Immigration

Volunteer group Haven Watch continues to meet released ICE detainees at the Whipple facility in Minnesota, helping them find rides, phones and winter clothing and offering emotional support. The group says it has seen no meaningful evidence of a DHS/ICE drawdown — people are often held longer before release and routinely let out with no ride, no phone and inadequate clothing, leaving them stranded at the gate and increasing the human toll of the surge.

Lawyers have filed over 1,000 habeas and related lawsuits in Minnesota federal court challenging detentions during Operation Metro Surge, a volume that eclipsed prior annual totals in a matter of weeks. Judges have granted relief in a very high percentage of ICE cases — ordering releases, new bond hearings and finding Fourth and Fifth Amendment problems — and the surge has forced the U.S. Attorney’s Office to reassign AUSAs and delay other enforcement work, with petitioners including asylum seekers, long‑time residents and applicants that undercut DHS’s "worst of the worst" characterization.

A neighbor’s security video shows ICE agents in Brooklyn Park using a ruse on Feb. 12 to arrest undocumented mechanic Jesus Flores outside his home: two women pulled up, lifted their car hood and knocked on his door asking for help, then three SUVs rushed in and agents took him into custody within minutes. Flores, who had been deported once more than 15 years ago and returned, was already in a Texas detention facility by Friday and faces rapid deportation, with immigration attorneys telling his family that a legal challenge is a long shot given his prior removal. His U.S.-born son Miguel says the family is "shocked" that agents lied about car trouble to target someone with no criminal record beyond parking violations and who supports several children with autism and other special medical needs; the family has launched a GoFundMe as local churches bring food and supplies. The operation took place the same day federal officials publicly announced the drawdown of Operation Metro Surge, undercutting claims the surge is truly over and reinforcing fears in Twin Cities immigrant neighborhoods that lures and doorstep arrests will continue. DHS has not responded to FOX 9’s questions about why Flores was singled out or whether other factors besides his past deportation made him a target.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sharply rebuked the Trump administration over conditions at the Whipple Building, calling reports that detainees slept on bare floors in filthy, overcrowded holding rooms with trash, spoiled food and no bedding “deeply troubling” and inconsistent with constitutional and statutory obligations—findings she credited to attorneys who inspected the facility. She ordered DHS and plaintiffs to meet concrete deadlines to agree on improved attorney access and basic detainee conditions (narrowing DHS limits on phones, cameras and attorney contact during inspections), warned she will impose her own requirements if they fail, and linked the problems to the scale of Operation Metro Surge overwhelming Minnesota’s due‑process infrastructure.

Hennepin County Medical Examiner has ruled 37‑year‑old Alex Pretti’s death a homicide, listing the cause as "multiple gunshot wounds" and noting he was shot by law‑enforcement officers after Border Patrol/CBP agents fired near 26th & Nicollet in south Minneapolis. The killing — disputed by family and bystander videos, now the subject of a DOJ civil‑rights probe and a state review, a federal‑evidence preservation lawsuit, and public protests met with chemical crowd control — has intensified clashes between local officials and federal agencies over Operation Metro Surge and use of force.

ICE agents tackled and arrested 18-year-old Junior De Jesus Herrera Berrios in the lobby of the Hennepin County Government Center Tuesday morning immediately after a court hearing in his Minnesota felony meth case, drawing whistles, cellphone cameras and a crowd that followed agents out of the building. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty warned that immigration arrests in and around courthouses can blow up pending prosecutions by removing defendants mid‑case and scaring witnesses and victims — particularly people of color — away from testifying, saying this could make it "doubtful" her office can ever hold Herrera Berrios accountable. DHS fired back in a nighttime statement calling him a "criminal illegal alien," accusing "agitators" of tipping him off and claiming he tried to run before agents "successfully" took him into ICE custody, but did not address the local prosecution concerns. The incident adds a new flashpoint to Operation Metro Surge inside the state’s busiest courthouse, and defense and victims’ advocates on social media are already arguing that ICE’s tactics are undermining the state’s own justice system as much as they target individual non‑citizens. For Twin Cities residents who need the Government Center to function as neutral ground, it reinforces fears that simply walking into court — as a defendant, witness, or family member — now carries immigration risk.

