Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Feb 4 6 tweets 4 min read Read on X
NEW: A rupture between DOJ and ICE has emerged in Minnesota, where overwhelmed prosecutors keep dropping the ball — and saying ICE won't return their messages.

The crisis has had real-world consequences for migrants illegally detained.

w/ @joshgerstein

politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
MORE: Julie Le — the DOJ attorney who vented about the chaos in court — has been reassigned. politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
Le's cases are the tip of the iceberg. In recent weeks, an overwhelmed DOJ has dropped the ball in dozens of cases, missing deadlines, botching filings, violating orders.

Judge say the local DOJ attorneys aren't at fault — but blame their DC leaders. politico.com/news/2026/02/0…
Ana VOSS, the civil chief in the Minnesota US attorney's office, has repeatedly had to apologize in court for the office's missteps. She told Judge Blackwell sepcifically that a "lack of training and communication" w ICE's field office was a problem. politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
MORE: DOJ's civil division in Minnesota has similarly described being "utterly overwhelmed" in ways that led to repeated errors and missed deadlines

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, DHS and DOJ say there's no issue keeping up with the massive caseload.
politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
Some recent examples of courts grappling with errors, misinformation and missed deadlines by the government in immigration cases. This is just in MN, but it's happening around the country too: politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
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More from @kyledcheney

Feb 4
MEANWHILE: Judges in Minnesota continue rejecting the administration's efforts to lock up ICE's targets en masse. This man has been in the US since 1988 and says he's been approved for a green card.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
What may be most notable, however, is the increasingly lengthy list of requirements in the judge's order — each responsive to recent violations or transgressions by the administation, such as releasing MN residents in Texas with no way to get home to withholding their possessions Image
In another release order, Judge BARTLE — a George W. Bush appointee in Pennsylvania — vented today that ICE "continues to act contrary to law, to spend taxpayer money needlessly, and to waste the scarce resources of the judiciary." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Read 4 tweets
Jan 31
!! Judge Biery has ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Ramos — who became a symbol of ICE's aggression in MN

"The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas..even if it requires traumatizing children storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Never seen a ruling like this: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
NEW: As he released 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, Judge Biery warned of vast lawlessness and inhumanity in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. He said courts amounted to “a judicial finger in the dike.”

politico.com/news/2026/01/3…Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 29
Judges around the country are eyeing what's happening in Minnesota. In a ruling freeing a detained immigrant here, Judge Goodwin of West Virginia said he couldn't ignore the crises in MN.

"Constitutional rights do not only protect persons when a lawsuit has been filed. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Judge Traynor becomes latest in a vanishingly small -- but steadily growing -- minority of judges to side with the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy. He says it's a "sorrowful conclusion" to remove a law-abiding man from his family.

Notably, Tryanor -- a North Dakota-based Trump appointee -- is apparently handling cases in Minnesota due to the immense backlog of habeas petitions.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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UPDATE: Another judge in Minnesota, Reagan appointee David Doty, rules a detention by ICE illegal — and threatens contempt for a failure to return the man to Minnesota. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Read 9 tweets
Jan 26
HAPPENING NOW: Minnesota v. Noem hearing is underway before Judge Menendez, who will weigh whether to order an end to Operation Metro Surge. AG Keith Ellison is at counsel table for the state.
Lawyer for the state, Lindsey Middlecamp, begins by demanding immediate end to "unlawful and unchecked invasion" by federal agents. She cites the Alex Pretti killing and says things are escalating, not improving.
Middlecamp says AG Bondi's letter to the state amounted to a "ransom note" and that messages from her and President Trump amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to coerce the state to change its policies.
Read 16 tweets
Jan 25
Since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process.

This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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Minnesota courts have been inundated with these cases since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge last month. Here's a ruling by Judge Bryan from yesterday, freeing a man who as detained after living in the US for 20 years with no criminal record. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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Here's another ruling in Minnesota, also yesterday, releasing a man who was forcefully detained by ICE despite having *active* refugee status. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Read 15 tweets
Jan 15
HAPPENING NOW; Judge Young is picking up where he left off in his remarkable opinion describing an unconstitutional scheme to arrest/deport pro-Palestinian activists in violation of their constitutional rights:

"There was no policy here. What happened here is an unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people, to twist the laws."

"Two cabinet secretaries conspired ... they intentionally, knowing what they were doing, counseled by professionals who cautioned them, nevertheless went ahead to pick off these people with the intention that your clients would be chilled. And did so rather effectively, by the way."
YOUNG: "The big problem in this case is that the cabinet secretaries and ostensibly the president of the United States are not honoring the First Amendment."
YOUNG, speaking of Secretary Rubio and Secretary Noem: "These cabinet secretaries have failed in their duty to uphold the constitution."
Read 4 tweets

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