Appeals Court Halts Order Limiting ICE Tactics

A federal appeals court halted an order Monday restricting the actions of federal immigration agents.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez on Jan. 16 blocked officers from arresting, using pepper spray or retaliating against anyone engaging in “peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” She restricted them from stopping or detaining drivers who observe immigration enforcement without interfering.

The Eighth Circuit found the lower court’s decision was “just a universal injunction by another name,” citing the Supreme Court’s opinion barring nationwide injunctions.

Videos of observers and protesters show them “engaging in a wide range of conduct, some of it peaceful but much of it not,” the court found.

“They also show federal agents responding in various ways,” the panel wrote. “Even the named plaintiffs’ claims involve different conduct, by different officers, at different times, in different places, in response to different behavior.”

The lower court’s injunction was “too vague,” finding it was “too big a step” in the direction of overseeing the executive branch.

“Even the provision that singles out the use of ‘pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools’ requires federal agents to predict what the district court would consider ‘peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,” the court wrote. “The videos underscore how difficult it would be for them to decide who has crossed the line: they show a fast-changing mix of peaceful and obstructive conduct, with many protestors getting in officers’ faces and blocking their vehicles as they conduct their activities, only for some of them to then rejoin the crowd and intermix with others who were merely recording and observing the scene.”

“A wrong call could end in contempt, yet there is little in the order that constrains the district court’s power to impose it,” the opinion continues.

Six individuals sued in December on behalf of themselves and anyone who “will in the future record, observe, and/or protest against the DHS immigration operations,” alleging they have been “repeatedly targeted.”

“Liberal judges tried to handcuff our federal law enforcement officers, restrict their actions, and put their safety at risk when responding to violent agitators,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote Monday on X. “The DOJ went to court. We got a temporary stay. NOW, the 8th Circuit has fully agreed that this reckless attempt to undermine law enforcement cannot stand.”

In a partial dissent, Circuit Court Judge Raymond Gruender wrote that he would leave the part of the injunction blocking agents from using pepper spray in place.

“That directive is not an improperly vague ‘obey the law’ injunction and should not be stayed pending appeal,” he wrote.

(Featured Image Media Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Creative Commons/Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/us_icegov/50044720216/)

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