On Friday, January 16, 2026, District Judge Katherine Menendez granted a preliminary injunction preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minnesota from retaliating against demonstrators. The Order is the result of a lawsuit brought in December 2025 by the ACLU on behalf of six plaintiffs who were observing ICE agents in Minnesota when they were attacked by ICE agents and detained.
The first plaintiff in the lawsuit, thirty-year-old Susan Tincher, was observing ICE agents standing approximately seven feet away from the closest officer and outside their perimeter on a public sidewalk when she thrown to the ground by several officers and cuffed with her face in the snow according to the lawsuit. ICE brought her to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building (Whipple Building) in Minneapolis. The lawsuit states that “[a]gents cut off some of her clothes and her wedding ring, shackled her, and left her in a cell for hours. She was released without charge.”
Two other plaintiffs who were age sixty-seven and sixty-nine were stopped by masked ICE officers with semi-automatic weapons at Churches in Minneapolis. Officers told them that they had their license plate number and they would find them. There was another plaintiff who was pepper-sprayed by ICE officers while they drove past for no apparent reason. The others all experienced similar harassment and abuse by ICE.
The Judge granted their request for a preliminary injunction enjoining ICE from continuing their practice of abusing their authority by retaliating against protesters, using unnecessary force, and arresting protestors for observing them. Specifically the Judge ordered the ICE agents in Minnesota to stop retaliating against any person engaged in peaceful and unobstructive protest “including observing the activities of Operation Metro Surge1,” from arresting or detaining persons who are engaged in peaceful protest, or using pepper-spray or “similar nonlethal munitions or crown dispersal tools.” You can see the relevant portion of the Judge’s order below showing exactly what actions are enjoined by the order.
Covered Federal Agents are hereby enjoined from:
a. Retaliating against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive
protest activity, including observing the activities of Operation Metro Surge.
b. Arresting or detaining persons who are engaging in peaceful and
unobstructive protest activity, including observing the activities of Operation
Metro Surge, in retaliation for their protected conduct and absent a showing
of probable cause or reasonable suspicion that the person has committed a
crime or is obstructing or interfering with the activities of Covered Federal
Officers.
c. Using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools
against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest
activity, including observing the activities of Operation Metro Surge, in
retaliation for their protected conduct.
d. Stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles where there is no
reasonable articulable suspicion that they are forcibly obstructing or
interfering with Covered Federal Agents, or otherwise violating 18 U.S.C.
§ 111. The act of safely following Covered Federal Agents at an appropriate
distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle
stop.
The Judge made a point of addressing a few specific activities that ICE officer have been arresting people for. The Judge’s Order states that, “[t]he act of safely following (federal agents) at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop.”
The Order states that it, “shall remain in effect until Operation Metro Surge concludes or the
conditions change such that it is no longer necessary.”
Hopefully the decision will make things safer for the everyone in Minnesota this weekend. You can read more about the case at the links below. The Minnesota Reformer has reported on this story and many others if you want to know more about what’s going on there.
Footnotes
1. Operation Metro Surge is the name the Department of Homeland Security has given to the surge of more than three thousand ICE and CBP officers deployed to Minnesota.
2. Full Decision from the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA, Tincher v. Kristi Noem et. al., CASE 0:25-cv-04669-KMM-DTS (Filed 01/16/26)