MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration has issued a new order that could lead to the arrest of tens of thousands of refugees who are in the United States legally but do not yet have permanent residency, undoing years of legal and immigration safeguards.
A memo filed by the Department of Homeland Security ahead of Thursday’s federal court hearing in Minnesota says refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody a year after being admitted to the U.S. for their applications to be processed.
DHS “may maintain custody during the inspection and review process,” the memo, which was filed Wednesday, said.
Advocacy and resettlement groups have criticized the order, which is likely to face legal challenges and could sow confusion and fear among the nearly 200,000 refugees who came to the United States during the Biden administration.
The order is the latest in a series of immigration restrictions imposed by the Trump administration, which has upended longstanding refugee policies, including dramatically reducing the number of people admitted to the country. A memo obtained by The Associated Press late last year said the administration was planning a review of all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration and immediately suspended green card approvals for refugees who arrived in those years.
The administration cited national security and economic concerns for its changed policies. Experts say refugees allowed into the country are already subject to extensive vetting.
The new order came hours before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim was to hear arguments Thursday on whether to extend a temporary order protecting Minnesota refugees legally in the U.S. from arrest and deportation. Tunheim’s order only applies in Minnesota, but the implications of the new national policy were a big part of the discussion anyway.
It was unclear how many people could be arrested under the new order.
Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers said during Thursday’s hearing that the government should have the right to arrest refugees a year after they enter the U.S., but indicated that won’t always happen.
“It’s a discretionary call for DHS,” he said, a comment met with skepticism by refugee advocates in Minnesota.
Tunheim did not comment Thursday, saying he would issue a written decision on whether to extend the temporary order.
After the hearing, Democratic U.S. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota said at a press conference outside the court that the government “has not offered any coherent argument for their policy in law or fact.” She was not in court for the hearing but said she had been informed about it.
“And so we will continue to fight for justice in the courts,” Smith said, flanked by lawyers and refugee rights advocates, including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Advocacy groups condemn the new order
Immigration advocates quickly pushed back against the new policy, HIAS, an international Jewish nonprofit that serves refugees and asylum seekers, called it “a transparent effort to detain and potentially deport thousands of people who are legally present in this country, people the U.S. government itself has welcomed.”
“They were promised safety and a chance to rebuild their lives. Instead, DHS is now threatening them with arrest and indefinite detention,” Beth Oppenheim, the group’s CEO, said in a statement.
Tunheim blocked the government from targeting refugees in Minnesota last month, saying the plaintiffs in the case could prevail on their claims “that their arrest and detention, and the policy that purports to justify them, are unlawful.” His January 28 temporary restraining order will expire on February 25 unless he grants a more permanent preliminary injunction.
The judge previously rejected the government’s claim that it had the legal right to arrest and detain refugees who have not obtained their green cards within a year of arriving in the US.
“Mandatory detention would lead to an illogical result,” Tunheim wrote, since refugees can’t even apply for green cards until they’ve been in the U.S. for a year. The government’s interpretation, he said, meant that almost all refugees would face detention unless immigration officials carried out their assessment exactly at the one-year mark, which he called “nonsense”.
Refugee rights groups sued the federal government in January after the government launched Operation PARRIS, an acronym for Post-Admission Refugee Review and Integrity Strengthening.
It was billed as a “broad initiative” to review the cases of 5,600 Minnesota refugees who have not yet been granted permanent resident status or green cards. Agencies cited fraud in Minnesota’s public programs as justification.
Operation PARRIS was part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targeting Minnesota, including a surge in thousands of federal officers. Homeland Security called it the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. It sparked mass protests after federal agents shot and killed two American citizens. White House border czar Tom Homan announced last week that the surge would end, though a small federal presence would remain.
The judge notes that refugees are vetted extensively
The lawsuit alleges that ICE officers went door-to-door as part of Operation PARRIS, arresting refugees and sending them to detention centers in Texas without access to lawyers. Some were later released in Texas and left to find their own way back to Minnesota, they said.
Tunheim noted in his order that refugees undergo extensive screening by multiple agencies before being resettled in the US. He wrote that none of those arrested in the operation were considered a danger to the community or a flight risk, nor were they charged with crimes that could constitute grounds for deportation.
Tunheim pointed out that the refugees affected by his order were admitted to the U.S. because of persecution in their countries of origin. He prohibited further arrests under Operation PARRIS and ordered that detainees still in custody from it be released and returned to Minnesota.
“They are not committing crimes on our streets, nor have they crossed the border illegally. Refugees have a legal right to be in the United States, a right to work, a right to live in peace,” he wrote.