Minnesota immigration crackdown continues to spark fear among people in U.S. legally

Minnesota is still dealing with the fallout from a massive month-long federal immigration

crackdown.

Even though the number of agents in the state has dwindled, many immigrants remain fearful.

As special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, that includes those who entered the

country legally.

The so-called Operation Metro Surge was billed as an effort to remove the, quote, worst

of the worst from Minnesota.

President Plut made a promise to mass deportation, and that's what this country is going to get.

But as the operation ramped up in January, the Trump administration announced it was

taking new steps to tighten even legal immigration.

It launched Operation Paris, a re-examination of some 5,600 refugees who arrived legally

in Minnesota, but hadn't yet received their permanent residency, also known as a green

card.

Within days there were reports of refugees being arrested by agents at their homes, or when

they arrived at a local ice office after receiving notices to appear.

Refugees and advocates sued to block the enforcement.

Refugees are among the most carefully screened groups entering this country.

We are simply asking for promises to be kept.

In late January, a federal judge temporarily stopped agents from arresting and detaining

refugees in Minnesota.

I didn't think I would be targeted because I came to the U.S. lawfully.

Jay was admitted to the United States as a refugee late in 2024.

We changed his name and aren't showing his face because he fears for his safety.

Before the judge is ruling in January, Jay received a letter asking him to appear for

an interview about his status.

So he took time off from work and showed up at the Whipple Federal Building right behind

me just outside of Minneapolis.

After hours of waiting, he was called forward, handcuffed, and led to a small room.

They didn't tell me why I was detained, just that my case would be processed quickly.

I figured they thought I was a criminal, and once they found out that I wasn't, they

would let me go.

But Jay wasn't let go, instead he was flown to a detention facility in Texas.

He says with no real explanation.

He slept on the floor, we didn't change clothes, we didn't take showers.

There wasn't enough food, there wasn't enough water.

It was very hard to keep track of day and night.

The inside was horrible, people were just shouting.

It was days before Jay spoke to a lawyer whose main advice was not to sign any documents.

More than a week after arriving in Texas, Jay got word that a judge ordered his release.

He brought a document for me to sign.

I asked them what is this, and I was told that it was a document indicating that I'm leaving

the facility.

Did you sign it?

Yeah.

Yes, I did sign it because I wasn't handcuffed or shackled.

I felt happy and hopeful to be released.

I tried to read it, to understand it.

I was hoping it wouldn't hurt me.

I tried to find the word deportation on the document, and it didn't have that.

People told Jay spent 14 days in custody before he was released in Minnesota and reunited

with his wife and daughters.

From when I arrived in the U.S. until I was detained, life was great.

After I was detained, all my hope became kind of dark.

The most difficult thing was about my kids and my wife.

My daughter didn't know where I was.

She said, why don't you come home?

I said, I'm coming.

I'm on my way.

I was just kind of tricking her the whole time.

Those who have done what is asked of them, they should not be punished.

Pascal Nokucha is an immigration attorney in Minneapolis.

He says the crackdowns in Minnesota have left a mountain of litigation.

By one count, more than 1,000 wrongful detention lawsuits were filed in federal courts since

December.

That's three times the total filed between 2016 and 2024.

It's not just going after those who have criminal record, it's just harassing anybody

who looks like me, who looks like you, or who doesn't fit the mode they had in mind.

Why do you suppose this is happening in the manner that it is?

I don't know how else to say it that there is a concerted effort by the administration

to define or to redefine the demographics of this country.

They wrote the Constitution.

Now even those who already have permanent residency are finding a narrower path to U.S.

citizenship.

They certainly are making the questions harder and more obscure.

Laura Cooper is a retired law professor who teaches a class at the International Institute

of Minnesota, helping immigrants prepare for the citizenship test.

She's been tracking both changes to the exam and the overall standards to become a citizen.

Good moral character is one of the requirements, understandably, for attaining citizenship.

It used to be that if you had, for example, a vehicular violation, you paid your ticket

and when you applied for citizenship, you showed that you got a violation and you paid

your ticket and that was it.

Now they have said that they will talk to people's neighbors.

So let's say someone has a neighbor that thinks that this immigrant doesn't cut his or her

lawn properly or doesn't shovel the snow in time.

You wonder whether little things like that, a neighbor could say, oh, these people are

not good neighbors and they're not meeting the standards of our community.

These Minnesotans are our friends, they're our neighbors, they're our colleagues.

Right last month, the federal judge extended his order protecting Minnesota's refugees

from being detained.

It came days after the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo making it official

policy that agents can look for and arrest refugees who've been in the country for a year

but do not yet have green cards.

Advocate said the move was a dramatic break from past policy.

Everybody should be disturbed by the administration's insistence that it has the right to

indefinitely detain people who have legal status.

But in a statement to the New Zour, a spokesperson for U.S. citizenship and immigration services

said it was, quote, not novel or discretionary.

It is a clear requirement in law.

The alternative would be to allow fugitive aliens to run rampant through our country with

zero oversight.

We refuse to let that happen.

The H.S. did not respond to broader questions about its enforcement efforts or changes to

the citizenship process.

For his part, J. remains fearful.

If he's arrested again and forced to return to the country he fled, he worries he could

be imprisoned or killed.

Nobody wants to leave their own country unless conditions are very difficult.

They want to improve their lives and leave past trauma behind.

The people need to understand that and have mercy on us.

I'll obey the law.

I still want to apply for a green card and adjust my status.

If something worse comes and I don't have a choice, I will accept it.

I want my daughters to get a good education so they don't live the life I lived.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Fred DeSamlazero in the Twin Cities.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Fred DeSamlazero in the Twin Cities.