GOP Judge GOES NUCLEAR and Threatens to JAIL ICE - Legal AF

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Attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian break down Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz's escalating showdown with ICE in Minnesota. Schiltz — a Bush appointee — has documented 210 violations of court orders across 143 cases during Operation Metro Surge.

When Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen emailed to dispute the numbers, Schiltz had every judge and law clerk in the district verify — and the count went up. He wrote that he's "not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States" where a court has had to threaten contempt "again and again and again" to force the government to comply. Now he's signaling a move from civil contempt — fines — to criminal contempt, meaning potential jail time.

The judge pointedly blamed leadership, not line attorneys, writing that what DOJ lawyers "didn't deserve" was 3,000 ICE agents sent to Minnesota without any plan for the hundreds of lawsuits sure to follow.

Meanwhile, Judge Jeffrey Bryan has ordered a separate contempt hearing after ICE released detainees without their belongings — cash, phones, passports, even shoes — in 28 cases. - 03/08/2026.