January 18, 2026
Minnesota Judge's Ruling Against ICE is a Trap
Timothy Birdnow
Here is a Conservative who just doesn't get it.
This was not and is not about the Law, it's about setting a trap to use for PR and political purposes, nothing less.
From American Thinker:
It’s time to read, not react. A leftist judge ordered ICE to not do something. No surprise there. But the actual order is, shall we say, far less than it appears.
The judge recites several accounts of people supposedly being abused by ICE agents. A common thread runs through the stories. ICE was in the field doing its job. During the event, various agitators began interfering with ICE. The events run from stepping within arm’s reach to do video recording to physically attacking officers in the act of arresting an offender. Along the way, there are multiple accounts of resisting arrest.
Some events are uncorroborated, whereas others are documented by video. In short, the common thread is illegal activity by protesters.
By definition, no illegal activity is peaceful. Assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, and interfering with an officer in performance of his duty are all felonies.
But the Left's lawfare warriors will SAY it was peaceful and who is going to argue with them? Certainly not this Biden-appointed judge. No doubt when ICE shoots another person or even pepper sprays them charges will be brought and this judge will issue a contempt citation for ICE and the Administration will eventually win on appeal but that is not the point. This is something designed to gin up the Left, to incite the radicals and give them a false sense of security so they don't stop, and give the media a weapon to use against the Administration. The law doesn't enter ito it.
If it did this judge wouldn't have issued any sort of edict; he would just have pointed out the law is already in place. And if he had examples of lawbreaking he would have said so and forwarded it to the state attorney general.
The article continues:
Judge Mendez ordered that ICE officers in Operation Metro Surge, not the regular ICE officers in Minneapolis, are not allowed to do certain things to "persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” At this point we have to ask how that term is defined by the judge. Is it lawful activity that stays out of the officers’ way and doesn’t warn potential targets that ICE is coming? Or is it like the "mostly peaceful protests” in the George Floyd Summer of Love?
The real problem here is definitions. ICE isn’t supposed to "retaliate’ (Injunction item a). It can’t arrest or detain "persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” Pepper spray, non-lethal munitions, and crowd dispersal tools are forbidden (c). ICE can’t stop or detain drivers or passengers following ICE vehicles without articulable suspicion that they are acting unlawfully. Simply following isn’t enough (d).
On their face, these orders are a nothingburger. The judge is merely ordering ICE to follow the law. And there is very little, if any, evidence that ICE is breaking the law.
This will come down to a parsing of words in Clintonesque fashion "it depends on what the meaning of is is". This judge has essentially set himself up as arbiter of any action taken by ICE to defend itself.
IF as the author states, there is little to no evidence ICE is not following the law why didn't the judge dismiss the case or find in favor of the feds? It's because he wants the order on record so he can meddle with ICE protocols, and can hand an issue to the Democrats.
He cites Justice Kavanaugh and thinks that is the end of it, but he misses the whole point; it's the initial court ruling/rulings that will matter in terms of public opinion and this judge knows it. He knows he'll be overturned if he cites contempt but that is a small price to pay for the political benefits to be derived from it.
I wish our side would learn how this stuff works. It's not what you have but what the enemy thinks you have, to quote Saul Alinsky. The psychological and propaganda factors often trump the legal or moral, at least where politics is concerned.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:22 AM
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