INTERNACIONAL
‘Unprecedented’: Judges reveal behind-the-scenes coordination on Trump immigration cases
Federal judges in Minnesota tasked with deciding a flood of habeas petitions challenging the detention of immigrants swept up during President Donald Trump’s Operation Metro Surge weren’t working entirely on their own — behind the scenes, they were regularly consulting one another through running email threads and developing tools to quickly handle recurring legal questions.
The behind-the-scenes coordination among Minnesota’s federal bench, revealed in a New York Times report Thursday, included regular meetings, running email threads, an informal spreadsheet created by court clerks showing which judges to turn to with particular legal questions, and templates some judges developed to quickly issue orders when similar detention disputes repeatedly came before the court.
The disclosures are fueling questions over whether the judges were colluding on separate cases involving the same Trump administration immigration policies, or simply sharing expertise to manage an extraordinary caseload.
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«The idea of a running email chain involving a variety of cases — it strikes me as very weird and frankly unprecedented,» Robert Luther III, a professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School whose work includes federal courts and judicial ethics, told Digital. Federal judges can and routinely do consult colleagues, Luther said, particularly about procedural or evidentiary questions. But each judge is ultimately responsible for independently deciding the cases assigned to them — a distinction Luther said makes the coordination significant.
The disclosures have also drawn criticism from the Trump administration on two fronts. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) General Counsel James Percival accused the former chief judge who led the district during Metro Surge of «essentially conspiring with his judicial colleagues» to thwart federal immigration enforcement. The Justice Department (DOJ), meanwhile, questioned the decision by sitting judges to give extensive on-the-record interviews about their experience with the administration’s immigration operation.
Seven of the district’s judges spoke to the Times for Thursday’s report, including former Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, who sat for a 90-minute interview about the court’s experience during Metro Surge. Schiltz declined to discuss ongoing cases, according to the Times, but described what happened in Minnesota’s federal court as having «created a grave threat to the rule of law.»
«It is remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews attacking this Administration’s policies rather than ruling from the bench,» a Justice Department spokesperson told Digital. «If judges followed the law in adjudicating cases, there wouldn’t be an ‘overwhelming’ habeas caseload. Judges who have made public comments on pending or related matters should consider whether recusal is warranted going forward.»
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But Chief Judge Eric Tostrud, who was himself among the Minnesota judges interviewed by the Times, rejected suggestions that the coordination described in the report compromised individual decision-making. He told Digital that every member of the bench independently decided the merits of each petition assigned to them, while pointing to an extraordinary surge in litigation — from 12 alien-detainee habeas petitions during all of 2024 to 1,427 through August of this year — and noting that many involved similar or identical, often novel, legal questions.
«The bottom line is that each of us made an independent decision with respect to the merits of each and every petition we were assigned,» Tostrud told Digital.
Tostrud stressed that the judges did not uniformly reach the same conclusions, saying that while some reached the same result on certain legal questions, they «reached different outcomes regarding other legal questions.» He said the judges’ ability to communicate helped them resolve the cases quickly and thoughtfully, regardless of whether individual petitions were granted.
What exactly the judges were sharing behind the scenes, however, remains unclear. Tostrud declined to disclose the contents of the court’s internal working materials, saying documents created by judges and court staff «are not public.»
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That distinction could be significant, according to Luther, who said administrative templates are commonplace in federal courts, but drew a line between those and templates touching the substance of a case.
«Templates that deal with administrative matters strike me as entirely appropriate and commonplace in federal courts,» Luther said. «Templates for substantive matters — that seems like something altogether different.»
The coordination unfolded amid a broader clash between Minnesota’s federal bench and the Trump administration over Operation Metro Surge. The dispute came as immigration litigation inundated the district. During the first three months of 2026, Minnesota’s federal court received 1,116 habeas petitions, compared with just two during the same period the previous year, according to the Times. Court staff worked 16-hour days, seven days a week to process the incoming cases.
Patrick Schiltz, who served as the district’s chief judge during Metro Surge before taking senior status — a form of semi-retirement — this summer, emerged as a prominent judicial critic of the administration’s handling of the operation. In a Jan. 28 order, Schiltz accused ICE of violating nearly 100 court orders during that month and warned that «ICE is not a law unto itself.»
