Court Blocks Liberal Judge’s Attempt To Tie The Hands Of ICE Agents In Minnesota

The Trump administration picked up a legal win on Monday after the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a Biden-appointed judge’s restrictions on federal immigration agents’ tactics in Minnesota while it appeals the decision. 

A three-judge panel said a ruling from District Judge Kate Menendez limiting how ICE officers could respond to protesters in Minnesota was “too broad” and “too vague,” temporarily pausing her order that barred agents from retaliating against anyone engaged in “peaceful and unobstructive protest activity” and from stopping vehicles without “reasonable articulable suspicion that [the occupants] are forcibly obstructing or interfering with” immigration enforcement operations. 

“We accessed and viewed the same videos the district court did,” the court said. “What they show is observers and protestors engaging in a wide range of conduct, some of it peaceful but much of it not,” the appeals court wrote. “They also show federal agents responding in various ways. Even the named plaintiffs’ claims involve different conduct, by different officers, at different times, in different places, in response to different behavior.”

The ruling comes as the Trump administration has faced mounting pressure over its immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, where federal officers have faced massive and sometimes violent protests following fatal shootings of protesters during anti-ICE demonstrations.

The judges said that Menendez’s ruling would handicap ICE officers’ ability to respond to complex, rapidly changing scenes on the ground. 

“The videos underscore how difficult it would be for them to decide who has crossed the line: they show a fast-changing mix of peaceful and obstructive conduct, with many protestors getting in officers’ faces and blocking their vehicles as they conduct their activities, only for some of them to then rejoin the crowd and intermix with others who were merely recording and observing the scene,” the judges wrote. 

The court also said that the ruling was a “universal injunction by another name.” In June, the Supreme Court limited federal judges’ ability to unilaterally block the Trump administration’s agenda through universal injunctions.

They said that the injunction’s “breadth and vagueness” could cause ICE officers to “hesitate in performing their lawful duties” and harm both the government’s ability to enforce the law and the public interest. 

Earlier, the Trump administration secured a temporary stay of Judge Menendez’s restrictions on federal immigration agents’ tactics, but the appeals court’s ruling goes further by blocking enforcement of her order while the case continues on appeal. Menendez is also overseeing a separate case brought by Minnesota state and local officials challenging the Trump administration for its illegal immigration crackdown.

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the ruling, calling it a “win against judicial activism.” 

“Liberal judges tried to handcuff our federal law enforcement officers, restrict their actions, and put their safety at risk when responding to violent agitators,” Bondi wrote on X. “The DOJ went to court. We got a temporary stay. NOW, the 8th Circuit has fully agreed that this reckless attempt to undermine law enforcement cannot stand.”