Despite the fatal shootings of two Americans by federal agents in Minnesota, the Trump administration’s increase in immigration agents in the Twin Cities will not stop anytime soon, a federal judge ruled. Saturday.

The order, written by District Judge Kate Menendez, acknowledged the “profound and even heartbreaking” consequences of having thousands of federal agents in the state, and said “it would be difficult to overstate the effect this operation is having on the citizens of Minnesota.”

Even so, Menéndez said that those “are not the only damages to consider.”

“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that the entry of an injunction prohibiting the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,” the order says.

“Ultimately, the Court finds that the balance of damages does not decisively favor an injunction,” he adds.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fires pepper spray at a protester outside the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fires pepper spray at a protester outside the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

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At least 3,000 federal agents have been sent to Minneapolis and St. Paul since November as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration campaign. Agents were sent against wishes of local and state leaders, triggering a lawsuit of the state demanding an end to the Department of Homeland Security policyOperation Metro Surge.“

State and city attorneys argue that the massive presence of masked and armed officers has unleashed chaos in Minneapolis and St. Paul, violates state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment and amounts to a “federal invasion” that has left local police resources strained and terrorized. residents.

Before the judge’s order, border czar Tom Homan announced that the administration intended to reduce forces. That announcement was made only after reaction mounted against the administration after the murders of Renee good on January 7 and Alex Pretti It’s January 24th.

Menendez’s Saturday order explained that the state had not shown a “metric” determining how the surge in federal forces had crossed the line into an “illegal take” of the state’s resources or sovereignty.

“A proclamation that Operation Metro Surge has simply reached ‘the other side of the line’ is a thin reed on which to base a preliminary injunction,” Menendez wrote.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey expressed disappointment in the decision.

“Of course, we are disappointed,” Frey said in a statement to News themezone. “This decision does not change what people here have experienced: fear, disruption and damage caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place. This operation has not brought public safety. It has brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It is an invasion and it must stop.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison expressed similar sentiments.

“We are obviously disappointed by today’s court ruling, but this case is in its infancy and there is a long legal road ahead, so we will continue to fight. We will continue to protect Minnesotans and raise the critical legal and constitutional issues at stake, and we will continue to be relentless in doing so,” Ellison said in a statement. “We know that these 3,000 immigration agents are here to intimidate Minnesota and bend the state to the will of the federal government. That is unconstitutional under the Tenth Amendment and the principle of equal sovereignty. We will not relent in defending our state’s constitutional powers.”