A federal judge in Minnesota issued a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration over how it is handling its crackdown on illegal immigration.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel issued an emergency restraining order on Thursday ordering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately overhaul its policies on detainees at a major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Minneapolis, The Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee, issued the emergency restraining order Thursday, finding detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building faced so many logistical barriers to contacting legal counsel that it was likely the Department of Homeland Security had stepped on their constitutional rights.
The order is temporary, and will last for two weeks unless the judge extends it.
“It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees,” Brasel wrote in the 41-page ruling. She rejected arguments by DHS attorneys that suggested changes to improve access would lead to “chaos.”
“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individual and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights,” she wrote.
Reuters reported that the judge’s ruling was part of a class-action lawsuit challenging “Operation Metro Surge,” a major immigration enforcement campaign in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. DHS sent 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents to the cities to apprehend illegal immigrants.
In a 41-page opinion Judge Brasel argued the government’s conduct violated the Constitution. She said “it appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees.”
She further stated that “the Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”
Brasel slammed the federal government’s arguments as “threadbare” saying DHS “cannot suddenly claim a lack of resources when it comes to safeguarding the constitutional rights of detainees.”
BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 13, 2026
The judge: Trump appointeee Nancy Braselhttps://t.co/lDTJ4oDccg pic.twitter.com/F4RCkyIV18
The judge’s criticism centered on ICE’s practice of swiftly shuffling illegal immigrant detainees out of Minnesota while making it almost impossible for them to contact an attorney. The Advocates for Human Rights presented evidence showing how the agency moved detainees to new locations “quickly, frequently, and without notice,” which left lawyers unable to locate their clients.
Brasel found that the practices “all but extinguish a detainee’s access to counsel,” even though ICE contended that it had no formal policy prohibiting detainees from accessing legal representation.
Under the new order, DHS must allow every detainee at Whipple to contact a lawyer within one hour of being taken into custody, provide a list of legal service providers, ensure free and private phone access with no limit on calls, allow in-person attorney visits seven days a week, and prohibit transfers out of the state for the first 72 hours after an individual is detained. It must also inform detainees where they will be sent and make phones available until they can contact an attorney or family member.
This is not the first time Brasel has ruled against the Trump administration — especially when it comes to immigration enforcement. She joined other federal judges in scrutinizing Operation Metro Surge amid claims of racial profiling, excessive force, and retaliation against protesters, according to NBC News.
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