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The cases cited in Schiltz’s January list of alleged violations have largely concluded, according to the Times, which reported that the administration ultimately corrected the issues flagged by the court in many of them.
DOJ said its review of the cases found that in the «large majority» of them, detainees were released on time and no violation occurred, while in most of the remaining cases the department said it ultimately did what the court ordered despite missing an additional deadline.
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Federal judicial ethics rules generally prohibit judges from publicly commenting on the merits of pending or impending cases, but permit judges to explain court procedures and engage in broader speaking and teaching about the law, legal system and administration of justice.
The DOJ argued that judges who publicly commented on pending or related matters should consider whether recusal is warranted. The Times reported, however, that Schiltz declined to discuss ongoing cases, while Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee who also participated in the interviews, defended judges’ ability to speak publicly about judicial independence.
«We are allowed to speak out about judicial independence,» Brasel told the Times. «And so we should, in order to keep it.»
Luther, however, took a different view of the judges’ decision to participate in the interviews.
«Judges should be speaking through their judicial orders, not through their surrogates at The New York Times,» he told Digital.
federal courts, federal judges, immigration, immigrant rights, illegal immigrants, politics, justice department, homeland security
INTERNACIONAL
El Niño ya cambia la vida bajo el océano: detectan especies tropicales inesperadas en el Pacífico
Medusas peine, sifonóforos, peces y cangrejos propios de aguas más cálidas comenzaron a aparecer frente a la costa central de California. Científicos del Instituto de Investigación del Acuario de la Bahía de Monterey (MBARI) vincularon esos avistamientos con el avance de un El Niño de gran intensidad, que ya modifica las condiciones del océano en el Pacífico.
El respaldo de esa transformación llegó desde una boya oceanográfica instalada frente a Monterey Bay: un instrumento situado a 60 metros de profundidad registró 18,18 ℃ (64,72 ℉), la cifra más alta en casi cuatro décadas de mediciones en ese punto.
El hallazgo combina una señal física —el aumento inusual de la temperatura— con otra biológica: la llegada de fauna que suele habitar latitudes tropicales o más australes. Para los investigadores, ambas observaciones muestran que el fenómeno ya está alterando el ecosistema marino de California.
El episodio adquiere relevancia más allá de las costas de California porque El Niño es un patrón del Pacífico con efectos sobre la atmósfera, el nivel del mar, las lluvias y los recursos marinos en distintos puntos del planeta. En Sudamérica, y particularmente en la Argentina, su evolución suele ser seguida por la incidencia que puede tener sobre los regímenes de precipitaciones, la producción agropecuaria y la planificación ante eventos climáticos extremos.
El agua profunda superó el máximo que había dejado El Niño de 1997
La serie de observaciones de MBARI comenzó en 1989. Desde entonces, una boya llamada M1 registra en forma casi continua datos del océano y la atmósfera en el centro de la Bahía de Monterey, sobre la entrada del cañón submarino del mismo nombre. El punto de anclaje se encuentra a unos 1.100 metros de profundidad, mientras que los instrumentos distribuidos a lo largo del cable miden temperatura, salinidad, oxígeno, clorofila, corrientes y otras variables.
El nuevo registro, obtenido a 60 metros bajo la superficie, superó la marca anterior del 19 de noviembre de 1997, durante otro evento fuerte de El Niño. De acuerdo con el científico senior Francisco Chávez, los valores se ubicaron más de 7 ℃ por encima del promedio de largo plazo y el calentamiento estuvo acompañado por un incremento de 16 centímetros en el nivel del mar local.
Chávez sostuvo que los instrumentos de la boya M1 confirman para Monterey Bay una previsión que ya anticipaba un evento excepcional en el Pacífico ecuatorial. “Los datos oceanográficos y las observaciones biológicas muestran con claridad que un El Niño fuerte llegó a la costa central de California”, señaló el especialista.
El aumento de temperatura en profundidad tiene una explicación física. Durante El Niño, se debilitan los vientos alisios que habitualmente empujan las aguas superficiales cálidas del Pacífico hacia Asia. Parte de esa masa de agua retorna hacia América y modifica la estructura vertical del mar. La termoclina —la franja que separa las capas más cálidas de las frías— se hunde, con consecuencias directas sobre la disponibilidad de nutrientes.
