Judge blocks Trump officials from detaining refugees in Minnesota
Guardian1 day
Judge Blocks DHS Operation Targeting Minnesota Refugees
Are ICE agents terrorizing legal refugees or removing dangerous criminals from Minnesota streets?
Above: Executive Associate Director of ICE Marcos Charles (left) and border tsar Tom Homan in Minneapolis on Jan. 29, 2026. Image credit: Ben Brewer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Spin
Left narrative
Armed ICE agents have been terrorizing lawfully resettled refugees in Minnesota, arresting them without warrants in their homes and at grocery stores, then shipping them to detention camps in Texas, where many are left stranded without money or identification. Federal judges have ruled overwhelmingly against these unlawful detentions, recognizing the basic fact that legal refugees — including DACA recipients and violence victims with work authorization — have the right not to be hunted down and disappeared.
Right narrative
Judges have created for themselves a fake veto power over federal agents, whose legal duty is to remove criminal aliens from American streets. Yet, coordinated mobs of protesters — likely funded by outside organizations — are assaulting agents, vandalizing property and using vehicles as weapons, creating political theater designed to undermine law enforcement and create unrest ahead of midterm elections, while judges, either through malice or naivete, blame the chaos on police rather than the agitators.