A federal judge in Minnesota threatened to hold Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons in contempt, arguing the Trump administration failed to comply with an order.
“This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks,” Chief Judge for the District of Minnesota Patrick Schiltz wrote. “The practical consequence of respondents’ failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens (many of whom have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong): The detention of an alien is extended, or an alien who should remain in Minnesota is flown to Texas, or an alien who has been flown to Texas is released there and told to figure out a way to get home.”
The migrant at the center of the case is Ecuadorian Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, who crossed into the United States as a minor in 1999.
“This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” the judge added, gong on to declare, “The Court’s patience is at an end.”
Schiltz then ordered Lyons to “appear personally before the Court and show cause why he should not be held in contempt of Court.”
“The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed,” the judge noted.
