A new federal operation is scooping up legally admitted refugees in Minnesota and in many cases shipping them to detention facilities in Texas before their families can find lawyers and file an appeal.
Approximately 150 Minnesota refugees have been arrested since the operation began on Jan. 9, local immigration attorneys and refugee resettlement agency leaders say.
As part of “Operation PARRIS,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be conducting “thorough” background checks, reinterviews and merit reviews of refugee claims, according to an agency news release.
The operation initially will target 5,600 Minnesota refugees without green cards to implement “new vetting enhancements” to identify fraud and public safety threats, the news release said.
Several local immigration attorneys said there is little historical evidence of fraud in the nation’s refugee resettlement program. They also said transferring refugees quickly to Texas is a common tactic that makes it difficult for them to communicate with their clients and file federal petitions asking for release from judges in Minnesota who are more likely to approve them.
They also said it’s unclear why USCIS arrested the refugees without charges, but the goal of the operation appeared to be to deport as many people as possible.
St. Cloud resident Khadra Muse Mohamed, 25, was pulled over by a squad of undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Jan. 10, one day after the operation began. The single mother was taken to Fort Snelling, then transported to Texas, leaving her family in turmoil.
She arrived in the U.S. in April 2024 and passed security screenings before settling in St. Cloud with her 7-year-old son, Hanad Mohamed Farah, her mother Sado Ali, her physically disabled stepfather, Ibrahim Abdi Hassan and her parents’ other five other children.
Sado, Khadra’s mother, has been unable to leave her apartment since the arrests of refugees, primarily from Somalia, began last on Jan. 9. “I am heartbroken,” Sado said. “We were admitted to the United States after going through a legal process. I don’t know what to do.”
Khadra’s family came through a U.N. process from Shader Refugee Camp in Ethiopia, where living conditions were dire. “The camp was not a place for anyone, let alone a disabled person,” her stepfather said. They faced extreme limitations, including inadequate food, scarce water and no health care.
Ibrahim has been the father figure to Khadra since she was 3. “She started helping me raise the kids when she was 15. Without her, our life would be dark,” he said.
Some of the refugees targeted in the operation were arrested by ICE officers pulling them over in their cars, stopping them on their way to work, or banging on the door to their home in the middle of the night, according to local immigration attorneys.
Families and attorneys had difficulty contacting refugees arrested over the past two weeks, since many of them were quickly transferred to Texas, said Kathleen Motzenbecker, director of refugee and immigration services of Minnesota Council of Churches, a local resettlement agency.
A handful of refugees who were arrested have been released in the past couple of days, according to local immigration attorneys and nonprofit resettlement agencies.
One of them is an Eritrean single mother of three who had a pending green card application when she was detained. During a five-hour interview, her attorney, Jona Muñoz, said the USCIS officers questioned her client about application materials and why she fled her country.
“The USCIS officer who was conducting that interview let me know that he actually had no idea as to why she was there,” he said. “And he had no authority regarding her detention.”
A few days after she was arrested, Muñoz said they released her and she’s now back in Minnesota. Her green card application was approved while she was in detention.
“These are the most vetted immigrants that come in here — they complete medical exams overseas and then they wait, potentially several years in a camp, to come here in the United States,” he said.
So far, it’s also unclear how refugees in ICE detention facilities are being treated, according to attorneys and resettlement agency leaders. A few families have reported that their relatives in detention are being pressured to self-deport.
Idle Aydid, a relative who was in the car with Khadra during her arrest, described the incident as shocking. “An undercover car pulled us over, and I thought they were local police,” he said. “Suddenly, there were nine vehicles.”
Idle said ICE agents asked him where he was born, and if he is a citizen and took pictures of him before questioning Khadra, who has limited English proficiency. “We were detained for about 15 minutes before they took Khadra away in a large SUV,” Idle said.
Sado Ali said she received a call from Khadra shortly after she was detained. “She was crying and said, ‘I missed you, Mama. I’m in an ICE detainment in St. Paul, but it’s too cold. Can someone please bring me a jacket?'” Sado later attempted to deliver food and clothing to Khadra, but the items were returned after she was transferred to Texas.
In a call from Texas, Khadra told her: “Hooyo, I think they will deport me to Africa.”
The family has faced challenges since Khadra’s arrest. With six young children at home, including Hanad, they have struggled to manage daily needs.
Khadra’s son, Hanad, has struggled to cope with his mother’s absence, Sado said. “Where did mama go?” he asks, especially at meal times and bedtime.
Nine days after her arrest, Khadra was released from ICE detention in Texas on Monday, Jan. 19. Her family was working to arrange her flight back to Minnesota.
