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Notes -
The major issue here isn't even about immigration.
The de jure legal situation is that federal law is supreme and the federal government has the right to enforce it. If they states are interfering then the feds have some extreme powers to make them comply, eg Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy deploying the National Guard to enforce school desegregation.
The de facto legal situation is that left wing mayors and governors are allowed to rule with a form of Bigmanism and nullify federal laws as they please.
Courts have been toeing the legal line by blocking mild enforcement when insisting they haven't invalidating federal supremacy because the feds can still do some form of extreme enforcement.
People in the Trump admin view the current situation as untenable. They want to get a legal court record covering as much of it as possible. The legal record does matter even if Minnesota courts find ways to block any convictions. Without a legal record higher courts will simply pretend it didn't happen. With it they'll be stuck trying to create some kind of legal principle that can be reviewed.
This. It's all about the ability of the DC to enforce its will on the states. The fact that it's technically about illegal immigration and not something else is because it's a federal issue that has sufficient popular support. This means Trump can say it has a mandate from the population to do what he's doing.
This means both sides are constantly escalating until something like Frey ordering MPD to arrest some icemen or some icemen snapping and going Kent State on the protesters happens.
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