A federal judge in Minnesota on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration that restricts it from detaining any of the state’s 5,600 lawful refugees awaiting permanent resident status.
“These individuals were admitted to the country, have followed the rules, and are waiting to have their status adjusted to lawful permanent residents of the United States,” Judge John R. Tunheim wrote in a 32-page ruling. The decision only affects those actively awaiting legal status, and does not affect those seeking asylum.
The ruling also calls for the release of the more than 100 refugees already detained by the federal government. The federal government has arrested and relocated more than 100 refugees from Minnesota to Texas, according to reporting by The New York Times.
“These refugees have undergone rigorous background checks and vetting, been approved by multiple federal agencies for entry, been given permission to work, received support from the government, and been resettled in the United States,” Tunheim writes. “Preliminary consideration of the lawfulness of this practice requires the Court to consider the unique legal status refugees hold within the United States immigration system.”
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The restraining order came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of five anonymous refugees challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s targeted arrests of Somali refugees in Minneapolis.
The ruling details multiple cases of aggressive force used to detain refugees, allegedly without probable cause.
Tunheim, in his Wednesday ruling, determined that refugees awaiting permanent lawful residency constitute a unique subclass that is not subject to deportation, given the stringent background check process conducted in order to grant their original refugee status.
“The Court concludes that federal statutes governing refugees and immigrant detention do not permit prolonged detention of unadjusted refugees who have not been charged with any ground of removability,” the ruling reads.
Under the rules of Tunheim’s restraining order, DHS cannot arrest or detain any individual on the basis of being a refugee, and must “immediately release” the refugees currently detained. For those who have been transported out of the state, the court ordered they be transported back to Minnesota and released within five days.
“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,” Tunheim concluded. “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.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the judge’s ruling only applies to refugees awaiting legal status, and not asylum seekers.
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