Judge orders release of Minnesota refugees targeted in ICE operation
A federal judge on Wednesday evening ordered federal agents to stop detaining and deporting refugees in Minnesota who were lawfully admitted to the United States and to immediately release those currently held, granting a temporary restraining order that halts the operation. The judge’s order pauses a Trump administration operation that has swept up at least 100 people so far.
“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 in their homes or on their way to religious services or to buy groceries,” wrote Judge John R.
Tunheim in a 32-page opinion. “At its best, America serves as a haven of individual liberties in a world too often full of tyranny and cruelty.” The action responded to a class-action lawsuit filed by refugees represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project, Berger Montague and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.
Sergio Perez, the executive director of the law and human rights center, said the order “vindicates the rights of people who fled war, famine and persecution to build a better life in the United States.” Federal agents began arresting refugees in the Twin Cities on Jan. 13, in their homes, on the streets and in stores, then processing them and putting them on planes to Texas for interviews with immigration officers.
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