Chief Judge threatens criminal contempt to get ICE to comply with court orders | kare11.com

MINNEAPOLIS — US District Court Chief Judge for Minnesota, Patrick Schiltz, is threatening criminal contempt, saying, "One way or another, ICE will comply with this Court’s orders."

It comes after civil contempt was imposed on two federal lawyers for allegedly ignoring court orders. Both of those cases stem from Operation Metro Surge and people who were seeking to be released from detainment.

At the height of the operation, there were 3,000 federal agents in Minnesota making arrests. Many who were detained filed writs of habeas corpus, which means they wanted the government to prove why they should be held in custody.

Amid these filings, there were also numerous people from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office who resigned. Those still in the office are reportedly overwhelmed with skyrocketing caseloads. In a recent order, a judge noted that one lawyer had nearly 130 cases assigned to him. Another lawyer told a judge, "Sometime(s) I wish you would just hold me in contempt, Your Honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep."

In the new supplemental order issued Thursday, Judge Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, zeroes in on U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, a Donald Trump nominee.

In an earlier critique, Judge Schiltz had written that ICE had violated 96 court orders in 76 cases. Schiltz says that Rosen emailed him, allegedly saying, "Your order was far beyond the pale of accuracy" and that "The lawyers in my civil division didn’t deserve it."

Judge Schilitz recognized there were errors, but didn't hold back in criticizing how Operation Metro Surge was carried out.

"The judges of this District have been extraordinarily patient with the government attorneys, recognizing that they have been put in an impossible position by Rosen and his superiors in the Department of Justice (leading many of those attorneys—including, unfortunately, Ana Voss—to resign)," Judge Schiltz wrote. "What those attorneys 'didn’t deserve' was the Administration sending 3000 ICE agents to Minnesota to detain people without making any provision for handling the hundreds of lawsuits that were sure to follow."

According to Judge Schiltz, there have now been more than 200 orders where ICE officials did not comply.

"Increasingly, this Court has had to resort to using the threat of civil contempt to force ICE to comply with orders. The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt—again and again and again—to force the United States government to comply with court orders.

This Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law, including, if necessary, moving to the use of criminal contempt. One way or another, ICE will comply with this Court’s orders."