Minnesota’s chief federal judge on Wednesday called off his threat to potentially hold the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in contempt for repeated defiance of court orders but delivered a withering assessment of the agency’s conduct as it has surged thousands of agents into the state.
“ICE is not a law unto itself,” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz wrote in an order canceling a hearing scheduled for Friday at which he had summoned acting ICE director Todd M. Lyons to appear.
Though Schiltz said he would no longer take the extraordinary step of requiring Lyons to answer in court for what the judge described as repeated violations of instructions from judges, he added: “That does not end the court’s concerns.”
Schiltz cited a list of 96 orders he said ICE had ignored in more than 70 cases since the agency launched its immigration crackdown in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” Schiltz wrote. “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Schiltz’s threat this week to potentially hold Lyons in contempt threatened to set up a remarkable showdown between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary in Minnesota, which has been inundated with pleas from detained migrants and government attempts to charge protesters since the enhanced enforcement operations began.
Court dockets have swelled with hundreds of cases involving migrants seeking release from ICE detention. Amid that crush, Schiltz and the district’s other judges have repeatedly expressed exasperation over what they have described as the administration’s failure to comply with the law and unusual conduct by prosecutors.
Much of the conflict with the judges in Minnesota has been driven by the Trump administration’s move to overturn years of legal precedent and require mandatory detention for all immigrants facing deportation. Across the country, the overwhelming majority of judges — including many Trump appointees — have ruled that the policy is unlawful and that noncitizens must be provided a chance to seek their release on bond while awaiting deportation proceedings.
That issue has reached a crisis point in Minnesota as immigration authorities have swept up scores of migrants and judges have ordered dozens of detainees released citing the government’s failure to grant them bond hearings.
Some immigrants who had been granted bond hearings by the courts have seen their detentions extended instead or have been flown out-of-state despite orders that ICE keep them in Minnesota.
Schiltz’s order Monday summoning Lyons to court arose out of a case involving an Ecuadorian man who remained in ICE custody two weeks after the judge had ordered his release. The judge said he would cancel Friday’s hearing — and the summons of Lyons — if the agency could prove before then that the detained migrant has been released.
The man was released Tuesday afternoon, his attorney Graham Ojala-Barbour said in a court filing Wednesday.
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