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(CN) — Federal immigration agents will remain free from court-ordered restrictions in Minnesota for the foreseeable future, after a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Monday declined to reimpose limits on enforcement activities.
The decision is a stinging defeat for the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and local activists, as the appellate panel granted a formal stay against a lower court’s order that had previously barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from “interfering” with peaceful protesters.
In a per curiam opinion, the appellate panel found the federal government will likely succeed on its merits in challenging the “vague and overly broad” preliminary injunction order. This decision reinforced a temporary pause on enforcement limits issued last week and denied the ACLU’s attempt to lift the stay.
The formal stay will last throughout the appeals process.
The ruling addresses the findings of U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, who initially issued the injunction to stop a “chilling effect” on First Amendment rights, noting that the scale of “Operation Metro Surge” created a federal presence where agents appeared to use chemical irritants and force against peaceful protestors.
The appellate panel’s reasoning against Menendez’s order centers on the injunction being applied to an uncertified class of people without showing any “questions of law or fact common to the class.”
After reviewing video evidence, the judges noted that observers, protesters and federal agents were collectively engaged in a wide range of differing behaviors across various times and locations, and it would be overly broad to treat all of these separate instances as the same.
The appeals panel also slammed the original order for being unconstitutionally vague. The judges wrote that directives telling agents not to “retaliate” or to avoid detaining drivers without reasonable suspicion were essentially just “obey the law” commands.
The appeals panel found such orders are likely unenforceable, because they aren’t specific enough to guide officers in the field and could cause federal agents to hesitate in performing their lawful duties — potentially causing more harm.
The appeals panel also found that requiring agents to predict exactly what a judge would consider “peaceful” or “unobstructive” in the middle of fast-changing protest environments is unrealistic.
The underlying class action, filed by the ACLU of Minnesota, claims a pattern of unconstitutional mistreatment of bystanders during federal immigration enforcement activities. The nonprofit said ICE agents have pepper-sprayed, deployed tear gas and pointed assault rifles at peaceful observers, in addition to temporarily abducting U.S. citizens.
The complaint includes detailed first-person accounts from several individuals who were tackled, detained or otherwise interfered with by federal immigration agents while exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully observe and protest.
The focus now shifts to a full review of the merits of the case by the Eighth Circuit. Given the court’s ruling on the relief requested being too broad for an uncertified group, it’s likely that the ACLU will push for a formal class certification in the lower court.
The ACLU in Minnesota is also involved in litigation against the Trump administration regarding racial profiling and warrantless stops of Somali and Latino residents in the state.
Monday’s ruling comes amid a day of eventful updates regarding the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota — after a weekend uproar following the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by Border Patrol agents**** , the second such shooting by federal agents.
On Monday morning, a federal judge heard arguments in Minnesota’s lawsuit against the federal enforcement operation, while President Donald Trump took some steps towards attempting deescalation throughout the day — replacing Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino with “border czar” Tom Homan as the lead for ICE operations in the state, and expressing a desire for better coordination with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Some federal agents are expected to begin leaving the city with Bovino as early as Tuesday.
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