A Minnesota federal judge on Saturday declined to order a halt to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis, in a lawsuit by state officials accusing federal agents of widespread civil rights abuses.
US District Judge Kate Menendez in Minneapolis handed down the ruling. The lawsuit by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sought to block or rein in a US Department of Homeland Security operation that sent thousands of immigration agents to Minneapolis-St. Paul, sparking weeks of protests and leading to the killings of two US citizens by federal agents.
Trump said on Saturday that he has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to “under no circumstances” get involved with protests in Democratic-led cities unless they ask for federal help or federal property is threatened.
Menendez was appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden.
Menendez noted the federal appeals court recently stayed a much narrower injunction curtailing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics in Minnesota. “If that injunction went too far, then the one at issue here — halting the entire operation — certainly would,” she wrote.
State alleges racial profiling, unlawful detainment
The lawsuit accused federal agents of racially profiling citizens, unlawfully detaining lawful residents for hours and stoking fear with heavy-handed tactics. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, an elected Democrat, also accused the Trump administration of targeting Minnesota out of animus for its Democratic political leanings.
The Trump administration said the operation was aimed at enforcing federal immigration laws pursuant to the Republican president’s policies. Some administration officials said the surge would end if Minnesota acquiesced to certain demands, including ending legal protections for people living in the US without legal authorization.
“We’re obviously disappointed in the court’s ruling today, but this case is in its infancy and there is much legal road in front of us, so we’re fighting on,” Ellison said in a statement.
Tensions in Minneapolis-St. Paul ramped up after the January 7 killing of Renee Good, who was shot in her car by a federal immigration agent in an incident captured in widely circulated bystander videos. The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on January 24 further inflamed tensions.
The Trump administration defended the agents, saying they had acted in self-defense. But videos of the events cast doubt on those narratives and fueled calls for the agents to be criminally prosecuted. Federal authorities refused to cooperate with local law enforcement investigations of the killings.
Trump and Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said they spoke on Monday and had a productive conversation about de-escalating tensions.
Trump has deployed federal law enforcement officers into several cities and states largely governed by Democrats, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon. He said his actions were necessary to enforce immigration laws and control crime, but Democrats accused Trump of abusing his powers as the top federal law enforcer.
But comments by Trump on Saturday suggested that federal law enforcement deployments will only happen in the future if cities request it.
“If they want help, they have to ask for it,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. “Because if we go in, all they do is complain.”
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US judge declines to halt Trump’s Minnesota immigration agent surge
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US judge declines to halt Trump’s Minnesota immigration agent surge
- State officials’ lawsuit accused federal agents of illegal activities
- Ruling came amid protests in Minneapolis over immigration clampdown
Ukraine accuses Hungary, Slovakia of ‘blackmail’ over threats to cut electricity
KYIV: Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as “ultimatums and blackmail” by the governments of Hungary and Slovakia on Saturday, after they threatened to stop electricity supplies to Ukraine unless Kyiv restarts flows of Russian oil.
Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off since January 27, when Kyiv says a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday that he would cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine within two days unless Kyiv resumes Russian oil transit to Slovakia over Ukraine’s territory. Hungary’s Viktor Orban made a similar threat days earlier.
The issue has become one of the angriest disputes yet between Ukraine and two neighbors that are members of the EU and NATO but whose leaders have bucked the largely pro-Ukrainian consensus in Europe to cultivate warm ties with Moscow.
Slovakia and Hungary are the only two EU countries that still rely on significant amounts of Russian oil shipped via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline over Ukraine.
“Ukraine rejects and condemns the ultimatums and blackmail by the governments of Hungary and the Slovak Republic regarding energy supplies between our countries,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Ultimatums should be sent to the Kremlin, and certainly not to Kyiv.”
HUNGARY, SLOVAKIA ARE KEY FOR UKRAINE’S ELECTRICITY IMPORTS
Between them, Hungary and Slovakia have been providing around half of European emergency electricity exports to Ukraine, which Kyiv increasingly relies on as Russian attacks have damaged its grid.
“If oil supplies to Slovakia are not resumed on Monday, I will ask SEPS, the state-owned joint-stock company, to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine,” Fico said in a post on X.
Kyiv said that such actions were “provocative, irresponsible, and threaten the energy security of the entire region.”
Throughout the war that began with the full-scale Russian invasion whose fourth anniversary falls on Tuesday, Ukraine has allowed its territory to be used for Russian energy exports to Europe, which have been sharply curtailed but not halted.
Ukraine has proposed alternative transit routes to ship oil to Europe while emergency pipeline repair works are under way.
In a letter seen by Reuters, the Ukrainian mission to the EU proposed shipments through Ukraine’s oil transportation system or a maritime route, potentially including the Odesa-Brody pipeline linking Ukraine’s main Black Sea port to the EU.
Since October last year, Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, knocking out electricity and heat and plunging millions of Ukrainians into long blackouts during bitterly cold winter temperatures.
Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off since January 27, when Kyiv says a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday that he would cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine within two days unless Kyiv resumes Russian oil transit to Slovakia over Ukraine’s territory. Hungary’s Viktor Orban made a similar threat days earlier.
The issue has become one of the angriest disputes yet between Ukraine and two neighbors that are members of the EU and NATO but whose leaders have bucked the largely pro-Ukrainian consensus in Europe to cultivate warm ties with Moscow.
Slovakia and Hungary are the only two EU countries that still rely on significant amounts of Russian oil shipped via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline over Ukraine.
“Ukraine rejects and condemns the ultimatums and blackmail by the governments of Hungary and the Slovak Republic regarding energy supplies between our countries,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Ultimatums should be sent to the Kremlin, and certainly not to Kyiv.”
HUNGARY, SLOVAKIA ARE KEY FOR UKRAINE’S ELECTRICITY IMPORTS
Between them, Hungary and Slovakia have been providing around half of European emergency electricity exports to Ukraine, which Kyiv increasingly relies on as Russian attacks have damaged its grid.
“If oil supplies to Slovakia are not resumed on Monday, I will ask SEPS, the state-owned joint-stock company, to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine,” Fico said in a post on X.
Kyiv said that such actions were “provocative, irresponsible, and threaten the energy security of the entire region.”
Throughout the war that began with the full-scale Russian invasion whose fourth anniversary falls on Tuesday, Ukraine has allowed its territory to be used for Russian energy exports to Europe, which have been sharply curtailed but not halted.
Ukraine has proposed alternative transit routes to ship oil to Europe while emergency pipeline repair works are under way.
In a letter seen by Reuters, the Ukrainian mission to the EU proposed shipments through Ukraine’s oil transportation system or a maritime route, potentially including the Odesa-Brody pipeline linking Ukraine’s main Black Sea port to the EU.
Since October last year, Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, knocking out electricity and heat and plunging millions of Ukrainians into long blackouts during bitterly cold winter temperatures.
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