On January 12th, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison along with the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over Operation Metro Surge – a 3,000 agent immigration and fraud investigative effort in Minnesota. Ellison simultaneously demanded a preliminary injunction forcing the federal government stop the enforcement activity while the lawsuit was litigated.
Today, in a rare Saturday release of a court ruling, US District Court Judge Katherine Menendez denied Ellison’s demand for an injunction saying the state hadn’t proven its sovereignty was infringed upon enough to justify such a “staggering remedy.” The ruling ends that issue but the broader lawsuit remains active. The federal government has argued that Ellison’s claims are “legally frivolous.”
Ellison’s action marked the 43rd lawsuit he has filed against the Trump Administration in the first year of President Trump’s second term. I penned a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune at the time the lawsuit was filed, but the paper declined to print it. In it I noted that this level of legal activity bordered on obsession, especially in light of the massive amounts of fraud that had been allowed to occur in our state-run Medicaid programs – fraud for which it’s been noted that Ellison’s office did far too little, too late to prevent.
In a separate lawsuit filed earlier this month by the ACLU, Judge Menendez had ordered that federal agents operating in the Operation Metro Surge could no longer use pepper spray and less lethal munitions against “peaceful” protestors. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Menendez’s ruling on January 21st, saying her ruling was an overstep of her authority and “too vague.”
Judge Menendez cited the 8th Circuit’s ruling in the ACLU case as some of her reasoning for denying Ellison’s demand for a preliminary injunction.
“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry or injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government.”
US District Court Judge Katherine Menendez
These developments mean the federal government will continue to press on with it’s immigration enforcement effort. Earlier this week, President Trump had assigned his Border Czar Tom Homan to oversee the effort going forward. That move showed some promise this week, with state and local officials including Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison siting down with Homan to work through concerns.
According to DHS, Operation Metro Surge has resulted in over 3,000 arrests for immigration violations in Minnesota since December 1st, 2025.
