“Previous cases we got good settlements for people and there’s even a permanent injunction against Nobles County for holding someone for ICE,” Granse said.

Granse did not respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital.

ACLU attorney Alicia Granse wrote, “Speaking of ICE… We at ACLU-MN are interested in protecting people from their presence at courthouses and at jails.” (Handout)

Local officials are under no obligation to coordinate with federal officials insofar as holding illegal immigrants based on a detainer.

A January memo from ICE states that “generally, ICE’s immigration enforcement actions in our near courthouses include actions against targeted aliens,” including gang members, national security or public safety threats, those with prior criminal convictions, those who have been ordered to be removed from the United States “but have failed to depart,” and those who illegally re-entered the country after being previously deported.

ICE agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago on Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital the “emails suggest that the sole reason for converting hearings into virtual appearances is to evade ICE enforcement,” which “will raise a serious legal question over the proper use of court resources and orders.”

“There is a legitimate debate over whether ICE should target those seeking judicial review in their cases,” Turley said. “Few immigrants will want to risk a hearing if they will be detained as a cost of appearing. However, if ICE has a right to access, the use of virtual hearings to prevent federal authorities could cross the Rubicon for some judges as an improper use of federal authority to deter federal enforcement.”

“If there is a legal impediment for ICE to appear at hearings, the parties should ask for a court order of protection and allow the matter to be reviewed by appellate courts,” Turley added.

Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital the MACDL emails “will raise a serious legal question over the proper use of court resources and orders.” (Fox News)

As of publication, officials have not taken any legal action stemming from the emails on the grounds that the correspondence represents an active effort to frustrate law enforcement, and none of the MACDL members who sent the aforementioned emails have been charged with any crime.

A subsection of Title 8 makes it illegal to harbor illegal immigrants. Specifically, Title 8, U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) “makes it an offense for any person who – knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.”

Another subsection of the same law “expressly makes it an offense to engage in a conspiracy to commit or aid or abet the commission of” harboring an illegal immigrant.

Additionally, 18 U.S.C. § 1346 makes it an offense to “scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” Honest services fraud involves “the misuse of an individual’s position or authority for personal gain or advantage,” according to Eisner Gorin LLP. “It can be committed by public officials, corporate officers, and private individuals with fiduciary duties to another person or entity.”

The Department of Homeland Security logo is seen during a news conference in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

In 2019, charges were filed against Massachusetts Judge Shelley Joseph, who was accused of impeding the federal arrest of an illegal immigrant defendant in her courtroom. Prosecutors dropped the charges in 2022 after Trump left office, but the scrutiny did not end there. The Massachusetts Judicial Conduct Commission filed an ethics complaint against Joseph in 2024, according to Reuters.

While none of the MACDL members who sent the emails responded to Fox News Digital, the association sent an email to members following Fox’s inquiries, stating: “The author(s) of the email(s) did not consent to having their statements or advice disseminated beyond our organization and are now being asked for comment for a story. We are angered and feel betrayed on behalf of the impacted people.”

Trump’s recent immigration-related executive orders include declaring a national emergency at the border, halting refugee resettlement, ordering a removal process without asylum and border wall reconstruction, and deploying the military to the border.

As of Jan. 31, ICE has arrested 7,412 illegal immigrants and placed nearly 6,000 ICE detainers on individuals believed to be in the country illegally.