A U.S. district court in Minnesota issued a preliminary injunction on February 27, 2026 blocking a Trump-administration policy that would have allowed immigration officers to arrest and detain refugees who had not yet converted to permanent-resident status after 12 months in the country. Judge John Tunheim ruled the guidance exceeded statutory authority and threatened to “terrorize” an estimated 5,600 lawful refugees statewide. Under existing law, refugees hold lawful status upon admission and must apply for a green card after one year, but processing delays are common. DHS argued the new detention authority was necessary for national-security vetting; the court disagreed, finding that Congress did not authorize automatic detention absent specific grounds of removability. Community organizations welcomed the decision, noting that Minnesota hosts large Hmong, Somali and Afghan refugee populations whose careers and travel plans would have been upended by fear of re-detention. Business leaders cautioned that detaining work-authorized refugees would disrupt manufacturing and healthcare labour pools already facing shortages. The injunction remains in effect while litigation proceeds. Employers with refugee staff should retain I-94, EAD and pending I-485 documentation but need not alter onboarding practices for now. Should the policy be reinstated, companies might face sudden E-Verify mismatches and workforce gaps, underscoring the high stakes of the court battle for corporate mobility programs.
Source: The Guardian
