Top Minnesota Prosecutor Says Ice Cases Are Sidelining ‘pressing Priorities’

The top federal prosecutor in Minnesota says his short-staffed office has been abandoning “pressing and important priorities” to manage the flood of immigration cases stemming from Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s mass deportation push in the Twin Cities.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, in a little-noticed filing last week with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, said his office is buckling under the crushing weight of hundreds of emergency lawsuits filed by immigrants arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent weeks. He said 427 had been filed in January alone, and that the pace is expected to continue into February.

“To respond to this wave of habeas petitions, this Office has been forced to shift its already limited resources from other pressing and important priorities,” Rosen said in a declaration to the court. “The MN-USAO has cancelled all [civil enforcement] work and any other affirmative priorities and is operating in a reactive mode.”

In a filing accompanying Rosen’s statement, Justice Department attorneys emphasized that the “crushing burden” caused by immigration cases had led U.S. attorneys offices to “shift resources away from other critical priorities, including criminal matters.”

Rosen, a Trump appointee confirmed by the Senate in October 2025, said his team of attorneys handling civil litigation is “down 50%” — a reference to a wave of resignations and departures at the start of Operation Metro Surge — and that those who remain “are appearing daily for hearings on contempt motions.”

“The Court is setting deadlines within hours, including weekends and holidays. Paralegals are continuously working overtime. Lawyers are continuously working overtime,” Rosen lamented, saying the court’s quick ruling is “desperately needed.”

Rosen’s admissions contradict claims by the Department of Homeland Security that the flood of immigration cases filed in federal court has not overtaxed the Justice Department. A spokesperson said Wednesday that the administration is “more than prepared to handle the legal caseload” caused by the mass deportation effort.

Spokespeople for DOJ and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The rupture between DHS and DOJ has been on display in Minnesota, where DOJ attorneys say they’ve struggled to gain cooperation from ICE amid the enforcement surge — and are running on fumes to manage the extraordinary workload.

Rosen is urging the appellate court to quickly resolve an issue at the heart of the emergency lawsuits: whether ICE has the legal authority to lock up most of the immigrants that agents are targeting for deportation, even if they’ve lived in the U.S. for years without incident. Judges in Minnesota and around the country have overwhelmingly rejected ICE’s position, ordering thousands of detainees freed or provided with bond hearings in immigration courts run by the Justice Department.

The issue has clogged court dockets across the country, but nowhere more acutely than in Minnesota. And no higher court has conclusively resolved the issue to stem the deluge of litigation.

“Absent expedited review, the resources of this Office will continue to be drained as hundreds more habeas petitions are filed, and the other important responsibilities and other priorities will be compromised,” Rosen warned.