U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez pressed attorneys for Minnesota and the Justice Department on Monday about the state’s claims that federal government violated the Tenth Amendment by surging Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to Minneapolis.
Lindsey Middlecamp, a special counsel at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, reportedly described ICE’s deployment as an “unlawful occupation” at the outset of the hearing.
She argued that the the administration of President Donald Trump is using the ICE deployment to pressure the state on policy.
“They are not letting the courts work this stuff out,” Middlecamp said, according to Politico’s Kyle Cheney. “What they’re trying to get in court … they’re trying to get that same thing by putting 3,000 heavily armed agents on the streets of Minnesota.”
As evidence of alleged coercion, the state’s attorneys presented a Jan. 24 letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, to consider three major policy changes.
Bondi urged him to share Minnesota’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs with the federal government; to repeal “sanctuary” policies restricting state and local law enforcement from assisting federal officers; and to allow the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to access voter rolls to confirm Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal laws.