Trump Administration Cannot ‘Terrorize' Minnesota's Refugees With Arrests, U.S. Judge Rules

The judge ruled shortly after a group of refugees filed a similar but broader lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts seeking to challenge the policy's enforcement nationwide.

Feb 27 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday said he would not allow President Donald Trump’s administration to “terrorize” Minnesota’s 5,600 refugees by arresting and detaining them under a new policy that “turns the refugees’ American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.”

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis made that statement as he issued a preliminary injunction that extended an earlier, temporary order that blocked the administration from arresting or detaining refugees on the basis that they had yet to obtain lawful permanent resident status, or green cards.

The administration had sought to do so under a policy adopted as part of “Operation PARRIS,” a program announced in January that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security billed as “a sweeping initiative” to reexamine thousands of refugee cases.

DHS at the time said the initial focus of the initiative would be the roughly 5,600 refugees who had yet to be given green cards in Minnesota, the site of a recent immigration enforcement surge operation and benefits fraud scandal.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment.