Trump-Appointed Judge Dismisses DOJ Suit to Force Minnesota to Aid Immigration Enforcement

Overview

• Chief Judge Eric C. Tostrud, a Trump appointee, dismissed the Justice Department’s September 2025 lawsuit on Monday after finding the complaint failed to plead key facts and causation required by federal rules.
• The opinion held that the federal statute authorizing cooperative immigration agreements does not require states to enter them and treated ICE detainers as nonbinding requests rather than commands.
• Tostrud applied the Tenth Amendment’s anti-commandeering doctrine to reject the administration’s preemption and supremacy-clause claims against Minnesota and local governments.
• The judge dismissed all claims with a mix of with-prejudice rulings that bar refiled claims and without-prejudice rulings that give the DOJ a limited chance to amend specific counts.
• The decision preserves Minnesota officials’ ability to limit local cooperation after Operation Metro Surge and related shootings, and it narrows the federal government’s civil litigation options while courts continue to curb aggressive investigatory tactics.