Minnesota Judge Threatens To Hold ICE Head In Contempt

A federal judge in Minnesota threatened to hold Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons in contempt Monday night, ordering him to appear at court in person.

Chief Judge for the District of Minnesota Patrick Schiltz said that the court’s “patience is at an end” after the administration failed to comply with an order to provide a bond hearing and release an illegal alien.

“This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks,” Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, 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 Ecuadorian citizen at the center of the case, Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, crossed the U.S. border as a minor in 1999 and was detained in early January in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, according to court records. His attorneys notified the court on Friday that Tobay Robles was still detained and had not received a bond hearing, which the judge ordered on Jan. 14.

Schiltz directed Lyons to “appear personally before the Court and show cause why he should not be held in contempt of Court” on Friday.

“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,” he wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request for comment.

“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,” Schiltz wrote. “Respondents have continually assured the Court that they recognize their obligation to comply with Court orders, and that they have taken steps to ensure that those orders will be honored going forward.”