A top federal judge in Minnesota has ordered the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to appear in court in person, saying the Trump administration has failed to comply with orders requiring hearings on detained immigrants.
In an order issued Monday (Jan. 26), Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz ordered Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, to appear before him Friday (Jan. 30) to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court.
“This court has been extremely patient with the objectors,” Schiltz wrote, accusing the administration of detaining immigrants without taking steps to handle the surge in habeas petitions and litigation that followed.
‘Breach continues’
Schiltz said the administration repeatedly assured the court it would comply with court orders, but the failures continued.
“Respondents have consistently assured the court that they recognize their obligation to comply with the court’s orders,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, however, the violations continue.”
The judge called the move extraordinary and said ordering the head of a federal agency to appear in person was justified. “The extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is also extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed,” Schiltz added.
The judge said he would cancel Lyons’ appearance if the appellant at the center of the case is released from custody.
Trump turns to Tom Homan
The injunction came a day after President Donald Trump ordered border czar Tom Homan to take over his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota following the second fatal shooting this month involving federal immigration officials.
Homan, whom Trump described as “tough but fair,” has been posted to Minneapolis and will “report directly to me,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Federal agents are starting to leave
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said some federal immigration agents will begin leaving the city on Tuesday, amid widespread outrage over the killing of two American citizens.
“Some federal agents will be leaving Minneapolis,” Frey said in a post on X, without giving details. “I will continue to push for the rest involved in this operation to end.”
Frey said he spoke with Trump on Monday and that the president agreed that “the current situation cannot continue.”
Quarrels in the White House
The White House is under increasing pressure after video of the latest shooting went viral, sparking street protests, criticism of former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and growing unrest within Trump’s own Republican Party.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people get hurt or killed,” and expressed grief over the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse who was shot during a protest in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Shifting storytelling while filming
Previously, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Pretti’s killing as self-defense, initially claiming he approached agents with a gun — a claim contradicted by available evidence.
Pretti was protesting the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and an American citizen who was shot at point-blank range by an ICE officer. Minneapolis has since become the focus of nationwide protests, and large rallies are planned despite the frigid conditions. And on Jan. 24, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was fatally shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis while engaged in a confrontation related to protests against immigration enforcement — a death that sparked widespread outrage, conflicting accounts of the incident and calls for accountability.
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