Trump administration targets seven Minnesota judges over ICE raid comments

WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department asked a court Wednesday to punish federal judges in Minnesota who spoke to the media and criticised aggressive raids carried out in that state by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It was the latest twist in a clash between the Trump administration and federal judges who have at times thwarted his drive to deport millions of immigrants lacking residency papers.

On September 17, The New York Times published an article that quoted Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief judge at Minnesota's federal district court during a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids last winter in Minneapolis, and six of the judge's colleagues on the bench.

Schiltz had already gained notoriety during the peak of those raids by saying publicly that ICE had probably violated more court orders in January 2026 than other federal agencies had in their entire decades of existence.

In an interview for the Times article, Schiltz said ICE's behaviour had sparked such chaos in his court that it "created a grave threat to the rule of law." He said he thought the violations of court orders stemmed mainly from incompetence and staffing shortages.

It is rare for a judge to speak out publicly like that, the Times said.

He and the other six judges quoted in the article declined to talk about ongoing cases, but they did agree to address the tumult of last winter during the ICE operation dubbed "Metro Surge" and the tension it triggered between Schiltz's court and the Justice Department, the paper said.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday it had filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Schiltz and the other six judges at a federal appeals court. It accuses them of ethics violations by speaking publicly about cases pending in court.

The department asked an appeals court to investigate these judges, Attorney General Todd Blanche told a press conference.

The department has "asked that these judges recuse themselves from every case involving DHS, either criminal or civil in nature, because of the obvious bias they have shown in this article with the New York Times," Blanche said. DHS stands for Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

During operation "Metro Surge" ICE agents shot and killed two American citizens taking part in street protests against the immigration raids, triggering national outrage and prompting the administration to wind down the operation.

The administration says the raids netted the arrest of 4,000 people who were in the country illegally.--AFP