Attempt to rein in Trump's immigration agents dealt a setback
A federal appeals court on Monday again dashed efforts by advocates to rein in the tactics President Donald Trump's immigration forces use against protesters, according to a new report.
Josh Gerstein, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, reported that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to uphold a temporary injunction issued by District Judge Katherine Menendez in Minnesota, which it argued was "too broad" and "too vague." The injunction expressly prohibited immigration agents from using chemical agents, pepper spray, and crowd control munitions against legal observers and other peaceful protesters.
The appeals court initially paused Menedez's order last week while it considered the merits.
In its Monday ruling, the court found that the federal government made "a strong showing" on at least two counts. The court said there were instances where protesters appeared to act violently toward immigration agents, which justifies the use of chemical agents and other crowd control measures. It also argued that immigration agents would have a hard time parsing peaceful and obstructive protest actions.
In his partial dissent, Judge Raymond Gruender said the government did not make a "strong showing" on the merits and added that he disagreed with the notion of pausing the injunction because it simply requires the Trump administration to follow the law.
"The Government has not demonstrated that trained federal agents are unlikely to understand how to comply with an order not to 'use pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools' against persons 'engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,'' Gruender noted.