By STEVE KARNOWSKI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal choose will hear arguments Thursday on whether or not he ought to prolong an order that protects Minnesota refugees who’re lawfully within the U.S. from being arrested and deported.
U.S. District Decide John Tunheim blocked the federal government from focusing on these refugees final month, saying the plaintiffs within the case had been prone to prevail on their claims “that their arrest and detention, and the coverage that purports to justify them, are illegal.” His Jan. 28 short-term restraining order will expire Feb. 25 except he grants a extra everlasting preliminary injunction.
Refugee rights teams sued the federal authorities in January after the Division of Homeland Safety and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies in mid-December launched Operation PARRIS, an acronym for Put up-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening.
It was billed as a “sweeping initiative” to reexamine the circumstances of 5,600 Minnesota refugees who had not but been granted everlasting resident standing, also referred to as inexperienced playing cards. The businesses cited fraud in public packages in Minnesota as justification.
Operation PARRIS was a part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown that focused Minnesota, together with the surge of hundreds of federal officers into the state. Homeland Safety mentioned it was its largest immigration enforcement operation ever. It additionally sparked mass protests after the taking pictures deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. White Home border czar Tom Homan introduced final week the surge was ending, although a small federal presence would stay.
The lawsuit alleges that ICE officers went door to door beneath Operation PARRIS arresting refugees and sending them to detention facilities in Texas, with out entry to attorneys. Some had been later launched on the streets of Texas and left to search out their very own means again to Minnesota, they mentioned.
The choose rejected the federal government’s declare that it had the authorized proper to arrest and detain refugees who haven’t obtained their inexperienced playing cards inside a 12 months of arriving within the U.S. He mentioned that will be illogical and nonsensical, on condition that refugees can’t apply for everlasting residency till they’ve been within the U.S. for a 12 months.
Tunheim famous in his order, which applies solely in Minnesota, that refugees are extensively vetted by a number of businesses earlier than being resettled within the U.S. He wrote that none arrested within the operation had been deemed a hazard to the neighborhood or a flight threat, nor had any been charged with crimes that may very well be grounds for deportation.
The choose cited a number of circumstances involving plaintiffs named within the lawsuit, together with one man recognized solely as U.H.A., a refugee with no legal historical past. He was admitted into the U.S. in 2024 and was arrested by ICE whereas driving to work on Jan. 18 this 12 months. “He was pulled over, ordered out of his automotive, handcuffed, and detained, with out a warrant or obvious justification,” the choose wrote.
Tunheim careworn that the refugees impacted by his order had been admitted into the U.S. due to persecution of their dwelling international locations. He prohibited additional arrests beneath Operation PARRIS and ordered that every one detainees nonetheless in custody from or not it’s launched and returned to Minnesota.
“They don’t seem to be committing crimes on our streets, nor did they illegally cross the border. Refugees have a authorized proper to be in america, a proper to work, a proper to reside peacefully — and importantly, a proper to not be subjected to the phobia of being arrested and detained with out warrants or trigger of their properties or on their technique to spiritual companies or to purchase groceries,” he wrote.
“At its greatest, America serves as a haven of particular person liberties in a world too typically filled with tyranny and cruelty. We abandon that ultimate after we topic our neighbors to worry and chaos,” he continued.
In a follow-up order Feb. 9, Tunheim rejected a authorities movement to elevate the short-term restraining order.
