Judge Provinzino Holds DOJ Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in Civil Contempt, $500 a Day, Over ICE-Withheld IDs; Purged Next Day, Appeal Follows

The Minnesota contempt finding the Gonzalez v. DHS complaint cites as “Rigoberto S. J.” is Soto Jimenez v. Bondi on the docket (0:26-cv-00957; the order’s caption uses initials). Judge Laura Provinzino granted the habeas petition on 2026-02-09 after the government did not respond, ordering release in Minnesota and return of all property. ICE instead released the petitioner in Texas on 2026-02-12 without his Minnesota license, instruction permit and Mexican consular ID. After a show-cause hearing on 2026-02-18 (order date) she found SAUSA Matthew Isihara, the assigned attorney, in civil contempt and ordered him personally to pay $500 a day from 2026-02-20 until the documents were in the petitioner’s hands. ICE returned the property on 2026-02-19 (declaration, Doc. 21); the 2026-02-20 order says the contempt was purged and no fines imposed. Isihara blamed understaffing; the court noted he had joined the office the month before and been assigned nearly 130 cases, and wrote that the court could not tell who in ICE had released the petitioner in Texas because the government produced no ICE witness with knowledge. Footnote 12 says the government is not barred from arguing a legal basis to retain IDs, but made no such argument here.

Aftermath (docket): the government noticed an Eighth Circuit appeal of the contempt on 2026-02-23 (Doc. 25; USCA 26-1327). A separate Bloomberg Law report (secondary, not read in full) says the Eighth Circuit denied a motion to dismiss the appeal on 2026-04-20; no merits ruling was found.

Reading note: the fine was coercive and never paid, so “held in contempt” overstates the money; the point is that the sanction fell on the line attorney, not on ICE, which is the structural gap the Gonzalez complaint exploits.

Context: 2026-02-18–ausas-tell-judge-provinzino-opla-attorneys-rotate-through-minnesota-us-attorneys-office-habeas-surge; cited in 2026-10-13–gonzalez-v-dhs-class-action-ice-keeps-ids-eads-property-after-release.