Testimonies from families whose loved ones were illegally detained by ICE: “I felt so scared; they were treating him like a delinquent”

Three weeks ago, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) knocked on the door of J.J.’s home in Minneapolis. The federal agents told him they needed to verify the fingerprints of his oldest son. “He would not be detained,” they promised. His wife, A., gathered the documents proving that she, her husband, and their four children have refugee status in the United States.

After the door was opened, the agents arrested their 20-year-old son. “When I saw him being handcuffed, I felt so scared,” A. said. “They were treating him like a delinquent. And they had guns with their fingers on the trigger.”

The names of the Venezuelan family have been withheld for security reasons, and their testimonies were collected by NPR.

A class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security

More than one hundred refugees with no criminal records have been illegally arrested, many of them transferred to a detention center in Texas. This is the finding of a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of refugees along with the organization The Advocates for Human Rights against senior federal government officials.

The plaintiffs argue that since the Department of Homeland Security implemented Operation PARRIS, individuals with refugee status in the United States have been arrested and detained.

Following the legal action, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of the refugees in Minnesota and issued a temporary restraining order preventing DHS from arresting or detaining refugees who are still awaiting permanent residency.

“They didn’t tell me why I was arrested or why I was being released,” recalled the oldest son of J.J. and A. after being freed under the judge’s order. He said he was detained for three days in Minnesota in a room packed with people. He had to sleep with his ankles shackled and lived with constant anxiety, fearing deportation.

“Minneapolis was beautiful. We expected a peaceful life here,” J.J. said as he reflected on the circumstances that forced them to flee their home country. A. added that the experience brought back the fear she felt when young people her son’s age were kidnapped and disappeared. “In Venezuela, pro-government paramilitary groups act this way. They cover their faces; you can only see their eyes. I relived that same fear,” she said.

Minneapolis and immigration policy

The city has become the epicenter of protests against ICE and the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Tensions and outrage intensified following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in separate incidents.

As tensions escalated, state authorities deployed the National Guard and confronted the federal government after opposing the presence of thousands of federal immigration agents in the city.

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