Federal judges in Minnesota are overwhelmed with cases stemming from Operation Metro Surge.

Another judge, Trump appointee Eric Tostrud, issued a restraining order on Saturday requiring the Trump administration to preserve evidence gathered from the scene of Alex Pretti’s shooting death. He is also weighing a class action lawsuit against racial profiling during the surge. Tostrud’s docket has been deluged with individual immigration cases for weeks, and he has ruled in every one of them that the administration had been illegally detaining people targeted for deportation without the opportunity for bond hearings.

The massive workload facing Minnesota judges may actually understate the impact of Operation Metro Surge: Department of Homeland Security officials have been quickly transferring some detainees out of state — often to deportation staging areas in Texas — which prevents them from filing for relief in Minnesota courts.

That was the case in another petition handled by Davis, who expressed shock at the administration’s treatment of a Burmese woman with three children, including a five-month-old baby, and a heart condition. The woman, who was admitted as a refugee in 2024, was abruptly moved to Texas after her Jan. 10 arrest. Davis ordered her return on Friday.

“There is simply no legal reason for keeping this mother 1800 miles away from her children,” the Clinton appointee said. “While the Court recognizes that many families are suffering due to … ICE actions in the District of Minnesota, there is something particularly craven about transferring a nursing refugee mother out-of-state.”

In a Saturday ruling, U.S. District Judge John Gerrard — a Nebraska-based judge helping Minnesota work through its crowded docket — ordered the release of a pregnant woman apprehended on her way to work, as well as her husband and two minor sons. The Trump administration signaled it was “attempting to locate” the family, and Gerrard gave them until Monday night to comply.

A second visiting judge, Missouri-based Stephen Bough, threatened contempt sanctions against the administration for sending a woman out of state despite his order to keep her in Minnesota.

The most common challenge raised by ICE’s targets is that they have been detained without due process — often arrested without a warrant and without the opportunity for bond hearings to remain released while deportation proceedings are pending. Judges across the country have overwhelmingly rejected the Trump administration’s bid to lock up nearly everyone it is targeting for deportation — a sharp break from every administration of the last 30 years, which prioritized detention only for those deemed dangerous or likely to flee.

A POLITICO analysis has identified 347 judges across the country who have rejected the administration’s detention policy — in more than 2,400 cases — while just 20 judges have sided with the administration, a small minority that has nevertheless grown in recent weeks. The emergency nature of the cases has so far stymied efforts to get appeals courts or the Supreme Court to weigh in on the policy, which has resulted in district courts’ dockets being clogged across the country. Hundreds of new emergency petitions for release are filed every day.

The judges in Minnesota are now bearing the brunt of the deluge. All but one — the Reagan-appointed Judge Paul Magnuson — have rejected the administration’s mass detention policy. And their frustrations are beginning to spill into the open more frequently.

Judges, inundated with immigration cases, don’t mince words on ICE tactics