In Minneapolis, U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez is weighing an emergency request from protesters who want limits placed on tactics used during U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city. The motion comes as Minneapolis remains shaken by the fatal shooting of 37-year-old motorist Renee Nicole Good, who was unarmed, by an ICE agent.
Politico reporter Kyle Cheney covered the Tuesday, January 13 hearing in a thread on X, formerly Twitter, and highlighted the judge’s frustration with what she viewed as a thin evidentiary record from the government.
Cheney wrote that Menendez repeatedly questioned why the court had not received sworn, firsthand statements from officers to support the government’s claims about protester behavior. “Menendez again frustrated that she doesn’t have firsthand accounts from police officers who claim protesters suing them were acting in unruly ways. ‘Why don’t I have that officer’s declaration before me?’ she asks when DOJ lawyers alleges a protester ‘pushed past’ an officer. Menendez: I don’t have any ability to assess that because I don’t have anything but an unknown level of high summary.”
Cheney also reported that Menendez made it clear she plans to decide the protesters’ emergency motion — which seeks to halt certain policing tactics tied to ICE activity in Minnesota — by Thursday afternoon, January 15.
According to Cheney, the judge also pressed government lawyers on why ICE officers should be allowed to draw weapons on motorists who are not violating traffic laws or presenting a specific threat. He reported that, “Under questioning from Menendez, DOJ struggling again to articulate why ICE officers can draw guns on drivers who are following them, so long as those drivers are not breaking traffic laws or posing any other articulable threat.”
After the hearing, Cheney said Menendez appeared skeptical of several positions advanced by Trump administration officials. In his summary, he said the judge questioned whether ICE could pull over vehicles that were following officers even if those vehicles were obeying traffic laws, and whether officers could draw guns on stopped motorists without evidence of a crime. At the same time, Cheney noted she also seemed doubtful about the protesters’ attempt to seek statewide relief, and raised questions about whether she could — or needed to — provisionally certify a class at this point in the case.
The thread also referenced CASA, shorthand for Trump V. CASA, where, as ScotusBlog reports, “the Supreme Court curtailed the use of universal injunctions.”
Cheney added that the judge appeared to be considering a narrower ruling focused on “Operation Metro Surge” or the seven counties in the Twin Cities metro area. He also reported that the next issue for both sides is whether the judge can require video of specific arrests before ruling on the preliminary injunction. A decision on the preliminary injunction was expected Thursday evening or Friday morning.
