MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge says she won’t halt the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and the Twin Cities as a lawsuit over it proceeds.

Judge Katherine M. Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed this month by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

It argued that the Department of Homeland Security is violating constitutional protections. The lawsuit sought a quick order to halt the enforcement action or limit its scope. Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have called the lawsuit “legally frivolous.”

The ruling on the injunction focused on the argument by Minnesota officials that the federal government is violating the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which limits the federal government’s powers to infringe on the sovereignty of states. In her ruling, the judge relied heavily on whether that argument was likely to ultimately succeed in court.

The federal government argued that the surge, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, is necessary in its effort to take criminal immigrants off the streets and because federal efforts have been hindered by state and local “sanctuary laws and policies.” State and local officials argued that the surge is retaliation after the federal government’s initial attempts to withhold federal funding to try to force immigration cooperation failed.

“Because there is evidence supporting both sides’ arguments as to motivation and the relative merits of each side’s competing positions are unclear, the Court is reluctant to find that the likelihood-of-success factor weighs sufficiently in favor of granting a preliminary injunction.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took to social media Saturday to laud the ruling, calling it “another HUGE” legal win for the Justice Department on X.

Federal officers have fatally shot two people on the streets of Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24.

Local businesses across the US forwent income for the day to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.

In what was billed a “National Shutdown,” organizers called for a 24-hour general strike, asking students to skip school, business owners to close up shop, and consumers to refrain from spending for the day.

Some small and medium-sized businesses from coast to coast posted on their social media stating that they’d be closed on Friday as part of the demonstrations. Others said that they’d remain open to support their workers, but showed support for the protests.

Touchstone Climbing, a popular California-based climbing gym with about 20 locations, posted on social media that its gyms were closed and that hourly employees scheduled to work on Friday would be paid.

Medium, an online publishing company, told employees that they were free to take Friday off to participate in the protests.

Photos show crowds of demonstrators holding signs that said “ICE Out” and gathering in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, and Minneapolis, among other cities.

The protests come amid growing tensions in communities where the Trump administration has deployed federal agents. Many of the high-profile enforcement efforts have been concentrated in blue or so-called sanctuary cities.

In Minneapolis, two US residents, Good and Pretti, were fatally shot after a confrontation with federal agents that occurred within a span of a few weeks.

Hundreds of local businesses in Minnesota participated in an economic blackout last week, shuttering their stores for a day following the shootings. The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, which is tied to AFL-CIO, the largest labor union in the US, endorsed the general strike.

The Department of Justice announced on Friday that it opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Pretti, a 37-year-old registered nurse who was killed by a Border Patrol agent.

A minor, 2.4-magnitude earthquake struck in New Jersey on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 3:42 p.m. Eastern about 4 miles northeast of Whitehouse Station, N.J., or about 35 miles west of Manhattan, data from the agency shows.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.