AG Ellison: ‘We will continue to protect Minnesotans…We’re not letting up’
Legal and community fight against ICE surge to continue after court denies preliminary injunction; court acknowledges State nonetheless made ‘strong showing that Operation Metro Surge has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences’
January 31, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today released the following statement after a federal court denied a preliminary injunction against the illegal and unconstitutional ICE surge in Minnesota that Attorney General Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul had requested. The lawsuit is ongoing despite the court’s ruling today.
We’re obviously disappointed in the court’s ruling today, but this case is in its infancy and there is much legal road in front of us, so we’re fighting on. We will continue to protect Minnesotans and raise the critical legal and constitutional issues at stake, and we will continue to be unrelenting in doing so. We know that these 3,000 immigration agents are here to intimidate Minnesota and bend the state to the federal government’s will. That is unconstitutional under the Tenth Amendment and the principle of equal sovereignty. We’re not letting up in defending our state's constitutional powers.
Together, we Minnesotans are using every tool we have and can dream of to protect each other during this harmful and dangerous surge. Everyday Minnesotans, small businesses, nonprofits, and others are creating and enacting brilliant and courageous nonviolent, civil-resistance strategies every day. My office and other public offices are adding creative legal strategies that very often are successful, and we will keep using the law in every way we can think of to protect Minnesotans. Many more people are adding their own unheralded actions. Everyone who values their neighbors, communities, and our way of life in our beloved state has something to contribute.
History is on our side and Minnesotans are meeting its call. I will keep matching your bravery.
On January 12, Attorney General Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul filed a federal lawsuit to halt the surge of immigration agents in Minnesota, asserting it is unconstitutional and unlawful, violates the First and Tenth Amendments, the Equal Sovereignty Principle, and the federal Administrative Procedure Act, and is an impermissible pretext for President Trump’s desire to seek political retribution on Minnesota and its leaders. The court held a hearing on State’s and cities’ motion for a preliminary injunction on Monday, January 26, which the court denied today. In denying the injunction, however, the court acknowledged that the State and cities had made a “strong showing” about the harmful impacts of the surge on Minnesota and its people:
Plaintiffs have made a strong showing that Operation Metro Surge has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences on the State of Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minnesotans. Since Operation Metro Surge began, there have been multiple shootings of Minnesota residents by federal immigration enforcement agents. Additionally, there is evidence that ICE and CBP agents have engaged in racial profiling, excessive use of force, and other harmful actions. And Defendants do nothing to refute the negative impacts described by Plaintiffs in almost every arena of daily life, from the expenditure of vast resources in police overtime to a plummeting of students’ attendance in schools, from a delay in responding to emergency calls to extreme hardship for small businesses. It would be difficult to overstate the effect this operation is having on the citizens of Minnesota, and the Court must acknowledge that reality here.
Since January 21, 2025, Attorney General Ellison has filed more than 50 lawsuits against illegal, unconstitutional, and impermissibly punitive attempts by the Trump Administration to deprive the State of funds to which it is legally entitled and deprive Minnesotans of their legal and constitutional rights. The Attorney General’s Office has met with overwhelming success in these cases. This work continues.
