'Handcuff ICE' bid fails: Appeals court overrules Biden judge, restores agents' power to stop hostile mobs

Anti-ICE activists' attempts to frustrate federal immigration law enforcement in Minneapolis and elsewhere hit a snag on Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and three Minnesota-based law firms filed a lawsuit on Dec. 17 against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging its agents violated the constitutional rights of several anti-ICE activists, including a Minnesota woman and a Somali-American who were both accused of attacking federal agents.

A federal judge who was nominated by former President Joe Biden ruled last week in favor of the radicals.

'A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents.'

U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez prohibited federal agents involved in Operation Metro Surge and related operations in the Gopher State from:

• "retaliating against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity";
• arresting such persons;
• "using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity"; and
• "stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles where there is no reasonable articulable suspicion that they are forcibly obstructing or interfering with Covered Federal Agents."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security promptly appealed the Biden judge's ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On Wednesday, the appellate court granted the defendants an administrative stay of Menendez's preliminary injunction.

Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared greatly pleased with the higher court's ruling.

RELATED: Anti-ICE lunacy hits new low: Activist allegedly air-horns cops investigating school threat that had nothing to do with ICE

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents who are enforcing the Nation’s immigration laws and responding to obstructive and violent interference from agitators," Bondi said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The 8th Circuit just granted an administrative stay HALTING these restrictions, which were designed to undermine federal law enforcement," continued the attorney general. "This DOJ will protect federal law enforcement agents from criminals in the streets AND activist judges in the courtroom."

Federal agents didn't waste any time taking advantage of their restored abilities.

Hours after the ruling, Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol was caught on tape warning a hostile crowd of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis that gas was coming, then tossing a gas canister their way.

The Department of Homeland Security indicated that "Border Patrol agents who were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as part of a targeted enforcement operation were repeatedly harassed and blocked by hostile crowds while simply trying to take bathroom breaks."

"At each gas station where the agents stopped to use the restroom, groups of agitators appeared, yelled at them, stalked them, and even tried to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving, creating unsafe conditions," said the DHS. "At one stop, individuals in the crowd threw food at the agents. At their final gas station stop, someone spit on an agent. When an agent moved to detain the person who spit on him, the crowed tackled and attacked the agents while surrounding them. To safely clear the area agents had to use crowd control measures to disperse the hostile crowd."

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