Did Trump Just Screw Himself Over on the Minnesota ICE Case?
The president’s addiction to social media may have just cost him another lawsuit.
In an article on Truth Social Wednesday morning, Donald Trump openly attempted to convince Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to implement his immigration agenda, a blatant violation of the 10th Amendment.
“Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that ‘Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws,'” Trump said. wrote. “This is after having a very good conversation with him. Could someone in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the law and he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!”
The problem with Trump’s nonsense is twofold. Not only is Minnesota — or any other state, for that matter — not required to enforce federal law under the 10th Amendment’s “anti-commandeering doctrine,” but its insistence that the North Star State do so makes it clear that it is trying to force Minnesota to change its local policies.
Legal journalists noted that details alone could prove disastrous for Trump’s camp in the Minnesota federal lawsuit, which seeks a temporary restraining order to end Operation Metro Surge. The officials have describe ICE’s presence constitutes an “unprecedented surge of DHS agents into the state.”
“Trump could not have crafted a better statement to convince Judge Menendez that Operation Metro Surge is intended to compel policy change,” job Politico’s Kyle Cheney. “And the menacing ‘playing with fire’ is exactly the kind of statement (“punishment is coming”) that worked against the administration in court earlier this week.”
The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that states cannot be forced to impose federal policy and that the federal government cannot influence state policy, setting national precedent in cases such as Printz v. United States (1997) and New York v. United States (1992).
In just a few weeks, Operation Metro Surge conducted militarized raids across Minnesota, terrorizing residents while carrying out what state officials described as “dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional stops and arrests, all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement.”
The federal presence also cost the lives of two American citizens. Last month, ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens: Alex Pretti, a nurse in the Veterans Affairs intensive care unit, and award-winning poet Renée Nicole Good.
In 2025, the agency killed 32 people…this is the deadliest year in more than two decades.
