During Operation Metro Surge from December 2025 through February 2026, ICE arrested over 4,000 people in Minneapolis under a reinterpretation of a 1996 law requiring detention without bond. Federal judges, including U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, found that ICE violated court orders in at least 113 cases involving 77 people by January 28, 2026, and the violations continued thereafter. Of 66 cases examined by The Washington Post, 52 involved immigrants with pending applications for asylum or other legal status, none with final deportation orders; most were not criminals and over one-third had lived in the United States for more than a decade. The operation targeted immigrants with valid work permits, pending asylum applications, and temporary protected status despite government claims of prioritizing serious criminals.