Wave of immigrants file lawsuits to fight ICE detention

An unprecedented number of immigrants in federal detention are going to court in Minnesota to challenge their arrests — and many of them are winning.

Since Operation Metro Surge started on Dec. 1, a total of 344 immigrants filed cases challenging their detentions, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune review of federal district court filings in Minnesota. The bulk of those cases were filed this month when thousands of federal agents descended on Minnesota.

By comparison, 375 such cases were filed in Minnesota between 2016 and 2024.

“It’s just crazy,” said Graham Ojala-Barbour, a St. Paul attorney who filed 25 unlawful detention cases in January. “The thousands of immigration agents who are here seem to have been given the job to just arrest as many people as possible and then to just sort it out later.”

Asked for comment, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement said an influx of habeas cases should “come as no surprise ... especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.”

“Despite a historic number of injunctions, DHS is working rapidly overtime to remove these aliens from detentions centers to their final destination—home," she continued.

Federal officials claim they have arrested more than 3,000 immigrants in Minnesota since December, but they have refused requests for the names of those detainees. Instead, the DHS has named roughly 240 people who make up the “worst of the worst,” individuals described by the agency as “violent assailants, domestic abusers, and drug traffickers.” A Star Tribune review showed only a few of those people were fugitives.

The filings dwarf everything that came before. During President Donald Trump’s first term, there were an average of 5.5 cases per month, which dropped to 1.5 cases per month during Joe Biden’s presidency, according to an analysis of federal court filings.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reviewed 33 of the wrongful detention cases filed on Jan. 16 and 17, two of the busiest days on the federal docket.

Most of those in detention claim they had never been convicted of a criminal offense beyond speeding or other misdemeanors.

Two of the cases involved immigrants who had been convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. In addition, federal authorities noted an immigrant from Mexico who claimed he had “no pending criminal charges” was convicted of second-degree burglary in 1985 and convicted in 2005 of driving without a license after being involved in a hit-and-run accident. He received three years of probation for the driving offense.

All three of those individuals remain in custody.

About a third of the cases reviewed by the Star Tribune involved immigrants from Mexico, but those detained also included people from Afghanistan, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kenya, Laos, Nicaragua, Russia, Somalia, Turkey and Venezuela.

Nine members of a family from Syria said federal agents tried to arrest them three times at their home in January. They filed a habeas corpus case claiming they are now so afraid to leave home that they have been “constructively detained.” The case is pending.

Many of the immigrants caught up in the government’s crackdown were going about their day when masked agents suddenly showed up and took them into custody.

A woman from Venezuela was grabbed by federal agents after dropping her son off at elementary school in Burnsville. A man from Ecuador said agents arrested him after smashing into his bicycle with their car. A refugee from Afghanistan was detained when he showed up for a status conference with federal immigration officials.

While those three individuals were ultimately released, the detentions are causing confusion in the immigrant community.

Records show many of those detained are being held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling. Others have been sent to county jails in Albert Lea, Brainerd, Elk River and Willmar. Because of space constraints in Minnesota, many are being sent to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas.

Attorneys said many of their clients are being moved to other states before they can file a wrongful detention case on their behalf.

Though most of the arrests seem to have happened without incident, a few detainees claimed in legal filings that they sustained significant injuries while in custody. That includes a Mexican man who suffered a skull fracture within four hours of his arrest, allegedly at the hands of federal agents.

A 63-year-old man from Mexico had a heart attack the day after ICE agents arrested him near a Walmart in Bloomington.

In court filings, the man’s attorney, Joseph Kantor, noted his client suffers from diabetes, hypertension and other problems and is on 17 medications, which he likely did not have access to while in custody. Kantor said his client was scheduled to have open-heart surgery on Jan. 21, but his daughter has been denied access to her father or his medical records and does not know if he is getting the treatment he needs. The case is pending.