2026年2月20日 / 美国东部时间晚上8:54 / CBS新闻
本周早些时候，一位联邦法官采取了非同寻常的措施，对一名政府律师处以藐视法庭罪，周五他猛烈抨击司法部对移民案件的处理方式，指责该部门明尼阿波利斯办公室屡次规避法院命令，并一再将责任归咎于人员短缺。
这一命令加剧了数月来联邦法官与特朗普政府之间的激烈争执。随着美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）的大规模驱逐行动导致被拘留者提起的法律诉讼前所未有地激增，寻求获释。明尼苏达州的几名法官指控ICE在这些案件中未能遵守法院命令。
在周三的听证会上，美国地区法官劳拉·普罗维尼诺（Laura Provinzino）对一名被指派到司法部的陆军律师处以民事藐视法庭罪。她命令律师马修·伊西哈拉（Matthew Isihara）每天支付500美元，直到政府将身份证件归还给里戈韦托·索托·希门尼斯（Rigoberto Soto Jimenez）。希门尼斯上周被ICE在德克萨斯州释放时，其身份证件被没收，尽管法院命令要求将其连同个人财产一起遣送回明尼苏达州。
政府迅速归还了该男子的文件后，普罗维尼诺周五撤销了藐视法庭的裁决。她表示不会对伊西哈拉处以罚款，后者是上月临时被指派协助司法部工作的陆军律师。
但在周五发布的一份长达9页的裁决中，普罗维尼诺严厉批评了联邦政府在本案中的行为——并指出这并非孤立事件。
普罗维尼诺称，伊西哈拉“有责任向ICE传达法院的释放令以确保[Soto Jimenez]合法获释，但他却未采取任何行动确保遵守法院命令”。
她引用了伊西哈拉在周三听证会上的陈述，承认他没有立即将普罗维尼诺的释放令发送给ICE，也没有在被要求协助将Soto Jimenez运送回明尼苏达州并归还其身份证件时回复其律师。
伊西哈拉在听证会上表示歉意，称案件“被遗漏了”，他“失职了”。他说，明尼阿波利斯美国检察官办公室——最近几个月面临ICE逮捕行动激增和大量人员辞职的压力——被要求释放被拘留者的大量请求（即人身保护令申请）压得喘不过气来。
尽管如此，普罗维尼诺驳回了这一辩解，写道“行政负担从未成为牺牲个人宪法和法定权利的理由”。
她还指出，“政府一次又一次（并多次对本地区其他法官）以此为借口，为其在移民人身保护案件中忽视和违抗法院命令的行为开脱。”
普罗维尼诺表示，她过去对美国检察官办公室一直很有耐心。
“但在现阶段，‘人员不足’和‘案件过多’的说法已经不受欢迎，特别是当这以牺牲个人权利为代价时，”她写道。“本法院绝不会允许私人律师或诉讼当事人以‘我太忙了’为借口来证明违抗法院命令的合理性。政府也不例外。”
法官还指出，“过去几个月来，移民人身保护案件的律师缺乏基本资源，在某些情况下甚至缺乏遵守法院命令所需的培训，这一点已经变得非常明显。”
“这一问题‘对真实的人造成了真实的后果’，”法官继续说道。在Soto Jimenez的案件中，他上周在德克萨斯州被释放时未获身份证件，在其律师安排航班返回明尼苏达州之前，他在一家庇护所停留了一晚。这名墨西哥公民自2018年起与他合法永久居民身份的妻子居住在明尼苏达州。
展望未来，普罗维尼诺表示，她期望意识到可能违反法院命令的政府律师“立即”通知法院。她说，她会“对此类陈述持积极态度”，并避免对这些律师处以藐视法庭罪。
“本法院不会容忍这里发生的事情：政府的违抗和沉默，”法官写道。
雅各布·罗森（Jacob Rosen）对本报道有贡献。
Judge who held government lawyer in contempt blasts DOJ’s handling of immigration cases: “Real consequences on real human beings”
February 20, 2026 / 8:54 PM EST / CBS News
A federal judge who took the extraordinary step of holding a government lawyer in contempt of court earlier this week blasted the Justice Department for its handling of immigration cases on Friday, accusing the department’s Minneapolis office of skirting orders and blaming staffing shortages “again, and again, and again.”
The order adds to months of sparring between federal judges and the Trump administration, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mass deportation efforts cause an unprecedented flood of legal cases by detainees seeking to be released. Several judges in Minnesota have accused ICE of failing to follow orders in those cases.
In a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino held an Army lawyer who was assigned to the Justice Department in civil contempt. She ordered the lawyer, Matthew Isihara, to pay $500 per day until the government returned identification documents to Rigoberto Soto Jimenez, who was released by ICE in Texas without his ID last week despite a court order requiring him to be flown back to Minnesota with his personal property.
After the government quickly gave back the man’s documents, Provinzino lifted the contempt finding on Friday. She said no fines would be issued against Isihara, an Army lawyer who was temporarily assigned to assist the Justice Department last month.
But in a nine-page order on Friday, Provinzino sharply criticized the federal government’s actions in the case — and argued it was not an isolated incident.
Provinzino said Isihara “had taken no action to ensure compliance with the Court’s order, notwithstanding the fact that it was his responsibility to communicate the Court’s order to ICE to effectuate [Soto Jimenez’s] lawful release.”
She cited Isihara’s comments at Wednesday’s hearing, where he acknowledged that he didn’t immediately send Provinzino’s release order to ICE, and didn’t get back to Soto Jimenez’s lawyer when asked for help in transporting him to Minnesota and returning his IDs.
Isihara was apologetic at the hearing, saying the case “slipped through the cracks” and he “dropped the ball.” He said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis — which has faced a surge of ICE arrests and a wave of resignations in recent months — has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of requests to release detainees, which are known as habeas corpus petitions.
Still, Provinzino rejected that defense, writing that “administrative burden has never been a reason to sacrifice the constitutional and statutory rights of individuals.”
She also said “the Government has offered that excuse to this Court again, and again, and again (and to other judges in this district again,and again, and again, and again, and again, and again) to excuse its oversights and disobedience of court orders in immigration habeas cases.”
Provinzino said she has been patient with the U.S. Attorney’s office in the past.
“But at this point, the refrain of ‘understaffing’ and ‘too many cases’ has worn out its welcome, particularly when it comes at the expense of individual rights,” she wrote. “This Court would never allow a private attorney or litigant to rely on an ‘I’m too busy’ excuse to justify disobedience of a court order. The Government is no different.”
And the judge argued that “it has become painfully clear over the past several months that the attorneys working on immigration habeas cases lack the basic resources and, in some cases, training necessary to comply with judicial orders.”
The issue has “real consequences on real human beings,” the judge continued. In Soto Jimenez’s case, after he was released in Texas without his IDs last week, he stayed in a shelter for a night until his lawyer could arrange a flight back to Minnesota, where the Mexican citizen has lived with his lawful permanent resident wife since 2018.
Going forward, Provinzino said she expects government lawyers who become aware that an order might be violated to inform the court “promptly.” She said she would “look favorably on such submissions” and avoid holding those lawyers in contempt.
“What the Court will not tolerate is what happened here: disobedience and radio silence from the Government,” the judge wrote.
Jacob Rosen contributed to this report.
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