Picture this: you’re an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Mobs surround you nightly. They’ve already killed one of your colleagues’ assailants after he and two buddies attacked an agent with a broom and shovel. Another agent shot someone who aimed a car at law enforcement.
And now a federal judge says you can’t use pepper spray.
Welcome to 2026, where “peaceful protest” apparently includes vehicular assault and bludgeoning federal officers—as long as a Biden appointee gets to define the terms.
The Ruling
Judge Kate M. Menendez—Biden-appointed, naturally—dropped an 80-page decision Friday night that reads like it was written in an alternate universe.
ICE agents are now prohibited from using “crowd dispersal tools” like pepper spray. They cannot arrest “peaceful” demonstrators. They cannot stop or detain protesters in vehicles unless those vehicles are “forcibly obstructing or interfering with” agents.
Apparently aiming your car at a federal officer doesn’t count as forcible obstruction in Judge Menendez’s courtroom.
The judge found that protesters “observed and criticized ICE officers” but “did not forcibly obstruct or impede the agents’ work” and were “non-violent and non-threatening.”
Has she seen the videos? Does she own a television?
The Reality on the Ground
Renee Good is dead because she was part of a group trained to “resist” ICE enforcement. An agent shot her during a confrontation on January 7.
Julio Sosa-Celis got shot—non-fatally—after he and two accomplices beat an ICE agent with a broom and shovel. Were they exercising First Amendment rights? Should the agent have requested a social worker while getting his skull cracked?
These aren’t hypotheticals. This is what’s actually happening in Minneapolis while a federal judge pretends the protesters are just politely voicing disagreement.
The Definition Game
Here’s where it gets dangerous.
The ruling hinges entirely on the word “peaceful.” And as anyone with a brain can see, “peaceful” is now whatever a sympathetic judge says it is.
Blocking a road? Peaceful. Surrounding agents? Peaceful. Screaming threats? Peaceful. Aiming a car at officers? Well, were they “forcibly” obstructing?
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin cut through the nonsense: “The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly—not rioting. Obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony.”
But in Judge Menendez’s world, the agents are the problem. The mob is just expressing itself.
The Bigger Pattern
This is the Age of the Federal District Judge.
Every single day, some Obama or Biden appointee drops a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction designed to hamstring the Trump administration. They know their rulings won’t survive appeal. They don’t care. The point is delay. Disruption. Headlines.
It’s judicial activism as guerrilla warfare.
The Minneapolis ruling will get appealed. It’ll probably get overturned. But in the meantime, ICE agents have to work with one hand tied behind their back while violent mobs know exactly how far they can push.
What Comes Next
The Trump administration will appeal before the ink dries. Higher courts will likely restore sanity. Eventually.
But between now and then, agents are in more danger. The mobs are emboldened. And a Biden judge gets to pretend she’s defending the Constitution while actually defending chaos.
This is why elections matter. This is why judicial appointments matter. And this is why the left fights so hard to keep their people on the bench.
They lose at the ballot box. They lose in the legislature. But one sympathetic judge can gum up the works for months.
Judge Menendez just told every violent agitator in America: as long as you call it protest, you’re protected.
Good luck, ICE agents. The courts have your back—eventually. Maybe.