They were asylum seekers and refugees in Minnesota. Still, ICE detained and flew them to Texas to face deportation

(CNN) — 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 where she’s being held.

“She was so surprised to see me,” said her friend, Justin, a 40-year-old home caregiver who asked his full name not be used for fear of retaliation. “She never believed that anybody knew where she was.”

She isn’t alone.

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.

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’re being held.

“It really is a campaign of terror. It is designed to scare people,” said Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president for US legal programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project. “I know there have been many tales of disorganization. I’m not sure this is one.”

Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar, acknowledged Thursday the immigration enforcement effort in Minnesota needed to be “fixed” and said his team was working on a drawdown plan while sharpening the focus of operations on undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

Deployed by the administration to Minneapolis to manage ICE operations in the wake of Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting, Homan said not “everything that’s been done here has been perfect” and that “certain improvements can and should be made.”

‘Arrest first, investigate later’

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’ve 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.

“I am aware of cases where the person was arrested, detained in Minnesota and put on a plane (to Texas) in 90 minutes or less,” Ball Cooper told CNN, adding that attorneys and advocates in Minnesota and Texas have been left scrambling to connect with many of the refugees.

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.

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 “hunting down” resettled refugees door-to-door and transferring them to facilities in Texas.

“It’s a fishing expedition,” Ball Cooper said of the administration’s targeting of refugees, including children and the elderly. “The government’s effort here is arrest first, investigate later.”

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

“I fled my home country because I was facing government repression,” 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. “I can’t believe it’s happening again here. It’s chilling and I’m scared.”

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.

Panic spreads in immigrant communities

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 — including El Paso, Houston and San Antonio — 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.

“It’s hard to get an accurate count on this,” she said. “The whole cycle is happening very quickly.”

Panic is spreading in immigrant communities.

“There 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,” Wyatt said. “They’re not going to doctor’s appointments … kids aren’t going to school right now. Parents and adults are not working. They’re not able to go out for groceries.”

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 by immigration agents this month, after Renee Good.

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.

“There is a unique element to this happening to a refugee,” Ball Cooper said. “This is already a person or a family who has been through persecution.”

Trump officials have long targeted and scrutinized the refugee admissions program, which has historically had bipartisan support, and argued the previous administration didn’t 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 certain refugees who were admitted to the US under former President Joe Biden as part of a comprehensive review.

The number of arrests began to pick up in Minnesota earlier this month, when the administration initiated a “sweeping initiative” to reexamine refugees in Minnesota — with an initial focus of 5,600 people — 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.

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.

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.

“I haven’t heard from my client since, but I instructed him to be careful,” Harun said. “You don’t have any legal obligation to answer their questions. So, keep quiet.”

None of the detained refugees represented in the lawsuit have been charged with a crime or immigration violation, the suit and advocates say. The “baseless detentions and coercive interviews” were meant to “trigger a mass termination of refugee status” and leave refugees vulnerable to deportation, the suit said.

‘Please get me out of here’

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 — asylum seekers with work permits — were detained by ICE and sent to Texas. One has been returned to Minnesota but is still in custody.

“The clients expressed fear and said that no one seems able to help them,” Nelson said. “One of them has a significant medical condition and requires daily medication and upcoming surgery — she reports that she has not been given her medication, and we have tried submitting a doctor’s note about her medical needs multiple times with no response … It is truly horrifying how many people are languishing in these facilities, alone and scared.”

“The fear is that the cases will just get administratively canceled and they’ll get deported without having their day in court or without due process,” she added.

If deported, the refugees will likely become even more of a target for fleeing in the first place, Nelson said.

“People are going to die, to be totally frank,” she said.

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 — where at least three detainees died while in ICE custody in recent weeks, including one while receiving treatment at a nearby hospital.

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.

“She didn’t look well,” he said. “She was pale. She said she hadn’t 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, ‘Please get me out of here.’”

Justin recalled the fear he felt each time he approached the entrance to the detention facility.

“I was scared for myself when going there. My heart was beating like I was having high blood pressure,” he said. “Because she told me there are US citizens inside. I had my US passport with me. Unbelievable. That’s my first time carrying my passport in the United States.”

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