By STEVE KARNOWSKI and ED WHITE
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal decide on Friday prolonged an order defending refugees in Minnesota who’re lawfully within the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration coverage turns the “American Dream right into a dystopian nightmare.”
U.S. District Choose John Tunheim granted a movement by advocates for refugees to transform a non permanent restraining order that he issued in January right into a extra everlasting preliminary injunction whereas the case develops additional.
The order applies solely in Minnesota. However the implications of a brand new nationwide coverage on refugees that the Division of Homeland Safety introduced Feb. 19 had been a serious a part of the dialogue at a listening to held by the decide the subsequent day.
“Minnesota refugees can now dwell their lives with out concern that their very own authorities will snatch them off the road and imprison them removed from family members,” Kimberly Grano, an legal professional with the Worldwide Refugee Help Venture, advised The Related Press.
The Trump administration asserts it has the appropriate to arrest probably tens of hundreds of refugees throughout the U.S. who entered the nation legally however don’t but have inexperienced playing cards. A brand new Homeland Safety memo interprets immigration legislation to say that refugees making use of for inexperienced playing cards should return to federal custody one yr after they had been admitted to the U.S. in order that their purposes may be reviewed.
The decide, nonetheless, expressed disbelief in a 66-page opinion.
“This Court docket is not going to permit federal authorities to make use of a brand new and misguided statutory interpretation to terrorize refugees who immigrated to this nation beneath the promise that they might be welcomed and allowed to dwell in peace, removed from the persecution they fled,” Tunheim stated.
He stated the U.S. a long time in the past promised refugees fleeing persecution that they may construct a brand new life after rigorous background checks.
“We promised them the hope that sooner or later they may obtain the American Dream,” Tunheim stated. “The Authorities’s new coverage breaks that promise — with out congressional authorization — and raises critical constitutional issues. The brand new coverage turns the refugees’ American Dream right into a dystopian nightmare.”
Homeland Safety and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies didn’t instantly return a request for remark Friday.
Justice Division legal professional Brantley Mayers stated throughout a courtroom listening to final week that the federal government ought to have the appropriate to arrest refugees one yr after coming into the U.S., however he additionally indicated that might not at all times occur.
The decide famous that one refugee within the case, recognized as D. Doe, was arrested in January after being advised that somebody had struck his automobile.
“He was instantly flown to Texas, the place he was interrogated about his refugee standing. He was saved in ‘shackles and handcuffs’ for sixteen hours. D. Doe was finally launched on the streets of Texas, left to seek out his approach again to Minnesota,” Tunheim stated.
White reported from Detroit. Related Press reporter Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this story.
