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In Minnesota, the phrase “catch and release” has a history of balance, stewardship, and restraint. It is a conservation practice in which a peaceful fisher on one of our 10,000 lakes who makes a catch returns the fish to the water immediately. This practice maintains a sustainable fish population and ensures future fishers have the chance to succeed. Anglers are careful not to injure caught fish, and they learn how to use barbless hooks and handle fish gently.
Today, the phrase instead evokes a sinister practice.
Minneapolis residents are now hearing “catch and release” to describe immigration enforcement practices in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other law enforcement detains people under the auspices of law, holds them in jail for an indeterminate amount of time (perhaps a couple of days) without criminal charges, and then releases them into uncertainty. No indictment. No arraignment. No court appearance. Often, there is no clear explanation of why the person is jailed or what comes next.
Unlike the fishers, who are careful not to injure their catch, law enforcement is acting violently and haphazardly. ICE “roughing up” arrestees is increasingly the norm, not the exception.
For criminal defense attorneys, this must present a blaring alarm. This policy is designed to prevent those jailed from meaningfully asserting their constitutional rights. A person who is never charged with a crime cannot ask a judge to dismiss that crime. A person who is released from jail within the statutorily permitted timeframe cannot ask a judge to order them released from jail. It is designed to send a terrifying message: we can put you in jail and there is nothing you can do about it.
“Catch and release” collapses critical legal protections. “Catch” frequently involves warrantless arrests, the targeting of people of color, retaliation against people for exercising constitutional rights, and police presences that blur the lines of lawful authority. “Release” frequently reflects a lack of probable cause, a lack of statutory authority, and a lack of judicial approval to keep a person in jail.
The metaphor took on a tragic new resonance on Jan. 7, 2026, when an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and mother of three in a residential neighborhood of South Minneapolis.
Ms. Good was not charged with any crime, but she was killed in the midst of a federal operation in broad daylight. State and local police, family members, human rights advocates, and at least one federal judge have raised serious questions about police retaliating against people for exercising their rights. In response to this, federal officials have doubled down — again taking steps to prevent meaningful oversight and to prevent people from asserting their rights. “Catch and release” is an extension of that.
In Minneapolis, a city that has spent the last several years publicly confronting the consequences of unchecked police power, the contrast between peaceful tradition and coercive practice is stark. Our legal tradition does not recognize “temporary punishment.” Liberty is not a holding pattern.
Civil immigration detention is often defended as administrative rather than punitive. This distinction is either academic or meaningless. A parent thrown in jail (possibly violently) and held for days without charges is removed from the family, unable to work, and left in fear of what may come next. Phrases like “short-term detention” are easy for government officers to consider in abstract terms, but we cannot lose sight of the reality of the situation. This is a profound deprivation of freedom and must be justified at every stage.
When rhetoric like “catch and release” is applied to such deeply consequential events, that language both underplays the seriousness of governmental action and risks normalizing a power that is not just unchecked but is also designed to be unchecked.
As criminal defense lawyers, we must resist any government attempt to manufacture a scheme in which people’s rights are flagrantly disregarded. “Catch and release” may be an appropriate way to treat fish, but it can never be an acceptable way to treat people and their most fundamental constitutional rights.
About the Author
Andy Birrell is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. He represents clients in all phases of criminal law and related matters from grand jury investigations through trials and appeals in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Birrell is also a seasoned appellate lawyer, having argued before the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Andrew S. Birrell (NACDL Life Member)
Birrell Law Firm, PLLC
Minneapolis, Minnesota
612-238-1939
andy@birrell.law
https://www.birrellcriminaldefense.com
