US Appeals Judge's ICE Restrictions Ruling in Minneapolis

Lawyers for the Trump administration said on Monday that they were appealing a judge’s injunction that imposed limits on immigration agents’ interactions with protesters in Minnesota. In a short notice filed on Monday with the judge who issued the preliminary injunction last week, Justice Department lawyers said they would challenge those limits at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The lawsuit that led to the injunction claimed that federal law enforcement officers had repeatedly violated the rights of protesters who observed or recorded immigration enforcement actions or voiced opposition to those actions. In her injunction, handed down on Friday, Judge Kate M. Menendez of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota ordered agents not to retaliate against people “engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,” and not to use pepper spray or other “crowd dispersal tools” in retaliation for protected speech. The judge also said agents could not stop or detain protesters in vehicles who were not “forcibly obstructing or interfering with” agents. Judge Menendez, who was nominated to the bench by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., did not give the plaintiffs everything they had sought in the injunction. She did not include specific protection for the recording of agents, nor did she impose rules about how agents issue dispersal orders. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the appeal. Though a notice of appeal was filed with the district court, the full text of the appeal was not immediately available from the Eighth Circuit. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on Friday in a statement responding to Judge Menendez’s injunction that “D.H.S. is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.” Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.