ICE Is Crashing the US Court System in Minnesota

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cognition successful Minnesota is pushing the United States tribunal strategy to its breaking point.

Since Operation Metro Surge began successful December, national migration agents person arrested immoderate 4,000 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The effect is an avalanche of cases filed successful the US territory tribunal successful Minnesota connected behalf of radical challenging their imprisonment by national migration enforcement agents. According to WIRED's reappraisal of tribunal records and authoritative judicial statistics, attorneys filed astir arsenic galore alleged habeas corpus petitions successful Minnesota unsocial arsenic were filed crossed the US during an full year.

The bombardment of cases filed successful national tribunal successful Minnesota and different states is the effect of 2 Trump medication policies: a melodramatic summation successful the fig of radical being detained, and the elimination of a cardinal ineligible mechanics for securing their release. The effect is simply a US tribunal strategy successful collapse: Judges, migration attorneys, and national prosecutors are each overwhelmed, portion the radical astatine the halfway of these cases stay down bars, often successful states thousands of miles from their home—many aft judges person ordered their release.

“I’ve ne'er said the connection habeas truthful galore times successful my life,” says Graham Ojala-Barbour, a Minnesota migration lawyer who has been practicing for implicit a decade. Ojala-Barbour says that erstwhile helium goes to sleep, his dreams are astir habeas petitions.

Exhaustion is endemic. On February 3, 1 now-former peculiar adjunct US attorney, Julie Le, begged a US justice successful Minnesota to clasp her successful contempt truthful she could yet rest. She was listed connected 88 cases, according to information obtained via PACER, the US tribunal records database. Daniel Rosen, the US lawyer for the territory of Minnesota and caput of Le’s office, antecedently told that justice successful a missive that they were “struggling to support up with the immense volume” of petitions and had fto astatine slightest 1 tribunal bid demanding the instrumentality of a petitioner gaffe done the cracks. Le did not respond to a petition for comment. In effect to a petition for comment, the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office sent an automatic reply stating that they presently lacked a nationalist accusation officer.

Le was reportedly fired aft the February hearing, wherever she told the judge, “This occupation sucks.”

In effect to a petition for comment, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “The Trump medication is much than prepared to grip the ineligible caseload indispensable to present President Trump’s deportation docket for the American people.”

As hard arsenic the workload whitethorn beryllium for US attorneys, the concern is acold much dire for radical detained by migration authorities. In tribunal filings, radical who person been detained picture being packed into cells that were truthful afloat that they couldn’t adjacent beryllium down earlier being flown to detention centers successful Texas. One described having to stock cells with radical who were sick with Covid. Others said agents repeatedly pressured them and different detainees to self-deport.

McLaughlin told WIRED, “All detainees are provided with due meals, water, aesculapian treatment, and person opportunities to pass with their household members and lawyers. All detainees person afloat owed process.”

Ana Voss, the civilian part main for the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office, has been listed arsenic 1 of the attorneys defending the authorities successful astir each the habeas petition cases filed successful Minnesota since Operation Metro Surge began. Before December, the bulk of cases associated with Voss were astir different issues, specified arsenic societal information and disablement lawsuits. Since then, habeas petitions for migrant detainees person dramatically overtaken each different matters.

In January, 584 of the 618 cases filed successful Minnesota territory tribunal that included Voss arsenic an appearing lawyer were categorized arsenic habeas petitions for detainees, according to a WIRED reappraisal of PACER data. This is apt an undercount owed to incorrect “nature of suit” labels. Voss is nary longer with the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office, according to an automatic reply from her Department of Justice email address.

The fig of habeas petitions filed has exploded successful different parts of the state arsenic well. In the occidental territory tribunal of Texas, for example, astatine slightest 774 petitions were filed successful the period of January, according to information collected by Habeas Dockets. In the Middle District of Georgia, 186 petitions were filed that aforesaid month. ProPublica reported that crossed the country, determination person been implicit 18,000 habeas cases filed since January 2025.