Court system 'chaos' as judges say Trump officials make it hard to 'keep up with it all'

After targeting Los Angeles and Chicago for militarized immigration raids, the Trump administration carried out an even more draconian strategy in Minneapolis — where two U.S. citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot (Good by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross, Pretti by Border Patrol agents). The Trump administration defended the shootings, while critics argue that Good and Pretti would still be alive had the officers not used excessive force.

In an article published on February 5, New York Times reporters Alan Feuer, Mattathias Schwartz and Zach Montague emphasize that courts in Minnesota are being overwhelmed by the Trump administration's immigration policies.

The journalists explain, "The turmoil in the courts has demoralized prosecutors, outraged judges, exhausted defense lawyers — and left many immigrants languishing in detention in violation of court orders…. Last week, Patrick J. Schiltz, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, excoriated the (Trump) administration for what he said were nearly 100 violations of court orders stemming from the Homeland Security Department's aggressive crackdown in Minneapolis, which has led to the fatal shootings of two protesters at the hands of federal agents. But a growing chorus of judges around the country have also raised concerns about the wave of cases brought on by the government's immigration raids."

According to Feuer, Schwartz and Montague, the "situation has been particularly acute in Minnesota" because "hundreds of immigrants have been arrested in recent weeks."

"Paschal O. Nwokocha, an immigration lawyer in the state, said he and his staff had fought for weeks to keep track of their clients, refreshing an ICE detainee tracker for updates on their whereabouts," the Times journalists report. "In one instance, he watched a client sent to El Paso via Torrance County, NM, after a judge had ordered his release and return to Minnesota. After the man was returned more than a week later, Judge John R. Tunheim noted that the government had 'willfully violated the court's orders' in failing to send the man back to Minnesota in time for a hearing."

"Judge Blackwell blamed overreach by the Trump administration for this chaos and confusion, saying that officials had failed to put enough legal 'infrastructure' in place to 'keep up with it all,'" the Times reports.

Feuer, Schwartz and Montague report, "When agencies like the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement ignore judicial orders to release immigrants under their control, Judge Blackwell said, it is an affront not merely to personal liberty, but to the entire criminal justice system."