ICE crashes US court system in Minnesota

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) process in Minnesota It pushes the US court system to its breaking point.

Since Operation MetroSurge began in December, federal immigration agents have arrested about 4,000 people. According to To the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The result is a flood of cases filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota on behalf of people challenging their imprisonment by federal immigration enforcement agents. According to a WIRED review of court records and official judicial statistics, lawyers filed nearly as many so-called habeas corpus petitions in Minnesota alone as were filed across the United States in an entire year.

The bombardment of cases filed in federal court in Minnesota and other states is the result of two Trump administration policies: a significant increase in the number of people in custody, and the elimination of a key legal mechanism to ensure their release. The result is a collapse of the US court system: judges, immigration lawyers, and federal prosecutors are all overwhelmed, while the people at the center of these cases remain behind bars, often in states thousands of miles from their homes — after judges have ordered their release.

“I never said the word You have “Many times in my life,” says Graham Ojala Barbour, a Minnesota immigration attorney who has been practicing for more than a decade. Ojala Barbour says that when he goes to sleep, his dreams revolve around habeas corpus petitions.

Burnout is endemic. On February 3, former Special Assistant US Attorney Julie Lu pleaded with a US judge in Minnesota to hold her in contempt of court so she could finally rest. They were listed in 88 cases, according to data obtained through the US court records database PACER. Daniel Rosen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota and Law’s chief of staff, previously told that judge in a letter that they were “struggling to keep up with the overwhelming volume” of petitions and had allowed at least one court order requiring the petitioner’s return to slip through the cracks. Law did not respond to a request for comment. In response to a request for comment, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sent an automated response stating that it does not currently have a public information officer.

Lee was reportedly fired after a hearing in February, during which she told the judge: “This job sucks.”

In response to a request for comment, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, “The Trump administration is more than prepared to address the legal issues necessary to implement President Trump’s deportation agenda for the American people.”

Although the workload is difficult for US attorneys, the situation is much more dangerous for people detained by immigration authorities. In court filings, people detained describe how they were crammed into cells that were so full they couldn’t even sit down before being flown to detention centers in Texas. One described having to share cells with people with Covid. Others said that officers repeatedly pressured them and other detainees to self-deport.

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, and medical treatment, and have access to their family members and attorneys,” McLaughlin told WIRED. “All detainees receive full due process.”

Anna Voss, The head of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota is listed as one of the attorneys defending the government in nearly all habeas corpus cases filed in Minnesota since the start of Operation Metro Surge. Before December, the majority of cases linked to Vos involved other issues, such as Social Security and disability issues. Since then, habeas corpus requests for detained immigrants have largely overshadowed all other matters.