MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 A federal judge on Saturday declined to immediately halt Operation Metro Surge, allowing the sweeping federal immigration enforcement action in Minnesota to continue while a broader legal challenge plays out.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied a request from Minnesota officials for a temporary restraining order, despite acknowledging what she described as \u201cprofound and even heart breaking\u201d consequences for communities in the state.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cthose are not the only harms to be considered,\u201d however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry or injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n
Minnesota officials argued that the operation violates the Constitution\u2019s 10th Amendment by unlawfully pressing the state to change or abandon so-called sanctuary policies and cooperate more fully with federal immigration authorities. Menendez said those arguments, at least at this stage, were not strong enough to justify blocking the operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inferences to be drawn regarding the allegedly coercive purpose of Operation Metro Surge are not as one-sided as Plaintiffs suggest,\u201d she wrote, rejecting the state\u2019s claim that the operation was being carried out \u201cin brazenly lawless ways\u201d to force changes in state and local law.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Attorney General\u2019s Office did not immediately respond to NBC News\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n
Political tit-for-tat<\/p>\n
Starting in December, the Trump administration sent 3,000 federal immigration agents to the Twin Cities and arrested more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n
U.S. citizens Renee Good<\/a>, 37, and Alex Pretti<\/a>, 37, were both shot and killed<\/a> by federal immigration authorities in separate confrontations this month. The killings have sparked daily anti-ICE protests in the Twin Cities and national condemnation.<\/p>\n Hannah Lindenberg, a protestor outside of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which houses an ICE detention center, said that even if Menendez ruled in favor shutting down the operations, the decision still wouldn’t go far enough. <\/p>\n “As long as ICE, as a concept, exists, it will be a problem,” she said. “Period.”<\/p>\n The Trump administration has sent mixed signals after initially vowing to double down on the operation in the wake of Pretti\u2019s death last week, calling the 37-year-old ICU nurse a \u201cdomestic terrorist,\u201d before officials launched an investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n Then on Thursday, Trump border czar Tom Homan said the administration would \u201cdraw down\u201d the operation in the state. President Donald Trump also spoke with the Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over the phone this week.<\/p>\n But on Friday, federal authorities arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon<\/a> in connection with a protest he covered at a St. Paul church earlier this month. Lemon vowed to fight the charges against him.<\/p>\n