Court filings from immigration attorneys Kim Boche and Hanne Sandison describe roughly 40 detainees held in seven small rooms at the Whipple Federal Building on Feb. 9, many sleeping on bare floors without blankets, pillows, pads or cots and surrounded by piles of trash and rotten food with no visible garbage cans. The filings say detainees reported having no clear information on how to reach lawyers; one man who has lived in the U.S. for 10 years told Boche he didn’t know who to call, and a phone labeled for legal calls rang to a Kentucky detention center rather than a local number. Instructions posted above phones were described as confusing, and the attorneys say DHS staff cut their visit short, limiting interviews. The inspection was ordered by U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel in a lawsuit alleging Operation Metro Surge has unlawfully restricted detainees’ access to counsel at Whipple, which doubles as ICE’s Twin Cities field office and short‑term jail. These sworn observations add concrete, first‑hand detail to claims from families, advocates and habeas petitions that people arrested in the metro are being held in substandard conditions with little meaningful chance to contact an attorney before they are moved or pressured into decisions.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of the Western District of Texas ordered that 5‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, be released from ICE detention by Tuesday, Feb. 3, and stayed any removal or transfer while the case is pending. In a written ruling Biery blasted the government's "ill‑conceived and incompetently‑implemented" daily deportation quotas and said administrative warrants do not constitute probable cause, while the family disputes DHS’s claim the father abandoned the child and says ICE used the boy as bait during the Columbia Heights seizure.

A federal judge ordered a 2‑year‑old released from ICE custody, part of a series of Minnesota rulings during Operation Metro Surge that have blocked or limited rapid deportations of children seized in the raids. Similar emergency habeas orders — including one requiring ICE to release 5‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father and barring their removal by a court‑set deadline — have targeted individual cases and whole family units, providing case‑specific relief rather than a broad injunction against the operation.

A federal judge has ordered ICE to affirmatively release 5‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from custody by Tuesday and barred their removal while their immigration case proceeds; the pair are currently held in Texas after being arrested in a Minnesota ICE operation. The decision is a case‑specific habeas win and does not impose a broad injunction against the administration’s ongoing Metro Surge in Minnesota, which the court indicated will be addressed on a case‑by‑case basis.

Twenty-six people were arrested outside the SpringHill Suites in Maple Grove during a protest targeting a hotel where ICE agents were believed to be staying. Maple Grove police said they allowed the demonstration to proceed until property damage and violence prompted an unlawful-assembly declaration; 13 are being referred for gross-misdemeanor riot charges and 13 for misdemeanor unlawful assembly, with two of those also facing obstruction charges.

Immigrant families and supporters traveled to a Texas family detention facility where 5‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father are being held after a Minnesota immigration enforcement operation, protesting outside the center and coordinating with Minnesota‑based advocates and legal teams to demand their immediate release back to Minnesota. Organizers say Liam’s case — tied by protesters to Minnesota’s Operation Metro Surge — highlights the cruelty of detaining children with pending asylum claims, while the family says they entered the U.S. the “right” way.

A Hopkins family from Ecuador — parents with pending asylum applications and their two children — was detained Thursday after ICE agents first pulled over mother Maria Hurtado on her way to work, then went to the family’s home and used her detention to coax her husband, Luis Chiluisa, and the children outside, where they were also taken into custody, according to their attorney. Minneapolis lawyer Brian Clark says he has been unable to learn where they are being held and feared they could be transferred to Texas, prompting an emergency filing in which he argued the family is here legally, has no known criminal history beyond Chiluisa’s 2024 misdemeanor DWI, and is well‑known in Hopkins. A federal judge has now ordered the government not to move the family out of Minnesota and to return them if ICE has already relocated them, effectively freezing any out‑of‑state transfer while the court reviews the case. Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon publicly vouched for Chiluisa as a "model citizen" who works in snow removal and said the city wants its community member back and a "normal working relationship" with federal partners, while Hopkins Public Schools’ superintendent told parents the detention was a "horrific experience" and warned the district may never learn the outcome unless the family later shares it. The case adds to a growing pattern of Metro‑area families with pending asylum or legal status being swept up in Operation Metro Surge, heightening fear in schools and neighborhoods that even long‑settled, working residents are now at risk in routine traffic stops and at their own front doors.

A judge ordered the release of an ICE detainee in Iowa who had previously been held in a Minnesota jail. The case comes after a St. Paul raid in which authorities found a warrant left outside the targeted residence, raising questions about how the operation was carried out.

Renee Good’s family has retained Romanucci & Blandin—the civil‑rights firm that represented George Floyd’s family—to conduct an independent investigation, pursue civil litigation if warranted, and has sent a formal Preservation of Evidence Letter demanding that federal authorities preserve all physical and electronic evidence while urging the public to share video and information. The family also commissioned an independent autopsy that found Good was shot in the left temple, a result they say is inconsistent with DHS/ICE’s claim that her vehicle was “weaponized” and has bolstered the firm’s pledge of transparency and accountability.

