Minnesota judge orders ICE chief to appear in person for defying orders

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Jan 27, 2026

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An angry Minnesota federal judge ordered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief to appear in court in person on Friday to explain why the agency has failed to obey “dozens of court orders” stemming from the violent crackdown on immigrants and protesters on the streets of Minneapolis.

District Court Judge Patrick Schiltz said he is considering holding acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in contempt of court for defying multiple federal judicial orders, including many calling for the release of immigrants improperly arrested in the sweeping crackdown.

“The court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have tried and failed,” the judge wrote in a harshly worded three-page order.

“The court’s patience is at an end,” added Schiltz, who is the chief judge in the Minnesota district.

Schiltz, a conservative appointee of President George W. Bush, read the riot act to the ICE chief over the agency’s failure to release or hold bond hearings for detained immigrants when ordered to do so by judges.

The order came in the case of a detained Ecuadorian immigrant who was brought to the U.S. as a minor three decades ago. Schiltz had ordered ICE to produce the man for a bond hearing or release him.

As of Monday night, the man was still in ICE detention, in defiance of the judge’s order, he noted.

“This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks,” Schiltz wrote, although he did not list other cases. “The practical consequence of [the government’s] failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens (many of whom have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong.)”

Schiltz and other federal judges have been swamped with cases filed by lawyers acting on behalf of the thousands of immigrants and some U.S. citizens who have been detained in the sweeping crackdown in Minneapolis.

Many of the immigrants have been taken to out of state to federal prison camps where they are held with no access to relatives or legal help.

Even in cases where the government has complied with orders to release detained immigrants, they generally release them wherever they are, leaving them to fend for themselves and find their own way back home to Minnesota, Schiltz wrote.

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, has responded to the order.

President Trump and administration officials have defended the Minnesota crackdown as a necessary part of his mass deportation campaign aimed at booting millions of undocumented immigrants out of the U.S.

Critics say the crackdown has ensnared many innocent people who have committed no crimes and immigrants who were following proper legal steps to remain in the U.S.

ICE agents have shot and killed two American citizens during protests against ICE in Minneapolis, including nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday, sparking demands for the agency to dial back its confrontational tactics.