A judge appointed by former President Joe Biden rejected the Minnesota government’s request to end federal immigration enforcement operations in the state Saturday.
Minnesota-based District Judge Katherine M. Menendez, whom Biden appointed to the federal bench in 2021, rejected the request by Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul to immediately remove Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal law enforcement officers from the state. The Democratic-controlled state and city governments sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Jan. 12, arguing then that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “Operation Metro Surge” was unconstitutional.
Ellison’s office and the City of St. Paul did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
Menendez wrote in her ruling that Minnesota and the Twin Cities “have provided no metric by which to determine when lawful law enforcement becomes unlawful commandeering, simply arguing that the excesses of Operation Metro Surge are so extreme that the surge exceeds whatever line must exist,” The New York Times reported.
“A proclamation that Operation Metro Surge has simply gone ‘so far on the other side of the line’ is a thin reed on which to base a preliminary injunction,” the Biden-appointed judge added, according to the outlet.
Even with the decision to deny the injunction sought by Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, however, the case against the Trump administration continues to proceed, National Public Radio (NPR) reported.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, in a Saturday afternoon X post, hailed Menendez’s denial of the Democrats’ requests as a “win for public safety and law and order.”
A Biden-appointed federal judge denied Minnesota’s lawsuit to end Operation Metro Surge.
This is a win for public safety and law and order. These are just a few of the criminal illegal aliens we have arrested in the last week in Minneapolis:
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) January 31, 2026
Noem’s post was the first of a series in which she listed five criminal illegal immigrants arrested by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis the previous week as part of the operation. The immigrants — whom the DHS highlighted in a Thursday press release — are charged with crimes including “terroristic threats,” assault with “a dangerous weapon,” and “criminal sexual conduct” with a minor under the age of 14.
“Of course, we’re disappointed,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place.”
Frey also claimed the operation has “brought the opposite” of public safety, and likened it to an “invasion,” which “needs to stop.”
“Today’s decision is just one step in this lawsuit. The City will continue to pursue the lawsuit to hold the Trump administration to account,” Frey added. “Minneapolis is a welcoming city, where we foster inclusion and safety for all. The whole world has watched as we have become the epicenter of the Trump administration’s ire.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, meanwhile, called Menendez’s denial of the injunction a “HUGE … legal win” in a Saturday post to X.
Another HUGE @TheJusticeDept legal win in Minnesota just now: a Biden-appointed district judge denied Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s attempt to keep ICE out of Minnesota.
Neither sanctuary policies nor meritless litigation will stop the Trump Administration from…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 31, 2026
“Neither sanctuary policies nor meritless litigation will stop the Trump Administration from enforcing federal law in Minnesota,” Bondi declared in her post.
DHS launched Operation Metro Surge in early December 2025 in the aftermath of a massive fraud scandal plaguing Minnesota. The vast majority of those charged were of Somali descent.
In the time since the operation was announced, federal immigration officers fatally shot two individuals, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis — both white American citizens.
DHS referred the DCNF to Noem’s X post when contacted for additional comment.
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