A federal judge has lifted or significantly narrowed a prior order that had barred ICE, CBP and other DHS officers from retaliating against, arresting, detaining or using force or chemical agents on people peacefully protesting, recording, observing or safely following Operation Metro Surge—restoring broader authority for immigration agents to use certain crowd‑control tactics and arrests while the litigation continues. The suit, brought by Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul (and joined by Illinois), alleges the surge unlawfully targets Minnesota for its diversity and politics, violates the 10th Amendment and involves excessive, sometimes deadly, force in incidents that have sparked protests, school walkouts and business closures.

Surveillance footage from a home on Nevada Avenue East in St. Paul shows heavily armed federal agents battering down a door and sweeping room to room Thursday, detaining six occupants—including a 12‑year‑old boy later reported by a family friend to have been transferred to an immigration facility in San Antonio. Neighbors who spoke with someone inside say agents claimed to have a search warrant but refused to show it during the raid; a day later, a purported warrant from a Ramsey County judge appeared on the doorstep, lacking a case number, file stamp and standard formatting that a state court spokesperson provided for comparison, and with no record yet of filing. Residents, a Venezuelan family who arrived in 2023, reportedly all had state IDs and work permits, and neighbors say agents told them the operation was part of a narcotics investigation, though outdoor video captured a package delivery minutes before the raid and agents allegedly threatened to arrest everyone if no one claimed the package. DHS did not respond to FOX 9’s questions, leaving basic issues unanswered: whether this was an immigration or drug case, why a child with no apparent charges is now in Texas, and why the paperwork doesn’t look like a standard state warrant. The raid adds another layer to growing fear on the East Side as Operation Metro Surge floods the metro with federal agents, and raises serious questions about warrant practices and whether federal officers are using state‑court processes—or something made to look like them—to punch into Twin Cities homes.

A Liberian national in Minneapolis who had been regularly checking in with immigration authorities for 15 years was arrested during an ICE raid in which federal agents used a battering ram to force entry, and family members — including a child — witnessed the forced entry. His lawyer says there was no indication of non‑compliance that would justify such a violent home entry, and the family is demanding to see a judicial warrant.

After the fatal shooting of Renee Good, ICE intensified "Operation Metro Surge" across the Twin Cities—carrying out neighborhood raids and arrests that protesters say have disproportionately targeted Somali residents and that sparked large marches, school and business walkouts, reports of U.S. citizens detained, and pepper‑spray confrontations. Multiple immigrants have filed federal lawsuits challenging detentions and at least one habeas petition alleges a warrantless battering‑ram home entry, while Minnesota lawmakers and other members of Congress have backed an effort to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, accusing her of constitutional violations and misconduct tied to the surge.

The Trump administration will not renew Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, formally set to expire March 17, putting roughly 500–600 Somali TPS holders in Minnesota — out of about 37,000 Somali‑born residents and roughly 700 Somalis nationwide covered by TPS — at risk of losing work authorization and facing detention or deportation. Local leaders and immigration attorneys say the move will strain social‑service and legal‑aid networks and threaten mixed‑status families, while DHS officials note any TPS decision must follow legal procedures and would apply nationwide rather than only to Minnesota.

President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of the Diversity Visa (green card lottery) program, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem directed USCIS to pause processing, after authorities said the suspected Brown University/MIT shooter entered the U.S. via the program in 2017. The move, announced Thursday, halts new DV processing nationwide and is likely to face legal challenges because the lottery was created by Congress, affecting prospective immigrants and families in the Twin Cities.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Dec. 5, 2025, to hear a challenge to President Donald Trump’s order seeking to limit birthright citizenship, setting up a constitutional ruling this term. The outcome could directly affect families in the Twin Cities whose children were born in Minnesota to non‑citizen parents, as well as access to documents and services dependent on citizenship status.

USCIS announced on Dec. 5, 2025, that Employment Authorization Documents for many legal immigrants will shift from up to five years of validity to 18 months, requiring more frequent renewals. The federal change applies nationwide, directly affecting Twin Cities immigrants who work under EADs and the employers who depend on them.

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, that the Trump administration is pausing all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” following a National Guard shooting in Washington, D.C. The nationwide pause applies to cases handled by USCIS offices serving Minnesota, likely delaying asylum adjudications for Twin Cities applicants and legal service providers.

The Department of Homeland Security announced it will end Temporary Protected Status for some Myanmar nationals, citing planned December “free and fair” elections and “successful ceasefire agreements”; rights groups and Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government sharply criticized the move, saying Myanmar remains in a brutal civil war with forced conscription and daily attacks on civilians. Advocates warned of harms to Burmese communities in the Twin Cities, and observers note that ICC prosecutors previously sought an arrest warrant for junta leader Min Aung Hlaing over alleged crimes against humanity related to the Rohingya.