The chief judge, a George W. Bush appointee, said the administration had repeatedly violated or slow-walked court orders in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s chief federal judge has ordered the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, to appear in his courtroom Friday and threatened to hold him in contempt for what he says has been repeated defiance of judges’ orders in the state.
“The court’s patience is at an end,” U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz said in a three-page order issued Monday night, demanding the acting director explain himself “personally.”
Schiltz’s frustration has been boiling for weeks amid Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s massive immigration enforcement action in the Twin Cities. The operation has flooded the courts with emergency lawsuits brought by immigrants who say they have been illegally arrested or detained. The judges in the district have agreed nearly every time, ordering their immediate release from custody and warning, in increasingly alarming terms, about rampant violations of the law.
Except it is, again, not the end because they haven’t done anything. The judge is only threatening. The end would be doing the thing we all need him to do, the order of contempt.
The legal system is not designed or meant to be swift. If it is, it is being abused. See: millions of false arrests and innocent people being executed for crimes they did not commit. Real justice takes time, and should be cold, as in not politically or otherwise biased.
Am I wrong, but don’t they have until Friday? So, we’ll find out next week?
Not saying that it is the end, just a step forward
Judges have threatened them with contempt several times now and not a one has followed through.
I think this is the closest they’ve come and all he did is refer it to an inquiry into whether or not they did commit contempt. An inquiry, that I might add, was immediately put on hold by a court of appeals.
This is not a step forward. It’s the same thing over and over. It’s nothing but theater until they actually lock them up.
If saying you’ll do something is a step forward, then we must have looped the earth by now.