La menor llegada de nutrientes puede reducir el alimento en la cadena marina
En condiciones normales, el ascenso de aguas profundas y frías aporta nutrientes a la superficie, donde alimentan al fitoplancton. Esa base microscópica sostiene buena parte de la red alimentaria marina. Cuando la termoclina se profundiza, el aporte pierde fuerza y baja la productividad en superficie.
Los investigadores siguieron ese proceso con una red internacional de flotadores robotizados del programa Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC). Los dispositivos toman mediciones en tiempo real sobre la salud del océano y permitieron advertir, hacia fines de septiembre, una combinación que suele anticipar el fortalecimiento de El Niño: agua más cálida, menos dióxido de carbono disuelto y una reducción de nitratos.
A esos cambios químicos se sumó una caída pronunciada de la clorofila, utilizada como indicador de biomasa de fitoplancton. Ken Johnson, uno de los responsables de GO-BGC, explicó que los flotadores permiten comparar el estado de los ecosistemas antes, durante y después del fenómeno, una secuencia clave para comprender transformaciones de mayor alcance en el océano.
El efecto puede prolongarse varios meses. En Monterey, el calentamiento máximo suele coincidir con el invierno, cuando la productividad del mar ya es menor. Sin embargo, las consecuencias biológicas más marcadas pueden sentirse en primavera, cuando la escasez de nutrientes impacta sobre organismos que dependen de las floraciones de plancton.
Las especies tropicales ya comenzaron a aparecer frente a California
Los indicios biológicos fueron visibles antes de que el fenómeno alcance su punto máximo. En una expedición cerca del monte submarino Davidson, un equipo de MBARI observó una medusa peine alada del género Ocyropsis y un sifonóforo rosado, Athorybia rosacea. Son especies más frecuentes en aguas tropicales, como las de Hawái o México, y poco habituales frente a la costa central californiana.
Durante tareas de mantenimiento de la boya M1, los buzos también encontraron cardúmenes de peces media luna, una especie asociada con mayor frecuencia al sur de California. A mayor profundidad, el vehículo operado a distancia Doc Ricketts detectó juveniles de cangrejo rojo pelágico, Grimothea planipes, una presencia que el equipo no había registrado tan al norte.
También hubo una observación breve de varios calamares de Humboldt. El desplazamiento de esa especie resulta relevante porque, en episodios anteriores, su expansión modificó la composición de la fauna pelágica y afectó poblaciones de merluza del Pacífico, de interés comercial. La llegada de aguas cálidas puede comprimir las áreas de alimentación de ballenas cerca de la costa y alterar la disponibilidad de presas para aves marinas.
Los cambios alcanzan incluso el fondo oceánico, según antecedentes de monitoreos realizados a unos 4.000 metros de profundidad frente a California. El alimento que llega a esas zonas —partículas orgánicas que descienden desde la superficie— depende de la productividad de las capas superiores. Por eso, una alteración iniciada en el fitoplancton puede trasladarse con el tiempo a comunidades de aguas profundas.
El Niño tiene efectos que exceden la biología marina. Las anomalías de temperatura y nivel del mar pueden aumentar los riesgos de inundaciones costeras, mientras que los cambios en distribución y abundancia de especies inciden sobre las pesquerías y las economías vinculadas al mar.
MBARI y otros sistemas de observación de California comenzaron a centralizar datos de boyas, planeadores submarinos e instrumentos costeros en un tablero específico sobre El Niño. La iniciativa reúne a investigadores de la costa norte y central californiana con el objetivo de aportar información actualizada a autoridades, planificadores costeros y comunidades pesqueras.
El Niño
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, delivered a scathing assessment on Wednesday of Republicans’ sweeping midterm election losses, describing the results as a «blue tsunami» and warning that his party had lost touch with voters, particularly in the Lone Star State.
In a lengthy post on X, Cruz acknowledged that Republicans had suffered historic defeats, losing control of both chambers of Congress while Democrats swept statewide races in Texas.
«2026 was not simply a blue wave; it was a blue tsunami. It was an ass kicking,» Cruz wrote. «It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. It was a Watergate-level repudiation.»
His blunt assessment came after a landmark Democratic breakthrough in traditionally Republican strongholds across the country, including in his home state, where Democrats won every statewide race, ending decades of Republican dominance.
