{"id":438488,"date":"2026-01-30T08:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/438488\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:12:15","slug":"they-were-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-in-minnesota-still-ice-detained-and-flew-them-to-texas-to-face-deportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/438488\/","title":{"rendered":"They were asylum seekers and refugees in Minnesota. Still, ICE detained and flew them to Texas to face deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Two days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota reportedly tackled a home caregiver from sub-Saharan Africa to the snowy pavement and took her away in a van, a close friend made the 1,400-mile journey to a controversial Texas detention facility<\/a> where she\u2019s being held.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe was so surprised to see me,\u201d said her friend, Justin, a 40-year-old home caregiver who asked his full name not be used for fear of retaliation. \u201cShe never believed that anybody knew where she was.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She isn\u2019t alone.\n <\/p>\n

\n Dozens of asylum seekers like her, as well as refugees who passed a rigorous, years-long vetting process before being admitted to the United States, have been arrested in Minnesota in recent weeks, immigration lawyers and advocates say.\n <\/p>\n

\n The immigrants are shackled and placed on flights to detention facilities in Texas, where they are forced to recount painful asylum claims with limited or no contact with family members or attorneys, lawyers and advocates say. Some, after days of interviews with officers, have been released in Texas without money, identification or phones. Others remain detained without information about why they\u2019re being held.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt really is a campaign of terror. It is designed to scare people,\u201d said Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president for US legal programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project. \u201cI know there have been many tales of disorganization. I\u2019m not sure this is one.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

\n Tom Homan, President Donald Trump\u2019s border czar, acknowledged Thursday the immigration enforcement effort in Minnesota needed to be \u201cfixed\u201d and said his team was working on a drawdown plan while sharpening the focus of operations on undocumented immigrants with criminal records.\n <\/p>\n

\n Deployed by the administration to Minneapolis to manage ICE operations in the wake of Alex Pretti\u2019s fatal shooting,<\/a> Homan said not \u201ceverything that\u2019s been done here has been perfect\u201d and that \u201ccertain improvements can and should be made.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The refugees come from countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, El Salvador, Venezuela and Russia, Ball Cooper said. They entered the US legally but cannot apply for permanent status until a year after they\u2019ve been admitted to the country, as required under US law. Ball Cooper and other advocates have been in touch with some of those refugees, who they say have not been charged with crimes or immigration violations that would leave them open to removal proceedings.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am aware of cases where the person was arrested, detained in Minnesota and put on a plane (to Texas) in 90 minutes or less,\u201d Ball Cooper told CNN, adding that attorneys and advocates in Minnesota and Texas have been left scrambling to connect with many of the refugees.\n <\/p>\n

\n Late Wednesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from arresting or detaining resettled refugees in Minnesota while a class-action lawsuit challenging the practice plays out. The judge also ordered the immediate release of all detained refugees in Minnesota, as well as the release of those taken out of the state within five days and gave the government 48 hours to provide a list of detained refugees.\n <\/p>\n

\n A handful of refugees in the case are represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project and other legal and advocacy organizations. The suit and attorneys for the plaintiffs accuse federal officers of \u201chunting down\u201d resettled refugees door-to-door and transferring them to facilities in Texas.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s a fishing expedition,\u201d Ball Cooper said of the administration\u2019s targeting of refugees, including children and the elderly. \u201cThe government\u2019s effort here is arrest first, investigate later.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN reached out to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment but has not received a response.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI fled my home country because I was facing government repression,\u201d a plaintiff identified as D. Doe said in a statement, noting he was flown to Texas in shackles and handcuffs after he was arrested at his home earlier this month. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u2019s happening again here. It\u2019s chilling and I\u2019m scared.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The plaintiff, who the lawsuit said has lived in the US with his wife and son since being admitted as a refugee in 2024, was abruptly detained January 11. His wife, with their 3-year-old in her arms, ran outside with his documents as agents took him away, the suit said. Once in Texas, he was kept in chains for 16 hours and interrogated about his refugee application before being released without documents from a detention center in Houston, the lawsuit said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Jocelyn Wyatt, CEO of the Minneapolis-based humanitarian organization Alight, said refugee advocates have learned of at least 100 people detained in Minnesota and flown to Texas \u2014 including El Paso, Houston and San Antonio \u2014 for questioning and reprocessing. In some cases, they have been released without paperwork, essentially stranded in Texas, with some managing to contact workers at resettlement agencies that previously assisted them, Wyatt said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get an accurate count on this,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole cycle is happening very quickly.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Panic is spreading in immigrant communities.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are thousands of people that are basically sort of held captive or living as prisoners in their own homes right now, unable to leave because of fear of arrest and detention,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to doctor\u2019s appointments \u2026 kids aren\u2019t going to school right now. Parents and adults are not working. They\u2019re not able to go out for groceries.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Tension and fear on the streets of Minneapolis have only increased since US Customs and Border Protection officers fatally shot Pretti, the second killing of a US citizen<\/a> by immigration agents this month, after Renee Good<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n During vetting by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, refugees are required to show they were persecuted or face persecution in their home countries and, once in the US, must apply for green cards a year after admission.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is a unique element to this happening to a refugee,\u201d Ball Cooper said. \u201cThis is already a person or a family who has been through persecution.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump officials have long targeted and scrutinized the refugee admissions program, which has historically had bipartisan support, and argued the previous administration didn\u2019t sufficiently vet the people who entered the US. Trump has largely halted refugee admissions, with the narrow exception of White South Africans. Late last year, the administration moved to reinterview<\/a> certain refugees who were admitted to the US under former President Joe Biden as part of a comprehensive review.\n <\/p>\n

