Don't Look Away From Minnesota
Main stream media moved on. 96 court-order violations. $259 million in frozen healthcare. A contempt ruling. And a drawdown that wasn't what they said it was.
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SUMMARY
The administration announced a drawdown in Minnesota. But 96 court-order violations remain on the record. A federal judge held a government attorney in contempt. Fewer than 1,000 agents remain, not zero. The administration just froze $259.5 million in Medicaid funding to the state. A new federal lawsuit alleges observers are being labeled "domestic terrorists". And a whistleblower says ICE gutted its training program.
In late January, Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee who clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, took what he called an “extraordinary step.” He ordered the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, to appear in his courtroom and explain why the agency should not be held in contempt of court.
Schiltz then attached a document to his order. It listed 96 court orders that ICE had violated in 74 cases just in the month of January 2026. He wrote that the list was “hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges” and that the extent of noncompliance was “almost certainly substantially understated.” Reason collected links to all 74 cases from the appendix.
A conservative federal judge compiled an actual, court-filed appendix documenting nearly one hundred instances in which the federal government ignored what the judiciary told it to do.
These were orders…
Release this person,
Provide a bond hearing.
Do not move this detainee out of state.
ICE moved people anyway…
Transfers out of state including to Texas have come up repeatedly in habeas litigation and court orders throughout the operation, with judges documenting cases where detainees were moved in direct violation of orders to keep them in Minnesota.
On February 3, Judge Jerry W. Blackwell stated from the bench that the “overwhelming majority” of people brought before him by ICE were lawfully present in the United States. Not undocumented or criminal threats. In the same hearing, reported extensively by ABC News, an overwhelmed DHS attorney told the judge she had received no guidance or training when she arrived and that getting responses from ICE on judicial orders was like “pulling teeth.”
And just this past week, Judge Laura Provinzino held a specific government attorney, a military lawyer on special assignment with the Department of Justice, in civil contempt for failing to comply with her court order in a habeas case.
According to court filings, ICE had released the detainee in Texas without returning any of his identification documents, including a Minnesota driver’s license and a Mexican consular ID. When the judge demanded an explanation nearly a week later, the attorney told her his office was overwhelmed by the volume of cases and acknowledged that “the ball was dropped.” The contempt finding carried a $500-per-day enforcement mechanism until compliance, and was lifted after the government returned the documents.
The U.S. Attorney’s response to the contempt ruling was to call it “a lawless abuse of judicial power.”
This is the constitutional friction playing out in Minnesota. This is the executive branch treating judicial orders as optional and the structure of this constitutional governance is not functioning as it was intended.
The “Drawdown” That Wasn’t Quite What They Said
On February 4, White House border czar Tom Homan announced that 700 agents would leave Minnesota immediately. Media coverage largely framed this as the beginning of the end. Some outlets used headlines suggesting the operation was “over.”
As of this week, MPR News reports fewer than 1,000 immigration agents remain in Minnesota. New court filings from sworn affidavits by top ICE and CBP regional officials confirm that thousands of federal agents were assigned to Operation Metro Surge at various points what DHS itself called its largest enforcement operation ever. The drawdown has been significant, but “fewer than 1,000” is not 0. And observers on the ground, including legal observers tracked by ICEOut.org, continue to report enforcement activity in suburbs like Shakopee, Coon Rapids, Columbia Heights, and Burnsville even as the Twin Cities metro has quieted somewhat.
CBS Minnesota reported that despite official drawdown announcements, observers on the streets say they still have plenty of sightings. In Coon Rapids, a legal observer described masked agents in tactical gear and out-of-state plates surrounding her vehicle after she witnessed a man being handcuffed.
Organizers from Unidos Minnesota have publicly stated that ICE activity has shifted outward, toward communities where there are fewer legal observers and fewer cameras. As one organizer told MPR News this week, families are still sheltering in place, and some have been in their homes for three months. On the very day Homan announced the drawdown, rapid response networks reported ongoing ICE presence in Shakopee from morning until late evening.
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Now They’re Coming for the Healthcare
Yesterday Vice President JD Vance stood at the White House alongside CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and announced that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” $259.5 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.
The stated reason is fraud. The administration pointed to 14 Medicaid programs it says carry a high risk of misuse, including autism care and non-medical transportation. Axios reported that CMS’s review of one quarter of Minnesota’s Medicaid spending flagged $243.8 million in what it described as “potentially fraudulent” claims and $15.4 million in claims for individuals without satisfactory immigration status.
Minnesota has 60 days to submit a corrective action plan. The administration warned that similar freezes could hit other states.
Congress appropriates Medicaid funding, and the federal reimbursement structure is governed by statute. The federal government reimburses states for Medicaid expenditures after those expenditures are made meaning Minnesota’s healthcare providers have already delivered the care and the state has already paid them. What the administration is now withholding is the federal share of that bill.
When Vance was asked about the legal authority to do this, he said he felt “quite confident” they could but declined to provide specifics. He was similarly vague about what Minnesota would actually need to do to get the funding released.
