Federal judge curbs immigration agents’ crowd-control tactics in Minneapolis

U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez issued an injunction restricting the conduct of hundreds to thousands of federal immigration agents deployed across the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, curbing arrests, vehicle stops and the use of chemical dispersants against peaceful protesters and observers. The roughly 80-83-page order, issued Jan. 16, 2026, requires the Department of Homeland Security to bring its Minneapolis operation into compliance within 72 hours and remains in effect until the recent surge concludes.

The deployment, called Operation Metro Surge and described by DHS as the largest such operation in the agency’s history, was announced nearly two weeks earlier by the federal government. Officials initially reported about 2,000 agents; court filings indicate the surge grew to nearly 3,000 officers drawn from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol operating throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area. That scale of federal involvement has raised questions about resource allocation and potential legal and fiscal liabilities tied to the operation.

Menendez’s injunction draws on First and Fourth Amendment concerns arising from a highly mobile enforcement environment in which small groups of protesters and observers follow agents during arrests and other operations. The order bars federal agents from retaliating against individuals engaged in peaceful, unobstructive protest activity and prohibits arrests or detentions of peaceful demonstrators or orderly observers absent reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. It also bans the use of pepper spray, tear gas, pepper balls and similar nonlethal munitions against peaceful demonstrators and bystanders who are recording or observing enforcement activity.

The opinion further limits vehicle stops and pursuits tied to monitoring agents, preventing federal officers from stopping vehicles that are following or observing enforcement operations so long as those vehicles maintain a safe and appropriate distance and are not committing crimes. Menendez noted that while dangerous conduct by drivers can justify stops or arrests, generalized suspicion that observers will gather dynamically around enforcement actions does not permit broad stops of lawful activity.

The order follows weeks of mounting tensions after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee (Nicole) Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, while she sat behind the wheel during a neighborhood patrol organized to monitor ICE activity. The shooting intensified protests across the Twin Cities and drew sustained criticism from local officials, who said the large federal presence at times outnumbered local police. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey publicly demanded that ICE leave the city and used profane language in his call for removal. Multiple federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned in the aftermath, adding to the political and legal fallout.

Menendez’s ruling echoes recent court limitations imposed in other jurisdictions, where judges found similar crowd-control tactics impermissible when directed at protesters and journalists. The immediate practical question is how DHS and ICE will alter day-to-day operations to meet the 72-hour compliance deadline while maintaining enforcement objectives. The government may seek modification or appeal, which would determine the injunction’s ultimate scope and duration.

Beyond the legal battle, the episode is likely to affect federal enforcement strategy and local-police relations and could carry budgetary implications for DHS as agencies adjust tactics, staffing and potential litigation exposure while investigations into the fatal shooting proceed.