\n The number of arrests began to pick up in Minnesota earlier this month, when the administration initiated a \u201csweeping initiative<\/a>\u201d to reexamine refugees in Minnesota \u2014 with an initial focus of 5,600 people \u2014 unleashing bands of agents on the streets to bang on doors, follow cars and show up at workplaces and schools, sending a wave of panic among refugees and other immigrants across the state, advocates said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Amiin Harun, an attorney in Minneapolis, said he is familiar with at least seven cases of asylum seekers or refugees arrested in the Twin Cities in recent weeks and swiftly transferred to Texas. One case his office is handling involves a refugee who was pulled over in traffic and detained by ICE officers soon after leaving home. The arrest occurred about two weeks ago at 9:20 a.m., Harun said. By 1 p.m., the man, who is married with two young children, was already on a flight to Texas.\n <\/p>\n

\n The next day, Harun said, he received a call from an immigration officer saying they wanted to question his client for about four hours, even though he had no pending applications with the government.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI haven\u2019t heard from my client since, but I instructed him to be careful,\u201d Harun said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have any legal obligation to answer their questions. So, keep quiet.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n None of the detained refugees represented in the lawsuit have been charged with a crime or immigration violation, the suit and advocates say. The \u201cbaseless detentions and coercive interviews\u201d were meant to \u201ctrigger a mass termination of refugee status\u201d and leave refugees vulnerable to deportation, the suit said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sara Nelson, program manager for the Center for Victims of Torture, a nonprofit that provides mental health care and social work services in Minnesota, said five clients \u2014 asylum seekers with work permits \u2014 were detained by ICE and sent to Texas. One has been returned to Minnesota but is still in custody.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe clients expressed fear and said that no one seems able to help them,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cOne of them has a significant medical condition and requires daily medication and upcoming surgery \u2014 she reports that she has not been given her medication, and we have tried submitting a doctor\u2019s note about her medical needs multiple times with no response \u2026 It is truly horrifying how many people are languishing in these facilities, alone and scared.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe fear is that the cases will just get administratively canceled and they\u2019ll get deported without having their day in court or without due process,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n If deported, the refugees will likely become even more of a target for fleeing in the first place, Nelson said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople are going to die, to be totally frank,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Justin, a naturalized US citizen from sub-Saharan Africa, said he flew to Texas twice from Minnesota in the week after his friend was detained January 9 and transferred to Camp East Montana in El Paso \u2014 where at least three detainees died while in ICE custody in recent weeks, including one while receiving treatment at a nearby hospital.\n <\/p>\n

\n After pleading with officers at the detention facility, Justin said, he was allowed to see his friend. They were separated by a screen during a one-hour meeting.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe didn\u2019t look well,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was pale. She said she hadn\u2019t slept. She was exhausted. She was barely talking. I had to get close to the screen to hear her. All she could tell me was, \u2018Please get me out of here.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Justin recalled the fear he felt each time he approached the entrance to the detention facility.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was scared for myself when going there. My heart was beating like I was having high blood pressure,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause she told me there are US citizens inside. I had my US passport with me. Unbelievable. That\u2019s my first time carrying my passport in the United States.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota reportedly tackled a home caregiver from sub-Saharan Africa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-438488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}