The DOJ seeks judges recusal in immigration cases after filing motions asking two Minnesota federal judges to step aside, citing public comments they gave about a Trump-era enforcement operation.
The Justice Department, through Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, asked U.S. District Judges Patrick Schiltz and John Tunheim to recuse themselves from separate immigration-related matters, saying their statements to The New York Times called their impartiality into question, Reuters reported.
The motions target Schiltz in a denaturalization case brought by the government against Salah Osman Ahmed and Tunheim in a criminal case charging Hester Sophia Weihmann with alleged illegal voting, according to Reuters and MPR News. Reuters says the filings cite the judges’ interviews about “Operation Metro Surge,” a winter enforcement operation in Minneapolis that flooded the courts.
MPR News reported that Schiltz told the New York Times the operations created a “grave threat to the rule of law” and that Tunheim said agents were not “arresting, in my view, people who were dangerous criminals on the street.” The DOJ characterized those remarks as a “partisan critique” and argued they require recusal.
Schiltz and Tunheim face ethics complaints the Justice Department filed last month against them and several colleagues after the New York Times story, MPR and Reuters noted. Reuters says Woodward filed the motions on Tuesday and that a hearing in the Schiltz matter is scheduled for November 23.
Legal observers told MPR News the judges themselves will decide the recusal requests and that appeals courts are unlikely to forcibly remove a sitting judge, though the DOJ could ask other district judges to rule if the judges refuse to step aside.
What this means for wider immigration litigation is uncertain; the motions draw on the judges’ public statements about enforcement and the court backlog rather than on rulings in the underlying cases, Reuters added.
Sources
- Reuters — described the DOJ motions by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, named the two judges and the two cases, and reported the November 23 hearing date.
- MPR News — reported the judges’ quotes to The New York Times and included local reaction and legal commentary on how recusal decisions proceed.
