US judge orders federal agents to stop arresting, teargassing lawful Minnesota protesters

10:06 pm on 17 January 2026

By Brad Brooks, Nate Raymond and Daniel Trotta, Reuters

A federal officer breaks a car window as they begin the process of removing a woman from her vehicle near an area where ICE was operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 13, 2026. Hundreds more federal agents were heading to Minneapolis, the US homeland security chief said on January 11, brushing aside demands by the Midwestern city's Democratic leaders to leave after an immigration officer fatally shot a woman protester. In multiple TV interviews, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem defended the actions of the officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, whose death has sparked renewed protests nationwide against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. (Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP) / ALTERNATE CROP

A federal officer breaks a window to remove a woman from her vehicle in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 13 January 2026. Photo: Octavio Jones / AFP

Ruling prohibits arrests and tear-gassing of peaceful demonstrators.
Observers are also protected from arrests and crowd-control munitions.
The legal challenge was filed three weeks before the fatal shooting of Renee Good.

A federal judge in Minnesota on Friday (local time) ordered that US immigration agents deployed en masse to Minneapolis be restricted in some of the tactics they have taken against peaceful demonstrators and observers, including arrests and tear-gassing.

Handing a victory to local activists in Minnesota's most populous city, US District Judge Kate Menendez issued an injunction barring federal agents from retaliating against individuals engaged in non-violent, unobstructive protest activity.

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal agencies on 17 December, three weeks before an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis, spawning waves of protests and putting the city on edge.

Federal agents use pepper spray against a protester holding a sign during an enforcement operation outside the Whipple Building, ICE facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 11, 2026. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on the streets of Minneapolis on January 7, leading to huge protests and outrage from local leaders who rejected White House claims she was a domestic terrorist. (Photo by Kerem YUCEL / AFP)

Federal agents use pepper spray against a protester during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 11 January 2026. Photo: Kerem Yucel / AFP

The court case was brought on behalf of six protesters and observers who claimed their constitutional rights had been infringed by the actions of ICE agents.

The 83-page order explicitly prohibits federal officers from detaining people who are peacefully protesting or merely observing the officers, unless there is reasonable suspicion that they are interfering with law enforcement or have committed a crime.

Federal agents also are banned from using pepper spray, tear gas or other crowd-control munitions against peaceful demonstrators or bystanders observing and recording the immigration enforcement operations, the judge ruled.

ICE and other federal officers remove a woman from her vehicle near an area where ICE was operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 13, 2026. Hundreds more federal agents were heading to Minneapolis, the US homeland security chief said on January 11, brushing aside demands by the Midwestern city's Democratic leaders to leave after an immigration officer fatally shot a woman protester. In multiple TV interviews, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem defended the actions of the officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, whose death has sparked renewed protests nationwide against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. (Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP)

ICE and other federal officers remove a woman from her vehicle in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 13 January 2026. Photo: Octavio Jones / AFP

Menendez wrote that the government, in defending the street tactics of its immigration officers, had failed to "explain why it is necessary for them to arrest and use force against peaceful observers."

Stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles when there is no reason to believe they are forcibly obstructing or interfering with federal agents is likewise prohibited, according to the court order.

Order comes amid heightened tensions

"There may be ample suspicion to stop cars, and even arrest drivers, engaged in dangerous conduct while following immigration enforcement officers, but that does not justify stops of cars not breaking the law," Menendez wrote.

Protestors clash with federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on January 8, 2026. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed an American woman on the streets of Minneapolis January 7, leading to huge protests and outrage from local leaders who rejected White House claims she was a domestic terrorist. The woman, identified in local media as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from agents who were crowding around her car, which they said was blocking their way. (Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP)

Protestors clash with federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on 8 January 2026. Photo: Octavio Jones / AFP

The DHS did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The ruling comes nearly two weeks after the Trump administration announced it was sending 2,000 immigration agents to the Minneapolis area, bolstering an earlier deployment in what the DHS called its largest such operation in history.

The surge in heavily armed officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and Border Patrol has since grown to nearly 3,000, dwarfing the ranks of local police officers in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Federal agents use pepper spray against a protester in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 11 January 2026. Photo: Kerem Yucel / AFP

Tensions over the deployment have mounted considerably since an ICE agent fatally shot Good, a mother of three, behind the wheel of her car on 7 January.

At the time, Good was taking part in one of numerous neighbourhood patrols organised by local activists to track and monitor ICE activities.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, one of the federal officials named in the lawsuit, said after the shooting that Good had been "stalking and impeding" ICE agents all day and had committed an act of "domestic terrorism" by trying to run over federal officers.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - JANUARY 16: A man walks by a series of posters memorializing Renee Good on January 16, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protests have sparked up around the city after a federal agent fatally shot Good in her car during an incident in south Minneapolis on January 7. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

A series of posters memorialises Renee Good, 16 January 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images / AFP

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and local activists disputed Noem's account, saying Good posed no physical threat to ICE agents. They pointed to video clips of the incident, which they said showed that Good was trying to drive her car away from officers and that the use of lethal force against her was unjustified.

Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have repeatedly demanded that the Trump administration withdraw the immigration agents, asserting that the operation is being conducted in a reckless manner, endangering the public.

While largely siding with the plaintiffs in the case, the judge did not grant all their requests, declining to ban the federal government from actions not specifically taken against those who filed suit. She also limited the injunction to officers deployed in the Twin Cities, rather than extending it statewide.

- Reuters