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«Nowhere are the consequences of this election greater than Texas,» Cruz wrote. «In the Lone Star State, we lost every single statewide election.»
«Texas is blue. That is a hard sentence to utter. But Texas, today at least, is blue,» he continued.
Democrats scored two major victories in Texas, with James Talarico defeating Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race — marking the first Democratic Senate victory in the Lone Star State in nearly four decades — and state Rep. Gina Hinojosa unseating longtime Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, according to the Decision Desk.
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Cruz argued that Republicans’ political defeat stemmed from their failure to address growing frustration over the cost of living, as voters continued struggling with everyday expenses.
«Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high,» he wrote.
«Understandably, people were pissed off, and elected Republicans didn’t do enough to address their very real pain,» Cruz said.
He also criticized tariffs and the prolonged war with Iran, arguing that both had contributed to voter frustration.
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He said Republicans had lost support among blue-collar workers, young voters, farmers, ranchers and Hispanic voters, while evangelical Christians failed to turn out with the same enthusiasm as in previous elections, concluding that his party had «alienated rural America.»
Cruz said he called Talarico after the election to congratulate him on his victory.
«Last night, I called James Talarico. I congratulated him on his very impressive victory,» Cruz wrote, adding that the two had a «pleasant conversation» and that he was willing to work with the Democrat on issues benefiting Texas.
Despite the sweeping losses, which also included Democratic wins in the state’s lieutenant governor and attorney general races, Cruz expressed optimism that Republicans could regain ground in Texas.
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«But hear me now: we will bring Texas back,» he wrote. «Texas will be red again.»
Throughout the campaign, Talarico cast himself as a moderate dedicated to representing Texans rather than Democratic interests in Washington.
Paxton, along with President Donald Trump and other national Republicans, labeled Talarico a «communist» and a vegan in barbecue-loving Texas, pointing to his support for the transgender community while in the Texas Legislature and a floor speech in which he said God was «nonbinary.»
«We have not suddenly become a bunch of tofu-eating, gun-banning, tutu-wearing pinko commie liberals,» Cruz wrote. «That ain’t us. Texas is still Texas.»
«We will rebuild as a true blue-collar party, not by embracing socialism, but by being real free-market conservatives,» he continued, predicting a political comeback for Republicans.
«It is dark right now, but it is always darkest before the dawn, and morning is coming,» he said.
Digital’s Alex Miller, Elizabeth Elkind and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.
politics, ted cruz, midterm elections, texas, greg abbott, republicans elections
Four fallen US service members honored at Dover Air Force Base
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin and retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Mike Jernigan explain the military mortuary affairs and dignified transfer process at Dover Air Force Base for the four fallen service members killed in action.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A U.S. Marine died Tuesday after an incident during training at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, military officials said.
The incident happened in Okinawa, on a Marine Corps base near the northeastern coast of Okinawa Prefecture.
The Marine, whose identity has not been released by the military, was with the 3rd Marine Division.
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A U.S. Marine died following a training incident on a military base in Okinawa, Japan. (Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP via Getty Images)
«It is with heavy hearts that 3rd Marine Division announces the death of a Marine following a training incident at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Japan, on Nov. 3, 2026,» the 3rd Marine Division said in a statement to ABC News.
«We express our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of our Marine,» the statement continued.
The Marine’s death remains under investigation, the 3rd Marine Division said.
The Marine’s death remains under investigation. (Getty Images)
The Marine’s identity is expected to be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin has been notified, Lt. Tyler Thomas, a spokesperson for the III Marine Expeditionary Force, told the outlet.
Military officials have not said whether the Marine died at Camp Schwab or after being transported to a hospital. Thomas also declined to tell ABC News whether anyone else was injured.
FOX News Digital has reached out to the 3rd Marine Division.
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The Marine’s identity is expected to be withheld until 24 hours after their family has been notified. (Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP via Getty Images)
Roughly 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with most based on Okinawa. The island remained under U.S. control from the end of World War II until 1972.
Currently, nearly 80,000 Americans live on Okinawa, including about 30,000 active-duty service members from all four military branches, with the Marine Corps accounting for the largest presence there.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
us marines, japan, military, world, pentagon
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