A federal judge in Minnesota has barred the Trump administration from detaining refugees in the state who do not yet have green cards.
In a sternly worded ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim said that refugees have a legal right in the U.S. to work, and a right to live peacefully. And importantly, he wrote, a right not be 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."
The move come after federal officials announced last week that they wanted to reexamine thousands of refugee cases. Judge Tunheim says they should not be targeted solely because of that status.
"This is an order that reaches not just the individual plaintiffs, but a class action on behalf of all refugees who have been scooped up by ICE and put into detention," explains CBS News legal analyst Laurie Levenson.
Tunheim's order focuses on the Department of Homeland Security's plan — known as Operation PARRIS — to review the immigration cases of roughly 5,600 people who currently live in Minnesota legally with refugee status, but aren't yet lawful permanent residents in the United States.
In an unrelated case, Minnesota's chief federal judge is also slamming ICE for violating dozens of court orders.
Judge Patrick Schiltz says officials with ICE have disobeyed at least 96 judicial directives stemming from immigration cases this month alone. Schiltz says that’s more than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.
The judge wrote: "This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs.”
Schiltz had ordered ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons to appear in his courtroom this Friday to explain the violations but canceled that after ICE agreed to release an immigrant Schiltz ruled had been wrongly detained.
Speaking in the Twin Cities Thursday morning, White House "border czar" Tom Homan, who President Donald Trump sent to Minnesota to take over immigration enforcement operations in the state, vowed to do things "by the book."
Homan did say the mission "will improve," an admission that it did go off course under the leadership of Border Patrol Commandeer Greg Bovino and DHS Sec. Kristi Noem, both of whom are no longer in Minnesota.
"I'm not here because this mission was carried out perfectly. Nothing is perfect," Homan added.