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Left: Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota). Right: President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A top federal judge in Minnesota has reached his limit with the Trump administration, threatening potential criminal contempt charges due to repeated violations of court orders in immigration cases.
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, appointed by George W. Bush, expressed his frustration in a detailed six-page order on Thursday. He highlighted the ongoing issue of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ignoring mandates to conduct bond hearings or release detainees, a problem persisting without resolution.
On the same day in New Jersey, a federal judge criticized the U.S. Attorney’s Office, previously led by Alina Habba, for its “objectively appalling” pattern of disobeying court orders related to mandatory detention cases.
This issue had already been addressed by Schiltz in prior remarks, but was starkly evident when Department of Justice attorneys were reprimanded in Minnesota for failing to comply with directives during “Operation Metro Surge.”
During one hearing, a distressed attorney made headlines by admitting her lack of training to manage the high volume of federal habeas corpus petitions and candidly stating, “this job sucks.”
Schiltz appeared to be sympathetic to the government lawyers contending with astonishing caseloads and resource challenges at an office roiled by mass resignations, but he stated that is no excuse for some 200 violations of court orders and counting.
The judge, noting that the courts themselves continue to “be overwhelmed with the legal work created by Operation Metro Surge,” emphasized that jurists have actually been “extraordinarily patient” and that neither judges nor lawyers “deserve” the “impossible” situation DOJ “superiors” have unleashed.
“The judges of this District have been extraordinarily patient with the government attorneys, recognizing that they have been put in an impossible position by [U.S. Attorney Daniel] Rosen and his superiors in the Department of Justice (leading many of those attorneys—including, unfortunately, Ana Voss—to resign),” Schiltz remarked. “What those attorneys ‘didn’t deserve’ was the Administration sending 3000 ICE agents to Minnesota to detain people without making any provision for handling the hundreds of lawsuits that were sure to follow.”
By Schiltz’s count, ICE has violated 210 court orders, and “[i]f anything is ‘beyond the pale’” it’s that. Not seeing civil contempt threats as sufficient to enforce government compliance, the judge opened the door to criminal contempt — and he is not the first judge to do so.
“The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt—again and again and again—to force the United States government to comply with court orders,” Schiltz added. “This Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law, including, if necessary, moving to the use of criminal contempt. One way or another, ICE will comply with this Court’s orders.”
Read the filing in full here.