explain why and tell them that if you don’t fix it, I will quit, and you will drag yourself into court.”

Lu said she tendered her resignation, but ultimately chose to remain in the U.S. Attorney’s Office because no one could be found to replace her.

She also told me that after pushing for a juvenile to be released from detention, she realized she could make a positive difference from within.

“Wait, Julie, stop,” Lou said. “You need to go back and get more people out. That’s why I’m still here. I’m here because I’m trying to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with all court orders.”

Blackwell did not despise Le or Voss.

“My goal is not to threaten you or anyone else,” Blackwell said. “What we really want is compliance because on the other side of this, you have someone who should have been arrested in some cases, held in jail, and held in shackles for days if not a week after their release was ordered. That’s what I’m concerned about, is upholding the rule of law and the constitutional rights of everyone involved.”

“I want to know how to get to the bottom of the problem,” Blackwell added. “Who decides they’re going to add conditions to a court order of unconditional release? Who does that?”

“I don’t know that this is being done intentionally at a higher level,” Voss said. “I think this is being done in practice by the people executing the job, and it represents a lack of training and communication from supervisors on down.”

Blackwell also asked Vos whether the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security anticipated the large volume of habeas corpus petitions that “Operation Metro Surge” would generate.

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Voss replied.

“I’m sure you have never in your career had an incident like this where you have to account in court for non-compliance by the Department of Justice. When have you ever seen something like this before?”

“I’ve never done that in my career,” Voss said.

Voss is among several assistant U.S. attorneys who have done so They submitted their resignations Collectively over the past month. When reporters asked her after the hearing when she planned to leave the US Attorney’s Office, she declined to comment.

“The Trump Administration is more than prepared to address the legal issues necessary to implement President Trump’s deportation agenda for the American people,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement sent to MPR News on Wednesday morning.

– Matt Sibick, MPR News