Minneapolis, Minnesota - A federal judge delivered a blow Saturday to Minnesota's bid to force ICE to suspend its violent detention and deportation operations in the state.
President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of immigration agents into Minnesota, where they have been terrorizing local communities and even killing US citizens.
But, ruling on Minnesota's bid to obtain a temporary restraining order, federal judge Katherine Menendez wrote that "ultimately, the Court finds that the balance of harms does not decisively favor an injunction."
Minnesota argued that the month-long federal operation violated its sovereignty as a state.
Menendez said she was not making a final judgment on the state's overall case in her decision not to issue a temporary restraining order, something that would follow arguments in court.
She also made no determination on whether the violent federal occupation of the state had broken the law.
The ruling came after tens of thousands protested in Minneapolis and across the nation against ICE and the Trump administration as part of a day of "National Shutdown." the leading target of federal sweeps, said "of course, we're disappointed."
"This decision doesn't change what people here have lived through – fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement.
Justice Department accused of blackmailing Minnesota
Ahead of Saturday's ruling, Hamline University politics and legal studies professor David Schultz said Minnesota was arguing that the federal government was essentially "trying to force or coerce the state into doing certain things."
"Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to the state of Minnesota after Alex Pretti was killed, and said, 'Well, if you want the ICE operations to stop, we want you to do this, this and this.' It kind of read like a threat," Schultz said, referring to a letter in which Bondi demanded Minnesota had over its full voter rolls.
Bondi described Friday's ruling as a "huge" legal win for the Justice Department.
"Neither sanctuary policies nor meritless litigation will stop the Trump Administration from enforcing federal law in Minnesota," she wrote in a post on X.