WASHINGTON — Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons has been summoned to court on Friday after a Minnesota federal judge alleged the deportation chief defied legal orders.
Chief US District Judge Patrick Schiltz threatened to hold Lyons in contempt of court and is seeking answers from the ICE boss over how the feds handled Juan Tobay Robles, who was arrested earlier this month on immigration violations.
“Respondents have continually assured the Court that they recognize their obligation to comply with Court orders, and that they have taken steps to ensure that those orders will be honored going forward,” Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in a fiery three-page order Monday.
“Unfortunately, though, the violations continue,” Schiltz went on. “The court’s patience is at an end.”
Schiltz specifically demanded answers as to why Robles didn’t receive a bond hearing or hadn’t been released within the one-week time frame of the court’s order for either of those two things to happen.
The chief judge stressed that “This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks.”
Schiltz’s frustrations with the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge, which began last month, were apparent in his order.
The deluge of federal immigration enforcement officials in Minneapolis has led to an avalanche of emergency lawsuits from migrants who have been detained by the feds.
Schiltz had ordered that Robles either get a bond hearing or be released within seven days on Jan. 14. Now he has ordered Lyons to appear in person at 1 p.m. Friday to “show cause why he should not be held in contempt for violating” his prior order.
“The practical consequence of respondents’ failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens,” Schiltz further wrote.
“The detention of an alien is extended, or an alien who should remain in Minnesota is flown to Texas, or an alien who has been flown to Texas is released there and told to figure out a way to get home.”
Schiltz previously clashed with the Trump administration last week when it appealed to him to nix a magistrate judge’s rejection of an arrest warrant for lefty pundit Don Lemon. He rejected that.
The Post contacted ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
President Trump has moved to recalibrate his crackdown on Minneapolis in the aftermath of the shootings of Renee Good, 37, and Alex Pretti, also 37.
On Monday, the president announced that he is dispatching border czar Tom Homan to the state to coordinate enforcement operations on the ground. Trump also fielded calls from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, seemingly angling to ease tensions.
