Federal Judge Curbs ICE Tactics Against Peaceful Protesters in Minneapolis

Overview

• The preliminary injunction bars federal agents from detaining peaceful protesters and observers, using pepper spray, tear gas or other crowd-control munitions on nonviolent demonstrators, and stopping vehicles without reasonable cause.
• The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for possible obstruction of federal law enforcement, with CNN reporting grand jury subpoenas.
• Homeland Security has deployed nearly 3,000 federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis area under an expanded operation, and President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.
• A medical examiner preliminarily found asphyxia by compression in Cuban detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death in Texas, a finding that could lead to a homicide classification, as Mexico sought clarification on a separate ICE custody death in Georgia and the agency reported at least four detainee deaths in 2026.
• The U.S. State Department posted a Portuguese-language warning telling would-be migrants they would be jailed and sent back, underscoring the administration’s hardline messaging abroad.