A federal judge on Wednesday shut down a new Homeland Security policy that arrested and detained refugees as part of a review of their cases, saying the migrants had “followed the rules” and deserved better treatment.
The Homeland Security policy was announced earlier this month as part of a crackdown on fraud in immigrant communities in Minnesota. Some 5,600 refugees who had not yet earned a green card, or legal permanent residency, were subject to the new policy.
But U.S. District Judge John Tunheim said it made no sense to arrest and detain them while the government re-reviews their cases.
“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,” he wrote. “None have been deemed a danger to the community or a flight risk. None have been charged with any ground for removal.”
He ordered those already arrested and detained to be released, and barred detention of others.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller blasted the ruling on social media.
“The judicial sabotage of democracy is unending,” he said.
Reports of fraud among the Somali community in Minnesota helped fuel the current immigration enforcement surge, and to spur U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to announce its re-reviews of refugees.
Those arrested under the policy, though, stretch well beyond Somalis.
They include Andrei Colesnic, a Moldovan admitted as a refugee in 2023, who a judge said has “no criminal history,” and Aleksander Blizniukov, a refugee from Russia who came in 2024 and also has not been arrested or charged with any crime.
Judges in both of those cases faulted the government’s arrests and ordered that DHS either release them or finalize the new fraud review immediately.
Judge Tunheim, a Clinton appointee, delivered relief on a much broader scale.
DHS has defended its policy by pointing to immigration law, which says a year after a refugee has been admitted, he is supposed to undergo a second round of vetting, when the government can initiate deportation proceedings.
But Judge Tunheim said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s longstanding policy was not to detain migrants at that point, until it had affirmatively decided to remove them. If a refugee is arrested, the ICE policy sets a 48-hour clock for a decision to either carry out a deportation or else release them.
Judge Tunheim said the new detention policy is actually interfering with DHS enforcing more “serious violations of immigration laws.”
