Federal immigration authorities have arrested at least 100 refugees in Minneapolis and transferred them to detention centers in Texas as part of Operation PARRIS, a sweeping initiative targeting individuals who entered the United States legally through the refugee admissions program, according to the Advocates for Human Rights. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services launched the operation last week to reexamine approximately 5,600 refugee cases in Minnesota through new background checks, focusing on those who have not yet obtained green cards.
Legal Refugees Caught in Unprecedented Crackdown
The arrests represent an unprecedented targeting of a population that the U.S. government recognizes as having entered the country legally, legal advocates warn. Refugees are granted status only after an officer determines they have suffered “persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion,” according to the United States’ own definition.
Michele Garnett McKenzie, director of the Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis, told The New York Times that most detained individuals are being relocated to facilities in Texas. “It’s happening very quickly,” she said, adding that “it’s devastating for the community”. The Dallas Observer reported that detainees are being sent to facilities in El Paso and Dilley, Texas, located about an hour southwest of San Antonio.
Children Among Those Detained
Lindsey Greising, a policy-focused attorney with Advocates for Human Rights, revealed disturbing tactics used during the operation. “We have a handful of individuals who are 16-year-old girls who were arrested and brought to a detention center in Minnesota under this new policy,” Greising told the Dallas Observer. “And then they were threatened that they needed to have their parents come there, [ICE was] using the threat of sending them to Texas to get their parents to come [to the ICE offices],” she explained.
The New York Times reported that a majority of detainees under Operation PARRIS have been from Somalia, a population that President Donald Trump has targeted in recent weeks amid reports of fraud. However, reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times suggests that refugees from Mali, Venezuela, Myanmar, and Eritrea have also been targeted in the arrests.
Green Card Processing Delays Create Vulnerability
While refugees are required to obtain a green card within one year of arriving in the U.S., some advocates have challenged this requirement as grounds for the Minneapolis crackdown. Greising argued that the requirement “sometimes falls through the cracks for financial or political reasons and has never led to widespread arrests”.
The New York Times reported that at least some of those detained by ICE had applied for their green cards. In December, Trump ordered a pause on issuing green cards to refugees and called for the reevaluation of all refugees who had entered the U.S. since 2021 from several countries, including Somalia, Venezuela, and Eritrea, regardless of their green card status.
Global Refuge reported that through Operation PARRIS, USCIS is conducting background checks, reinterviews, and merit reviews of refugee claims, with reports suggesting that all refugee approvals from January 21, 2021, to February 20, 2025—approximately 233,000 cases—will be reviewed.
Somali TPS Terminated Amid Broader Crackdown
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it will end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in March, forcing approximately 2,400 people out of the U.S. by March 17. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated that “country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” according to ABC News.
However, Greising emphasized that those being arrested under Operation PARRIS are refugees, not individuals with Temporary Protected Status, and they are in the U.S. legally under their humanitarian claims. “It is ‘unprecedented’ to see such sweeping attacks on a group that legal advocates challenge the government’s right to target,” she said.
Texas Detention Infrastructure Overwhelmed
Greising told the Dallas Observer it remains unclear why detainees are being moved to Texas, though the state has “a very large infrastructure” for processing and housing detainees. The system is also “overwhelmed” as Texas has been an epicenter of Trump’s immigration crackdown, she noted.
The Texas Tribune reported that the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, among the largest in the country with a capacity to detain up to 2,400 people, reopened in March 2025 after the Biden administration had closed it. As refugees are moved across jurisdictions, legal representation and advocacy become “as confusing and chaotic as possible,” Greising explained.
The rapid transfers have left legal advocates scrambling to provide assistance. “The people that we’ve been screening and assisting with, we’ve had a matter of hours to be able to screen their case and get a basic understanding of what’s going on,” Greising said. “It’s requiring a really rapid response,” she added.
As Operation PARRIS continues, the legal status and future of thousands of refugees who entered the United States through official humanitarian channels remain uncertain, raising questions about the scope and legality of the Trump administration’s enforcement actions against individuals previously granted legal protection.