A federal judge in Minnesota has blocked immigration officers from arresting and detaining recently resettled refugees in the state, following a lawsuit that accused agents of “hunting” them and sending them to a detention centre in Texas.
District Judge John Tunheim’s order, issued on Wednesday night, also commands the administration to immediately release any detained refugees and return them to their homes in Minnesota. The judge noted that the refugees involved had been “carefully and thoroughly vetted” before being accepted into the United States due to persecution in their home countries.
“They are not committing crimes on our streets, nor did they illegally cross the border,” Tunheim wrote. “Refugees have a legal right to be in the United States, a right to work, a right to live peacefully — and importantly, a right not to be subjected to the terror of being arrested and detained without warrants or cause.”
The temporary restraining order remains in effect while the judge considers a wider injunction. The lawsuit was filed after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested refugees at immigration check-ins, on their way to work or school, and appeared at their homes without warrants. Some were shackled and sent to a detention centre in Texas, over 1,200 miles away.
Kimberly Grano, staff attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, which joined the litigation, said: “For more than two weeks, refugees in Minnesota have been living in terror of being hunted down and disappeared to Texas. This temporary restraining order will immediately put in place desperately needed guardrails on ICE and protect resettled refugees from being unlawfully targeted for arrest and detention.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services defended the operation, saying: “This operation in Minnesota demonstrates that the Trump administration will not stand idly by as the U.S. immigration system is weaponized by those seeking to defraud the American people.” The spokesperson added: “This is yet another lawless and activist order from the federal judiciary who continues to undermine our immigration laws.”
