The judge ordered the ICE director to explain how the agency handles bail hearings for immigrants in its custody.
Published January 27, 2026
As protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown continue in the Midwestern state, the state’s chief federal judge has ordered the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to appear in court later this week over federal authorities’ handling of bail hearings for detained immigrants.
Chief Judge Patrick J. Shilts said in an order dated Monday that Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons must appear in court on Friday.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“This court has been extremely patient with the appellants, even though they decided to send thousands of personnel to Minnesota to detain aliens and made no provision to deal with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that are sure to result,” Schiltz wrote.
The order comes after President Trump ordered “border czar” Tom Homan to take over his administration’s immigration enforcement efforts following the death of a second person at the hands of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota this month.
In an interview aired on Tuesday, Trump said he had “great calls” with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday, echoing his comments immediately after the call.
The White House had sought to blame Democratic leadership for protests against federal agents conducting raids on migrants, but the administration tapped Homan from Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino to lead operations in Minnesota after 37-year-old nurse Alex Preti was killed on Saturday and video of the incident suggested he was not an active threat.
Bystander video also suggests Renee Nicole Good, 37, a mother of three, posed no threat when she was shot earlier this month. Both victims were U.S. citizens.
Schultz’s order also follows a federal court hearing Monday on a request by the state and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul to ask a judge to order a halt to the surge in immigration enforcement.
Immigration officials continued to operate in both cities on Tuesday.
Schultz wrote that he recognizes that personally ordering a federal agency head to appear is unusual, “but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is equally extraordinary, and smaller measures have been tried and failed.”
The order lists the first and last initials of the petitioner: Juan TR. The court on January 14 granted his motion for a bail hearing within seven days, it said. On January 23, Huang’s lawyer told the court that he remains in custody. According to court documents, the complainant is an Ecuadorian national who came to the United States around 1999.
The order states that Schiltz will cancel Lyons’ appearance if the complainant is released from custody.
