MINNEAPOLIS - Jose Avendano tried explaining to the immigration officer pulling him from his car that he had permission to be in the United States. The 62-year-old dishwasher fled El Salvador decades ago and had a valid work permit and temporary protection from deportation.“They didn’t listen,” Avendano said.He was taken to a detention camp near a U.S. military base in El Paso in early January as attention in Minneapolis and across the nation focused on clashes between protesters and federal immigration officers that resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens and intensified tensions over the Trump administration’s mass-deportation campaign.More than 4,000 people have been arrested in Minneapolis since the start of Operation Metro Surge in December. Federal judges and civil rights lawyers say many detentions violated the law.The Washington Post reviewed nearly 70 cases in which U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz ruled the Trump administration violated court orders. The records provide one of the most detailed accounts yet of who officers arrested in Minneapolis and how the arrests were carried out.The files show officers repeatedly detained people under a reinterpretation of a 1996 law stating anyone in the United States illegally “shall be detained” without bond. Courts had previously ordered that some detainees receive bond hearings or be released.Of the 66 cases examined, 52 involved immigrants with pending applications for asylum or another legal status. None had final deportation orders. Most had no criminal records and more than a third had lived in the United States for more than a decade.Avendano, a grandfather with a heart condition, was held for nine days before his lawyer filed a lawsuit and a judge ordered his release.Most federal judges nationwide have ruled the administration’s policy of mandatory detention for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States is illegal. But government attorneys continue to defend the policy, and legal experts say the issue could reach the Supreme Court.The administration argues federal law allows officials to detain undocumented immigrants without bond to ensure they attend immigration hearings.ICE officials say their goal is to enforce removal orders efficiently.“We detain to remove,” acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said during a congressional oversight hearing last month.Immigration lawyers in Minnesota said they quickly became overwhelmed as the number of detainees grew. Government attorneys reported receiving hundreds of emergency filings and emails.Michael Tan, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney leading a nationwide lawsuit challenging the policy, said ICE is using detention to pressure immigrants to accept deportation.“We have the largest mandatory detention regime in the United States,” Tan said. “We’re literally talking about millions of people.”The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice did not respond to questions about the detentions.On Jan. 9, Avendano was driving to the Chinese restaurant where he had washed dishes for 16 years when three vehicles surrounded his car. A masked agent pulled him out, he said, “like I was a criminal.”Avendano said he told officers he had temporary protected status, granted to thousands of Salvadorans after earthquakes in 2001.“That’s canceled,” he said one agent told him.Avendano said he knew that was not true.His family and lawyer searched for him while officers held him in Minnesota, shackled at the wrists, ankles and waist. His lawyer said his only record was a speeding ticket.He also suffers from cardiomyopathy, a heart condition requiring a pacemaker and daily medication. Because of the detention, he missed a medical procedure meant to stabilize his heartbeat.“EMERGENCY - Serious Medical Condition,” attorney Maria Miller wrote to ICE. “He has not been able to take his heart medications ... We don’t know where he is.”A federal magistrate judge ordered the Justice Department to explain the arrest. When government lawyers failed to respond, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ruled they violated court orders and directed that Avendano be released.ICE held him three more days.“Even when the court issues an order ... it’s just chaos,” Miller said. “Nobody’s listening to anybody.”Court records show many detainees had only minor offenses such as speeding tickets or driving without a license. None had final removal orders.Advocates say immigrants should not be detained if their only offense is a civil immigration violation because immigration proceedings can take months or years.A man from Nicaragua who surrendered at the southern border in 2022 said he had a work permit and a pending asylum application when immigration court summoned him to a hearing.He went.“When I arrived, they said I didn’t have a case,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he fears being arrested again.ICE officers arrested him in the hallway as he left.His labor union helped him file a lawsuit, and a judge ordered his return and release, though he remained detained several additional days.Now he fears trusting the federal government again.“Are they going to detain me again and deport me?” he said. “Or will they let me stay always?”Court records also show several detainees were refugees who had entered the United States legally after fleeing persecution in their home countries.One case involved a 12-year-old boy sent to a family detention center in Texas.Judge John Tunheim later ruled the government “failed to file anything” to justify the arrest and ordered the group released.“The Court can scarcely think of a situation requiring more urgency than a 12-year-old allegedly, with health concerns, being arrested unlawfully and whisked away across the country,” Tunheim wrote.Records also show tensions between federal judges and government attorneys responding to emergency petitions.Justice Department attorney Ana Voss apologized to a judge for missing orders requiring the government to explain a detention, writing that her office had been overwhelmed by emergency filings.“It has become apparent to me that I am not able to effectively triage and review every order,” she wrote.The Trump administration ended Operation Metro Surge on Feb. 12, but several lawsuits remain pending.Judge Schiltz said ICE had violated numerous court orders in the cases he reviewed and warned the court would continue enforcing compliance.“This Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law,” Schiltz wrote.Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.