In a short notice filed with Judge Kate Menendez at the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, who ruled on the case three days earlier, Justice Department lawyers said they would challenge the judge’s restrictions at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
The order also prohibits federal officers from stopping or arresting drivers and passengers that follow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) vehicles if they aren’t interfering with the officials.
“The act of safely following Covered Federal Agents at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” Menendez ruled.
After the ruling, Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, issued a statement saying her agency was taking “appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the restrictions were important.
Tensions continue to mount in the state, which in addition to seeing ICE operations has become the focus of federal fraud investigations.
An anti-ICE protest on Sunday, attended by former CNN anchor Don Lemon, interrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, frightening congregants and their children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division, said an investigation was underway.
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said federal officers have arrested more than 10,000 criminal illegal immigrants in Minneapolis, including 3,000 in the past three weeks.
The Pentagon has also ordered around 1,500 active duty soldiers in Alaska to prepare for a possible deployment to the state.