Federal Judge Summons ICE Chief Todd Lyons Over Detention Cases, Threatens to Hold Him in Contempt

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

A senior federal judge ordered the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons, to appear personally in court on Friday, warning that the agency’s repeated refusal to follow judicial orders may trigger contempt proceedings.

In a sharply worded filing late Monday, Minnesota’s chief federal judge Patrick J. Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee and former clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, summoned Lyons to explain why the agency has failed, in dozens of cases, to carry out court-ordered bond hearings for detained immigrants.

The judge said Lyons could face possible contempt sanctions after immigrants who were granted bond hearings instead remained in detention or were transferred out of state despite explicit instructions from the bench. In several cases cited, detainees were flown to Texas even after courts ordered they remain in Minnesota.

“The court’s patience is at an end,” Schiltz wrote.

He continued: “The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.”

It remains unclear whether Lyons will comply or whether Justice Department lawyers will attempt to block the appearance, according to the Washington Post, which reported that the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.

The standoff comes amid a major surge in immigration enforcement across Minnesota. Thousands of ICE agents were deployed to the Minneapolis region earlier this month, triggering a flood of habeas petitions from detainees and a parallel wave of federal prosecutions against protesters opposing the raids.

Schiltz had already sent a letter to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals questioning federal efforts to charge demonstrators involved in a church protest in St Paul.

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