A widely covered Minnesota court hearing in which a federal prosecutor told a judge “this job sucks” saw the same judge reveal that “hundreds” of people brought before him for immigration proceedings during Operation Metro Surge have a legal right to live in the United States.
U.S. District Court Judge Jerry W. Blackwell said the “overwhelming majority” of people brought before his court by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs & Border Protection (CBP) since the Trump administration’s crackdown began were “lawfully present” in the country.
It supports a growing body of witness accounts and victim testimony that the federal operation has expanded far beyond its purported purpose of targeting undocumented immigrants with violent criminal records, refugees, legal permanent residents and even U.S. citizens who have been swept up in the crackdown.
“The overwhelming majority of the hundreds seen by this court have been found to be lawfully present,” Blackwell said during the Feb. 3 hearing in St. Paul. “They live in their communities. Some are separated from their families.”
Numerous examples of violations of prisoner release orders
The reason for Tuesday’s hearing was “compliance with court orders,” with Blackwell seeking answers from the federal government about why legal citizens are being held in custody when they “should have been left alone” and “wouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.”
Blackwell said the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and ICE “are not above the law,” adding, “They have extraordinary power, and that power must exist within constitutional limits.”
At issue during the hearing was the detention of “a large number of individuals, including individuals who are lawfully present in the United States of America,” and the DOJ, in some cases, failing to release them from custody on warrants and thereby violating their constitutional rights.
During the hearing, federal prosecutor Julie T. Le lamented the way immigration cases are handled, saying, “What do you want me to do? [with] every breath I have so I can give you what you need,” saying it’s “pulling teeth” to bring federal agencies into compliance.
“I’m just here trying to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with all court orders, which they haven’t done in the past or currently,” she said.
But Blackwell responded: “Having what you feel are too many inmates, too many cases, too many deadlines and insufficient infrastructure to keep up with it all is not a defense to continued detention. If anything, it should be a warning sign.”
Blackwell said he had to send more than half a dozen emails asking for the date, time and location of someone ordered released, only to be ignored because the people remained in custody against their rights.
Blackwell was referring to Ana H. Voss, a Minnesota assistant district attorney, and Le, who said she was working as an ICE attorney for DHS in immigration court before she “stupidly” volunteered to work on details in Minnesota.
“I have to be honest, we don’t have any guidance or direction as to what we need to do,” Le told Blackwell. “And when you came up, they threw you into the well and then here we are.”
She told them she was receiving orders to release detainees through her DOJ email, which she claimed she was having trouble accessing.
“So you’re telling the court that you were brought into this brand new role, a shiny new penny, and you didn’t receive any proper orientation or training as to what you were supposed to do?” Blackwell said.
“I have to say yes to that question, Your Honor,” Le replied.
ICE violated the release order for nearly two weeks
Blackwell gave an example where a man was arrested by ICE on Jan. 10, a man who Blackwell said had no criminal record “to warrant mandatory custody,” and as such ordered his release on Jan. 15.
While the order called for his release within 48 hours, Le claimed she did not see him until January 17. The judge ordered the man released again on January 19, at which time he was sent to a detention center in Texas.
The man was scheduled to be flown from El Paso, Texas, to Minneapolis on January 20 for release, but ended up being transferred to a detention center in New Mexico and was not due to return to Minnesota for release until January 24.
“And this is already nine days after this person was ordered released and found to have been illegally detained in the first place,” Blackwell said.
The man was not finally released until January 28 – 13 days after Blackwell ordered his release.
Blackwell said he had to ask Le several times for an explanation about why the man’s flight from New Mexico to Minnesota was delayed due to alleged “safety concerns,” but Le never responded.
According to the transcript, Le said he was told that “if we provided all the information, protesters would show up at the airport and the agent and other people would be in danger.” She did not tell them who instructed her not to answer.
“So I took it to heart,” Le explained, “because at that time, it was very heated here in Minnesota with all the protests that were going on. Anything public that was going on is at risk. Even I’m at risk because I put my name here, Your Honor. That’s the safety issue that I have.”
Notably, Jan. 24, the day the man was scheduled to return to Minnesota and be released, is the day CBP agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in south Minneapolis.
The judge replied to Le: “What we really want is simply compliance, because on the other side is someone who should not have been arrested in some cases in the first place, who is being held in jail or handcuffed for days, if not more than a week, after being ordered released.”
Blackwell noted that he has heard of situations where someone ordered for release “is put on the street with only the clothes on their back and they have to figure out how to get back here when they shouldn’t have been arrested here in the first place, let alone fly halfway across the North American continent.”
DHS officials have recorded more than 4,000 arrests under Operation Metro Surge, but the department has not provided hard data to back up the claim, nor has it addressed whether the lawfully present residents repeatedly cited by Blackwell are reflected in that number.
Department of Homeland Security
(Department of Homeland Security)
This story was originally published by Bring Me The News on February 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN News section. Add Bring Me The News as a favorite source by clicking here.