Federal judge orders ICE director to court for contempt hearing as "patience runs out"

Chief U.S. District Judge PSPatrick Schiltz issued a three-page order on Jan. 27, 2026, demanding acting ICE Director Todd Lyons appear in Minneapolis federal court. Schiltz wrote, "The Court's patience is at an end." Lyons was ordered to appear on Jan. 31 to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt.

Schiltz is a George W. Bush appointee who clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He said ICE has failed to comply with "dozens of court orders" in recent weeks. The judge called ordering an agency head to appear personally "an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE's violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary."

The case involved JTJuan Tobay Robles, arrested by federal agents in early Jan.. Schiltz granted his habeas petition on Jan. 14 and ordered a bond hearing within seven days. By Jan. 23, no hearing had been held and Robles remained in custody.

After the contempt threat, ICE released Tobay Robles on Jan. 28. His attorney GOGraham Ojala-Barbour said, "When the director of ICE is informed that he is personally responsible for answering for the legality of ICE actions, ICE pays attention and follows an order."

Schiltz wrote that ICE sent thousands of agents to 🦆Minnesota to detain immigrants "without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result." He said the practical consequence "has almost always been significant hardship to aliens."

DHS Assistant Secretary TMTricia McLaughlin called Schiltz "just another activist judge who is clearly more concerned about politics than the safety of the Minnesotans." She asked if Lyons should "take time out of his day leading ICE to target the worst of the worst criminal illegals."

The order came two days after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, on a Minneapolis street. It also followed the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE agent in her car weeks earlier.

Fox News reported that Schiltz and his wife appeared on a 2019 list of donors and volunteers for the Immigrant Law Center of 🦆Minnesota. The order applies regardless of the judge's personal views because federal courts have authority to enforce their own orders.