A federal judge will hear arguments Thursday on whether or not to further block a federal immigration operation targeting refugees who are lawfully in Minnesota.
Advocates sued last month over Opeartion PARRIS, acronym for Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening. That focused on reviewing cases of 5,600 Minnesota refugees yet to be granted permanent resident status. They claimed ICE agents went door to door to make the arrests, saying many of those arrested weren't given access to attorneys, and were released from Texas detention centers with no way to get back to Minnesota.
U.S. District Judge John Tunheim blocked the government from targeting these refugees last month, saying the plaintiffs in the case were likely to prevail on their claims “that their arrest and detention, and the policy that purports to justify them, are unlawful.” His Jan. 28 temporary restraining order will expire Feb. 25 unless he grants a more permanent preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit alleges that ICE officers went door to door under Operation PARRIS arresting refugees and sending them to detention centers in Texas, without access to attorneys. Some were later released on the streets of Texas and left to find their own way back to Minnesota, they said.
The judge rejected the government's claim that it had the legal right to arrest and detain refugees who haven't obtained their green cards within a year of arriving in the U.S. He said that would be illogical and nonsensical, given that refugees can't apply for permanent residency until they've been in the U.S. for a year.
Tunheim noted in his order, which applies only in Minnesota, that refugees are extensively vetted by multiple agencies before being resettled in the U.S. He wrote that none arrested in the operation had been deemed a danger to the community or a flight risk, nor had any been charged with crimes that could be grounds for deportation.
The judge cited several cases involving plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, including one man identified only as U.H.A., a refugee with no criminal history. He was admitted into the U.S. in 2024 and was arrested by ICE while driving to work on Jan. 18 this year. “He was pulled over, ordered out of his car, handcuffed, and detained, without a warrant or apparent justification,” the judge wrote.
Tunheim stressed that the refugees impacted by his order were admitted into the U.S. because of persecution in their home countries. He prohibited further arrests under Operation PARRIS and ordered that all detainees still in custody from it be released and returned to Minnesota.
“They are not committing crimes on our streets, nor did they illegally cross the border. 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,” he wrote.
“At its best, America serves as a haven of individual liberties in a world too often full of tyranny and cruelty. We abandon that ideal when we subject our neighbors to fear and chaos,” he continued.
In a follow-up order Feb. 9, Tunheim rejected a government motion to lift the temporary restraining order.