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President Trump has ordered DHS agents to involve themselves “under no circumstances” in protests in Democrat-run cities—except if they are requested to do so or if federal property is in danger.
The President’s announcement follows nearly two months of serious unrest in Minnesota, with thousands of federal immigration agents deployed to the Twin Cities area as part of Operation Metro Surge.
Two activists, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed last month attempting to impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents.
Although the new order is a clear attempt to lower the temperature and de-escalate the situation, in a post on Truth Social President Trump stated that federal agents would respond aggressively to any attempts to damage federal property.
“We will not allow our Courthouses, Federal Buildings, or anything else under our protection, to be damaged in any way, shape, or form,” he posted.
The onus for protecting state and local properties would fall on cities themselves, Trump said, but federal agents would offer help if requested. He added that federal agents would “take care of the situation very easily and methodically.”
On Saturday, a federal judge refused an emergency request from Minnesota to force an end to Operation Metro Surge.
In her ruling on Saturday morning, District Judge Katherine Menendez wrote that the “Court must view Plaintiffs’ claims through the lens of the specific legal framework they invoke, and, having done so, finds that Plaintiffs have not met their burden… the motion is denied.”
“The outcome in this case depends more on the relevant law than the granular facts,” Menendez’s ruling said.
The Plaintiffs argued a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump’s Operation Metro Surge was necessary to ease tensions between residents and federal agents.
The plaintiffs also argued that Operation Metro Surge violated the Tenth Amendment by “commandeering” state power and forced state officials to administer a federal regulatory program.
Minneapolis city attorney Brian Carter suggested a letter Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Gov. Tim Walz was meant to coerce the state into ending its so-called sanctuary policies at the threat of continued deployment of federal agents.
In her letter, Bondi said Minnesota has “refused to enforce the law” and demanded that Walz “restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” share state data on welfare programs, repeal sanctuary policies, and hand over voter rolls to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Although Judge Menendez appeared to agree with the argument of coercion, she came down on the opposite side, ruling that the state’s sanctuary policies meant that a greater level of federal intervention was necessary to uphold federal law.
“Using a surge of executive force against a “sanctuary” jurisdiction to accomplish the same ends is arguably no less coercive than withholding funds, and the Court does not dismiss Plaintiffs’ position as ‘legally frivolous,’ as Defendants suggest it should,” Menendez wrote.
“However, there is also support that cuts the other way.”
She also said there was not enough evidence to support the claim that federal law enforcement agents are committing unlawful actions.
“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 judge said.
