US judge orders curbs on ICE agents’ actions against Minnesota protesters

After repeated clashes and a fatal shooting, the injunction bars federal ​agents from detaining or retaliating against peaceful protesters.Published On 17 Jan 2026A ‌federal judge in Minnesota has ordered the United States’ immigration agents ‍deployed ‍to the state to curb some of the tactics they have used against observers and protesters of their enforcement actions.Tensions over the deployment have mounted in Minnesota since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Good, behind the wheel of her car earlier this month.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Minneapolis mayor says reported DOJ probe ‘intimidation’ amid ICE raidslist 2 of 4Trump threatens to use Insurrection Act in Minnesota: What it meanslist 3 of 4Federal agent shoots Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis: What we knowlist 4 of 4‘Day of reckoning, retribution’ coming to Minnesota amid ICE outrage: Trumpend of listGood was taking part in one of numerous neighborhood patrols organised by local activists to track and monitor ICE activities.On Friday, US District Judge Kate Menendez’s court injunction barred federal ​agents from retaliating against individuals engaged in peaceful, unobstructive protest ‍activity.Officers were explicitly prohibited from arresting or detaining people protesting peacefully or engaged in orderly observations, if there was no reasonable suspicion that they had committed a crime ‍or were ⁠interfering with law enforcement.The ruling also bans federal agents from using pepper spray, tear gas or other crowd-control munitions against peaceful demonstrators or bystanders observing and recording the immigration enforcement operations.The US ‌Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was given 72 hours to bring its operation in Minneapolis into compliance.The court ruling hands a victory to activists in Minneapolis, the state’s most populous ⁠city, two weeks after the Trump administration announced the deployment of 2,000 immigration agents to ​the area.