Minnesota and Trump administration clash in court over future of immigration surge lawsuit

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez presided over a dispute between Minnesota and the Trump administration over the state's lawsuit targeting the 2025 Operation Metro Surge. The Justice Department sought dismissal, asserting that Minnesota no longer has legal standing because the large-scale deployment of masked federal agents has been scaled back. Minnesota attorneys, including Heather Robertson and Lindsey Middlecamp, argued that the government could resume the same unlawful actions, pointing to a continued threat, over $600 million in business revenue losses, $240 million in wage losses, and subsequent violent events such as the shootings of Alex Pretti and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

Menendez noted the DOJ's unwillingness to present a mootness argument and warned that allowing the case could permit similar claims to proceed long after the underlying conduct ends. The state is seeking a declaratory judgment that the surge's policies—masked agents, racial profiling, and roving patrols—are unconstitutional, while the federal side maintains that immigration enforcement is a federal power and that the state lacks sufficient proof of political retaliation. The hearing also touched on Homeland Security's revoked "sensitive locations" guidance, which had previously limited enforcement near schools, places of worship, and courthouses.