Minnesota Reformer

The hearing took place amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a weeks-long partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as Democrats try to force changes to the administration’s immigration policy.

The law allows for the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants who are merely accused of crimes, including violent crimes but also nonviolent offenses like burglary, theft and shoplifting.

Federal judges have excoriated the Trump administration for directing immigration agents to carry out mass arrests and detention without warrants under a new legal theory that contradicts decades of precedent.

Gov. Tim Walz describes the move as a "campaign of retribution."

Most of the petitions were filed by a newly mobilized army of volunteer lawyers with little or no experience with immigration law.

The first day of the new session on Feb. 17, 2026, was the first time in 20 years Rep. Melissa Hortman was absent. She, her husband and their dog were killed in June 2025.

Election year ambitions and heightened partisan vitriol are undermining hope for the bipartisan comity needed to pass anything in the closely divided Legislature.

Minneapolis businesses are estimated to have lost $10 to $20 million in sales each week of Operation Metro Surge, which began in December 2025.

The unprecedented federal incursion brought 1000s of immigration officers to MN over the objections of local Democratic leaders, and led to massive protests and two deaths.

The 2022 candidate for governor performed poorly in last week’s GOP precinct caucus straw poll for governor and was trailing in donations.