The Hidden Habeas Horror Show in Minnesota

It is impossible to overstate how egregious the processes being used in Operation Metro Surge are. 

No, I am not referring to the behavior of ICE or the Border Patrol. I am referring to the interference of the federal courts, the state government, the mayors, the police departments, and the lawlessness of politicians, and the professional and volunteer protesters.

My friend Bill Glahn, of the think tank American Experiment, points out something that few people have missed: despite all the effort put into catching the criminal aliens by federal law enforcement, the federal District Court based in Minneapolis has created a revolving door, allowing most of the criminals caught to get right back out onto the street. 

We have reached 700 habeas corpus cases in Minnesota in just one month. That’s one filed every hour of every day.

I’m at my wits end. We have the entire judicial branch of government working on behalf of illegal aliens and doing nothing else.https://t.co/cJI3yafnLb

— Bill Glahn (@billglahn) February 5, 2026

So much for all that “kidnapping.” There is such a large, well-funded (often by taxpayer dollars!) legal infrastructure mobilized to support illegal aliens, and such a great deal of sympathy on the part of liberal federal judges, that it is almost impossible to hold onto criminal illegal aliens who have been arrested at great cost and danger to the lives of law enforcement and civilians. 

I guess liberals are right when they say our criminal justice system needs reform. They have it all wrong on what reforms are necessary, of course. They seem to believe that when they say “Nobody is above the law,” that every criminal is named “Nobody,” which means he is above the law. 

“The system sucks. This job sucks.” — Wild quote from a government attorney trying to help U.S. Attorney’s Office with cases after she was called on the carpet by a federal judge who’s angry his orders to release unlawfully detained immigrants are not being followed. pic.twitter.com/tgiPMyG0XO

— Lou Raguse (@LouNewsMan) February 3, 2026

The way things are being spun in the press is that the Trump administration is unlawfully holding illegal aliens who have been detained because the court approves nearly all habeas corpus petitions; the problem is that the courts are releasing detainees so fast that law enforcement cannot process the paperwork fast enough to keep up. The judges are literally releasing criminals faster than law enforcement can keep up, and the judges keep dinging them for not doing the impossible. 

That, too, is another front in the propaganda war, where judges who often get overturned later in the process, after they do all the damage they can, keep up the pressure on the feds. It is the Judge Boasberg strategy writ large. 

It’s taken its toll on the process. Imagine being a federal attorney or law enforcement officer, having all your work undermined by lawless judges whose main goal is to muck up the works, in concert with a political environment that keeps talking about civil war, activists threatening to kill or poison you, and efforts to make sure that you have no quiet place even to sleep. 

This morning, we hit the 700 mark in the number of habeas corpus cases filed in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota for 2026. Over the 30 “business” days of the year, so far, that works out to more than 23 cases filed per day. That’s one case filed, every hour, seven days per week.

If anything, the pace of filings is accelerating.

The habeas cases all seek the release of one or more illegal aliens held by ICE. They are nearly always successful. As “emergency” filings, judges order release based just on the word of the detainee’s lawyer. And as we recently found out, there are no longer any lawyers on the other side representing ICE, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the federal government, and the people.

It appears that the last lawyer still working these cases on behalf of the DOJ, named Julie Le, underwent an epic meltdown in open court earlier this week.

You would think that having no opposition would be good news for detainees seeking release. Wrong again. From CNN,

Trump admin attorney leaves Minnesota after telling judge her job ‘sucks’ amid crush of immigration cases

Ms. Le had been on loan from ICE to help DOJ with the crush of habeas cases in Minnesota. She has returned to her previous post.

CNN quotes Le,

And, yes, procedure in place right now sucks. I’m trying to fix it. I am here with you, your honor. What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.

There you have it, with 700 cases to process, Ms. Le’s job was no longer to represent the people, to undertake an independent review of the merits of each case. She was spending 24 hours a day expediting the release of detainees through ICE. As an officer of the court, her job became working for the plaintiffs, not in opposition to them. With Ms. Le gone, there is no one left to expedite the release of detainees. With Ms. Le gone, there is no one left to even receive the orders for release.

And for her troubles, she was threatened daily with contempt of court and imprisonment, for not working fast enough to gain the release of unvetted aliens.

You could make a movie called Minnesota Burning, after the 1988 film Mississippi Burning. In it, the federal agents would be portrayed as the bad guys, and Antifa, ICE Watch, and the local politicians who impede them would be portrayed as the heroes. 

The whole point of the judicial system in Minnesota seems to be exhausting the federal government’s lawyers and then punishing them for being unable to keep up with the revolving door the District Court has created. 

In an extraordinarily candid exchange with a federal judge on Tuesday, Le, who had been asked to explain why the administration was not promptly complying with a slew of court orders stemming from immigration cases she’s handling, admitted that the government did not have enough lawyers on the ground to adequately keep up with Operation Metro Surge and that trying to get errors fixed is like “pulling teeth.”

“They are overwhelmed and they need help, so I, I have to say, stupidly (volunteered),” she told US District Judge Jerry Blackwell, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by CNN. Blackwell is threatening to hold her and another lawyer in contempt for repeated violations of orders he’s issued in immigration cases.

“Sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep. I work days and night just because people (are) still in there,” Le said.

No wonder Bill Glahn is at wits’ end. We all are by now. 

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