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Minnesota is still dealing with the fallout from a massive month-long federal immigration
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Even though the number of agents in the state has dwindled, many immigrants remain fearful.
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As special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, that includes those who entered the
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The so-called Operation Metro Surge was billed as an effort to remove the, quote, worst
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of the worst from Minnesota.
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President Plut made a promise to mass deportation, and that's what this country is going to get.
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But as the operation ramped up in January, the Trump administration announced it was
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taking new steps to tighten even legal immigration.
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It launched Operation Paris, a re-examination of some 5,600 refugees who arrived legally
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in Minnesota, but hadn't yet received their permanent residency, also known as a green
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Within days there were reports of refugees being arrested by agents at their homes, or when
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they arrived at a local ice office after receiving notices to appear.
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Refugees and advocates sued to block the enforcement.
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Refugees are among the most carefully screened groups entering this country.
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We are simply asking for promises to be kept.
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In late January, a federal judge temporarily stopped agents from arresting and detaining
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refugees in Minnesota.
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I didn't think I would be targeted because I came to the U.S. lawfully.
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Jay was admitted to the United States as a refugee late in 2024.
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We changed his name and aren't showing his face because he fears for his safety.
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Before the judge is ruling in January, Jay received a letter asking him to appear for
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an interview about his status.
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So he took time off from work and showed up at the Whipple Federal Building right behind
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me just outside of Minneapolis.
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After hours of waiting, he was called forward, handcuffed, and led to a small room.
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They didn't tell me why I was detained, just that my case would be processed quickly.
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I figured they thought I was a criminal, and once they found out that I wasn't, they
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But Jay wasn't let go, instead he was flown to a detention facility in Texas.
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He says with no real explanation.
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He slept on the floor, we didn't change clothes, we didn't take showers.
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There wasn't enough food, there wasn't enough water.
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It was very hard to keep track of day and night.
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The inside was horrible, people were just shouting.
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It was days before Jay spoke to a lawyer whose main advice was not to sign any documents.
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More than a week after arriving in Texas, Jay got word that a judge ordered his release.
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He brought a document for me to sign.
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I asked them what is this, and I was told that it was a document indicating that I'm leaving
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Yes, I did sign it because I wasn't handcuffed or shackled.
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I felt happy and hopeful to be released.
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I tried to read it, to understand it.
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I was hoping it wouldn't hurt me.
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I tried to find the word deportation on the document, and it didn't have that.
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People told Jay spent 14 days in custody before he was released in Minnesota and reunited
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with his wife and daughters.
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From when I arrived in the U.S. until I was detained, life was great.
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After I was detained, all my hope became kind of dark.
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The most difficult thing was about my kids and my wife.
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My daughter didn't know where I was.
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She said, why don't you come home?
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I was just kind of tricking her the whole time.
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Those who have done what is asked of them, they should not be punished.
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Pascal Nokucha is an immigration attorney in Minneapolis.
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He says the crackdowns in Minnesota have left a mountain of litigation.
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By one count, more than 1,000 wrongful detention lawsuits were filed in federal courts since
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That's three times the total filed between 2016 and 2024.
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It's not just going after those who have criminal record, it's just harassing anybody
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who looks like me, who looks like you, or who doesn't fit the mode they had in mind.
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Why do you suppose this is happening in the manner that it is?
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I don't know how else to say it that there is a concerted effort by the administration
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to define or to redefine the demographics of this country.
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They wrote the Constitution.
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Now even those who already have permanent residency are finding a narrower path to U.S.
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They certainly are making the questions harder and more obscure.
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Laura Cooper is a retired law professor who teaches a class at the International Institute
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of Minnesota, helping immigrants prepare for the citizenship test.
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She's been tracking both changes to the exam and the overall standards to become a citizen.
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Good moral character is one of the requirements, understandably, for attaining citizenship.
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It used to be that if you had, for example, a vehicular violation, you paid your ticket
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and when you applied for citizenship, you showed that you got a violation and you paid
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your ticket and that was it.
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Now they have said that they will talk to people's neighbors.
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So let's say someone has a neighbor that thinks that this immigrant doesn't cut his or her
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lawn properly or doesn't shovel the snow in time.
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You wonder whether little things like that, a neighbor could say, oh, these people are
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not good neighbors and they're not meeting the standards of our community.
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These Minnesotans are our friends, they're our neighbors, they're our colleagues.
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Right last month, the federal judge extended his order protecting Minnesota's refugees
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from being detained.
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It came days after the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo making it official
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policy that agents can look for and arrest refugees who've been in the country for a year
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but do not yet have green cards.
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Advocate said the move was a dramatic break from past policy.
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Everybody should be disturbed by the administration's insistence that it has the right to
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indefinitely detain people who have legal status.
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But in a statement to the New Zour, a spokesperson for U.S. citizenship and immigration services
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said it was, quote, not novel or discretionary.
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It is a clear requirement in law.
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The alternative would be to allow fugitive aliens to run rampant through our country with
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We refuse to let that happen.
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The H.S. did not respond to broader questions about its enforcement efforts or changes to
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the citizenship process.
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For his part, J. remains fearful.
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If he's arrested again and forced to return to the country he fled, he worries he could
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be imprisoned or killed.
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Nobody wants to leave their own country unless conditions are very difficult.
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They want to improve their lives and leave past trauma behind.
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The people need to understand that and have mercy on us.
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I still want to apply for a green card and adjust my status.
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If something worse comes and I don't have a choice, I will accept it.
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I want my daughters to get a good education so they don't live the life I lived.
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For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Fred DeSamlazero in the Twin Cities.
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For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Fred DeSamlazero in the Twin Cities.