Politico reports:

President Donald Trump’s threat of “retribution” and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s explicit policy demands may be undercutting the federal government’s legal arguments defending its immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

A judge hearing a lawsuit seeking to halt the ongoing surge of thousands of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities repeatedly cited Trump’s and Bondi’s statements Monday as evidence that the massive “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities isn’t aimed solely at enforcing immigration laws. Rather, their comments appear to suggest it is intended to strongarm Minnesota officials into complying with administration policy demands.

“Is the executive trying to achieve a goal through force that it can’t achieve through the courts?” U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez wondered as she weighed a push by Minnesota officials to call off the operation altogether.

Menendez declined to rule on the matter immediately and seemed to agonize over how to draw a line between legitimate federal law enforcement and an unconstitutional incursion on Minnesota’s sovereignty. Complicating the matter were signals of deescalation by Trump, who spoke Monday with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and suggested they were on the same “wavelength” about the way forward.

“Not all crises have a fix from a district court injunction,” the Biden-appointed judge said. “It must be that work is being done elsewhere … not just counting on a single district court issuing a single injunction.”

But the judge faced demands from Minnesota’s leaders to act quickly, in light of the killing Friday of VA nurse Alex Pretti by a federal agent, amid an escalating federal presence.

“We ask the court to issue a [restraining order] today,” said Lindsey Middlecamp, a lawyer for the state. “Not tomorrow. Not next week, but today.”

During the nearly three-hour hearing in Minneapolis federal court, the judge repeatedly focused on Trump’s vow on social media earlier this month to bring “a day of reckoning and retribution” to Minnesota, and on a Saturday letter from Bondi to Walz that appeared to set conditions for the administration to wind down the surge. Lawyers for the state described Bondi’s missive as a “shakedown” and a “ransom note.” [Continue reading…]