A judge has summoned the acting director of ICE to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt, stating “the court’s patience is at an end.”
U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and is Minnesota’s chief federal judge, has reached the end of his tether with President Donald Trump’s top Immigration and Customs Enforcement goon, Todd Lyons.
In a filing late Monday, Schiltz acknowledged he was taking an “extraordinary” step by ordering Lyons to appear before the court on Friday but said he felt he had no other option after ICE ignored dozens of court orders in the state.
ICE has been carrying out Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities since December, and since then two U.S. citizens have been killed, mass protests have ensued, and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has been reassigned away from the area.
The courts, meanwhile, have been flooded by people ICE has sought to deport from the U.S., who have gone to court saying their detention or deportation is unlawful.
According to Politico, “judges in the district have agreed nearly every time,” but their boss, Schiltz, said the Trump administration has repeatedly ignored their directives to grant bond hearings.
The judge said ICE has ignored a torrent of orders, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was one issued by Schiltz himself on Jan. 14, ordering a bond hearing or release of Juan Tobay Robles within seven days.
Politico reports that as of Monday, he was still being detained, leading Schiltz to summon acting director Lyons before him to plead his case.
“The Court’s patience is at an end,” Schiltz wrote in the three-page order. “Accordingly, the Court will order Todd Lyons, the Acting Director of ICE, to appear personally before the Court and show cause why he should not be held in contempt of Court.
“The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.”
Elsewhere, the order noted, “The practical consequence of respondents’ failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens (many of whom have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong).
“The detention of an alien is extended, or an alien who should remain in Minnesota is flown to Texas, or an alien who has been flown to Texas is released there and told to figure out a way to get home.”
Schiltz isn’t alone. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the government had sought “to defy court orders or at least to stretch the legal process to the breaking point in an attempt to deny noncitizens their due process rights.”
He added, “The Catch-22 created by arresting and detaining individuals without a warrant, then making them obtain court orders to vindicate their due process rights, only to deny them the due process they are owed based on a problem of the Government’s own making, cannot be condoned.”
As well as controversy around the detention and deportation of ICE targets, federal agents have also come under immense scrutiny following the deaths this month of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.
