MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge denied an effort by Minnesota and the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Saturday to swiftly halt the Trump administration’s surge of immigration agents to the state, saying officials have not cleared the legal threshold to bring an immediate pause to the operation.

The highly anticipated decision comes after attorneys for the Justice Department and Minnesota faced off in federal court over the state’s lawsuit to end the operation, which argued the surge of 3,000 agents violates its sovereignty and was motivated by political animosity by the Trump administration to change the state’s immigration laws.

The lawsuit, filed days after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration agent, took fresh urgency this week by lawyers for the state and cities who reupped their request to the judge to end the operation after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal officers in south Minneapolis.

In her decision to block an injunction that would have paused the operation as the case proceeds, U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez said the state had not shown exactly when the deployment impeded on the state’s sovereignty.

“A proclamation that Operation Metro Surge has simply gone ‘so far on the other side of the line’ is a thin reed on which to base a preliminary injunction,” she said.

While expressing disappointment in the denial, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the judge’s denial “just one step” in the lawsuit that remains pending in court.

“This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place. This operation has not brought public safety. It’s brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It’s an invasion, and it needs to stop," Frey said.

Attorney General Keith Ellison previously made similar comments that if the judge blocks the state’s request, he will go “right back to the drawing board.” His office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the order.

Attorney General Pam Bondi in a post on X referred to the decision as a “huge” legal win.

“Neither sanctuary policies nor meritless litigation will stop the Trump Administration from enforcing federal law in Minnesota,” the post said.

In court, Menendez told representatives for the state that it “goes without saying we are in shockingly unusual times,” and pressed when the operation crossed a line that violated the 10th Amendment.

Brian Carter, assistant attorney general for Minnesota, repeatedly pointed to a letter during the court hearing that he referred to as a “ransom note” from Bondi asking the state to repeal its sanctuary policies and hand over data on voter rolls, Medicaid and food stamp recipients.

Menendez in her denial order said she found no trace of a “quid pro quo” in the letter.

Prior to her decision, Menendez required the Justice Department attorneys to file an additional brief to explicitly state their response to the state’s claims about the surge’s motivation. Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers said the goal is to “enforce federal law” and rejected the state’s claims as “groundless.”

Menendez, appointed to the bench by Joe Biden, said the state has shown that the surge “will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking consequences,” citing the three shootings that have unfolded since the deployment began in early December and intensified in January. She also cited racial profiling by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Protection agents.

Menendez added that the U.S. government has not refuted the negative impacts of the deployment raised by the state in court, including a strain on policing, education and health care.

“It would be difficult to overstate the effect this operation is having on the citizens of Minnesota, and the Court must acknowledge that reality here,” she wrote.

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