After repeated clashes and deadly shootings, the injunction prevents federal agents from detaining or retaliating against peaceful protesters.
Published on January 17, 2026
A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered United States immigration agents stationed in the state to stop some of the tactics they used against inspectors. protester their enforcement actions.
Tensions have risen over the deployment in Minnesota since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three. Renee Nicole Goodbehind the wheel of her car earlier this month.
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Goode was participating in numerous neighborhood patrols organized by local activists to track and monitor ICE activity.
On Friday, a court order by U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez barred federal agents from retaliating against individuals who engaged in peaceful, undisturbed protest activity.
Authorities were expressly prohibited from arresting or detaining people engaged in peaceful demonstrations or orderly observation unless there was reasonable suspicion that they had committed a crime or interfered. Law enforcement.
The ruling prohibits federal agents from using pepper spray, tear gas or other crowd-control weapons against peaceful demonstrators or people observing and recording immigration enforcement operations.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was given 72 hours to comply with the operation in Minneapolis.
The court ruling won a victory for activists in Minneapolis, the state’s most populous city, two weeks after the Trump administration announced it would deploy 2,000 immigration agents to the area.
Since then, their numbers have grown to nearly 3,000, and local police numbers have dwindled. DHS called it the largest operation in the nation’s history.
Crowds of protesters in Minneapolis have clashed with immigration officials, opposing their efforts to target undocumented immigrants, with some officials responding with violence.
The president made the threat Thursday, amid a growing dispute between Trump and local state and city leaders Sedition ActHe was allowed to deploy troops to protest.
“If I need it, I’ll use it. I don’t think there’s any reason to use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the move.
The Sedition Act allows the president to set aside the 19th-century Posse Comitatus Act, which removes the military from regular civilian law enforcement, suppresses “armed rebellion” or “domestic violence” and deploys troops on US soil “as he may deem necessary.”