Politico reports:

The top federal judge in Minnesota tore into Justice Department leaders Thursday and threatened potential criminal consequences for officials who he said were continuing to violate court orders at a historic clip amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push.

“This Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law, including, if necessary, moving to the use of criminal contempt,” said Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz in a message posted on the docket of an immigration case he is presiding over. “One way or another, ICE will comply with this Court’s orders.”

The George W. Bush appointee said he and his colleagues on the federal bench in Minnesota had begun routinely threatening to hold administration officials in civil contempt — threatening monetary fines — in order to force compliance with their orders in the hundreds of emergency lawsuits brought by people who said they had been illegally detained by ICE.

“The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt — again and again and again — to force the United States government to comply with court orders,” Schiltz said. [Continue reading…]