A federal judge in Minnesota found a Trump administration lawyer in civil contempt of court on Wednesday, a significant escalation between the judiciary and the executive branch amid a ballooning caseload triggered by President Trump’s immigration raids and novel interpretations of law.
According to the ruling, by Judge Laura M. Provinzino of Federal District Court in Minnesota, the government failed to return “identification documents” belonging to Rigoberto Soto Jimenez, a detained immigrant whom she had ordered to be released with all of his property returned. The judge ordered a $500 daily fine imposed on Matthew Isihara, an administration lawyer, for each day the documents are not returned, beginning on Friday.
In Minnesota and elsewhere, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been arresting thousands of immigrants who have lived in the United States for years after entering the country illegally.
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An online profile belonging to Mr. Isihara identified him as a military judge advocate now detailed as a special assistant U.S. attorney. The case docket indicates that the contempt ruling came after a 93-minute hearing.
Mr. Soto Jimenez, according to court filings, is a Mexican citizen who has lived in Minnesota since 2018 with his spouse, who is a lawful permanent resident. He was arrested on Jan. 14. Like many others, he filed a writ of habeas corpus, a legal challenge that asks the courts to consider whether his detention has any legal basis. The government’s lack of respect for court rulings stemming from such petitions has been raised by judges in the District of Minnesota, where the chief judge compiled a list of nearly 100 violations of court orders in habeas cases since Jan. 1, and in New Jersey, where the Justice Department admitted 52 violations since Dec. 5.
Judge Provinzino, who spent years as a federal prosecutor, had ordered the government to release Mr. Soto Jimenez “from custody in Minnesota” by Feb. 13. An order she issued on Tuesday indicates that the government failed not only to return his documents, but also to release him in Minnesota as she had initially specified.
“Federal judges are at their wits’ end when it comes to the government,” said Muneer I. Ahmad, a Yale Law professor who represents immigrants as part of the school’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. “Judges are no longer willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the federal government that they’re acting in good faith and with the integrity expected of government lawyers. It’s really quite extraordinary.”
Mr. Ahmad said he believed that Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Provinzino, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., marked the first time that an official from Mr. Trump’s second presidential administration had been held in contempt of court.
David A. Super, a law professor at Georgetown, agreed. “This is the first clear case of contempt this term that I know of,” he said. Unlike criminal contempt, he noted, civil contempt, which imposes penalties to induce compliance, is beyond the president’s pardon power.
While civil contempt rulings are very uncommon, they are not entirely without precedent. A judge held Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s education secretary during his first term, in civil contempt and fined the department she headed $100,000. Another federal judge, while stopping short of a contempt ruling, ordered lawyers from President Barack Obama’s Justice Department to undergo ethics training.
Ernesto Londoño contributed reporting.
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