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.
You have to at least make the effort, in good faith, that rules are going to be observed. Not following those orders opens up a new level of efforts that can be achieved, right up to arresting them at home or at work and dragging them before the judge. They can’t start there because A. There is no where to escalate to, and B. Optics. Let them break the law and ignore summons, that just ups the ante and triggers more severe actions. “Legally”
Good faith is meaningless when dealing with clear, repeated violations. By this point the courts are well aware of the abuses going on and these Trump goons are being held to a much lower standard that anyone else would. “Good faith” has become nothing but a delay tactic that lets these assholes get away with violence, illegal deportations and terror for months without consequences. If we had a functional judicial system, rulings would rarely be ignored because of there would be immediate and severe consequences to those doing so.
Can you imagine how differently this would play out if it were you or I, or even a private security firm ignoring clear court orders? We’d be slapped with fines and jail time almost immediately instead of being handled with kit gloves.