It’s also worth noting what the administration didn’t mention, that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office has been actively investigating Medicaid fraud. On the same day as the Vance announcement, Ellison held a press conference to promote bipartisan legislation that would give his office additional staff and legal tools to combat fraud. The state’s position is that it has been engaged in more than a year of intensive anti-fraud work that the federal government chose to ignore.
Governor Tim Walz called the freeze political punishment. He posted on X that the action “has nothing to do with fraud,” adding that “the agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His DOJ is gutting the U.S. Attorney’s Office and crippling their ability to prosecute fraud. And every week Trump pardons another fraudster.”
Medicaid serves approximately 1.2 million Minnesotans, roughly one in four residents. These are low-income families, people with disabilities, veterans, children. Withholding $259.5 million from the program that keeps them insured looks and feels like political punishment. It’s the difference between a child getting an autism evaluation and waiting indefinitely. It’s the difference between a veteran accessing long-term care and that falling through the cracks.
Observers Are Being Called “Domestic Terrorists”
While the legal and financial battles escalated, a new federal class-action lawsuit filed this week by the legal nonprofit Protect Democracy alleges that DHS agents are retaliating against people who lawfully observe and record federal immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit grew out of a viral video from Portland, Maine, in which a woman observing an enforcement operation asked a federal agent why he was collecting her information. The agent’s response, captured on camera: “Cause we have a nice little database. And now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”
DHS has denied that any such database exists. In a statement to NPR, the agency said it “monitors and investigates” threats and obstruction but that its methods follow the Constitution.
If agents were lying about the database to intimidate observers into silence, that would constitute unconstitutional retaliation against protected speech. And if the database does exist, the government is surveilling citizens for exercising their rights.
In Minnesota specifically, dozens of people submitted sworn declarations to the ACLU stating they were told by federal agents that filming enforcement operations was illegal, that they were interfering, or that they were impeding, none of which is accurate when observers maintain a safe distance, according to the ACLU’s senior staff attorney for speech and privacy.
It’s also worth noting that after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota last month… Renée Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24, senior DHS and administration officials publicly labeled both of them “domestic terrorists” in early statements following their deaths. A memo issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi in December classified “doxing” of law enforcement as domestic terrorism. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters that “videotaping” agents conducting operations constitutes a threat to their safety.
The ICE Training Cuts
A former ICE assistant chief counsel named Ryan Schwank, who resigned on February 13 after nearly five years with the agency, testified before congressional Democrats this week. He described watching ICE dismantle its officer training program over the past five months, cutting approximately 240 hours from a 584-hour curriculum. The courses eliminated, according to Schwank, included instruction on the Constitution, the legal system, firearms training (This might explain why they keep accidentally shooting themselves), use of force, lawful arrest procedures, proper detention, and the limits of officers’ authority. DHS has disputed this characterization, saying officers still receive comprehensive training and that the program was streamlined without cutting subject matter.
Internal training documents obtained by CBS News show that the program was reduced from 72 days to 42, with specific reductions in use-of-force coursework. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons previously told Congress the calendar was shortened by moving to longer training days, a claim Schwank directly challenged in his testimony.
Two U.S. citizens have been killed by federal agents in Minnesota. A man's skull was fractured in multiple places during an ICE arrest, and the FBI has opened an investigation. A conservative federal judge documented more court-order violations in a single month than some agencies accumulate in their entire existence. And the agency responsible for all of it is training its officers less.
Reducing constitutional training for federal agents while expanding their enforcement authority is not a policy choice that inspires confidence in due process.
The Minnesota Media Suppression
Minnesota events, stories, and voices are being siloed. When stories are siloed, people don’t see the through-line. What has happened is that Minnesota has become the testing-ground for when the federal government deploys large enforcement resources to a state, treats court orders as optional, labels observers as threats, and when the political heat gets too hot announces a “drawdown” while simultaneously freezing healthcare funding.
Minnesota Still Needs Us
Families are still sheltering in place, afraid to go to work or send their children to school. The superintendent of Fridley Public Schools described to members of Congress this week the toll ICE operations have taken on her district. Court orders are still being violated. Medicaid funding that serves over a million people is frozen. And the legal structure that’s supposed to check executive power is being called “lawless” by the people who are breaking the law.
This is the kind of crisis that needs our sustained attention, legal defense funding, court-watching, and the stubborn act of refusing to let Minnesota quietly get pushed out of the algorithm.
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How to Support Minnesotans and Stop ICE from Murdering More Americans
Supporting Minnesota community during ICE operations
Minnesota Freedom Fund Resources for ice interactions
SAVE THE DATE: MARCH 28 2026
If you missed the announcement: ANNOUNCEMENT: The Next NO KINGS Mobilization. If you’re organizing locally: How to Organize a Protest.
Do you think Minnesota is being suppressed by media and algorithms? Have you seen these covered widely in your feed or only if you actively searched for it?
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
-Frederick Douglass
On 2/25 in a suburb of Mpls I saw 8 shiny black SUVs at a gas station at 7am. Undoubtedly they are ICE on another unconstitutional mission.
Let’s all keep Minnesota on our radar. Minneapolis/Saint Paul people have given us brilliant examples of how to meet this crisis of humanity and push back against a corrupt regime- through compassion and collective empathy.