Judge halts Trump's refugee re-vetting operation, slams 'erroneous interpretation'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Monday, March 02, 2026

A federal court has prohibited the Trump administration from detaining refugees resettled to the U.S. under the Biden administration as the federal government and advocacy organizations continue to disagree about federal immigration law and how it pertains to refugees. 

In a decision Friday, Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota blocked the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Operation PARRIS in the state. Friday’s ruling comes a month after Tunheim, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued a temporary restraining order ordering the Trump administration not to proceed with Operation PARRIS.

Announced last month, Operation PARRIS is “a sweeping initiative reexamining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims,” with a focus on 5,600 Minnesota refugees who have not yet been given legal permanent residency status. 

Under Operation PARRIS, refugees previously admitted into the U.S. undergo “thorough background checks, reinterviews, and merit reviews of refugee claims.”

The Trump administration insisted that Operation PARRIS is necessary because of widespread immigration fraud and national security concerns. In a memo published late last year, the Trump administration insisted that additional vetting of refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration was necessary because of concerns that the Biden administration “potentially prioritized expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and detailed screening and vetting.”

Tunheim denounced Operation PARRIS as a “new and erroneous statutory interpretation” of federal immigration law based on a belief that “8 U.S.C. § 1159(a) gives Department of Homeland Security officials the power to arrest and detain [refugees] with no limits on the length of detention.” 

The statute at the center of Operation PARRIS and the litigation against it requires refugees who have resided in the U.S. for at least one year to “return or be returned to the custody of the Department of Homeland Security for inspection and examination for admission to the United States as an immigrant.” 

Tunheim said the Trump administration believes that the statute “provides them with arrest-and-detention power and that such power is necessary to prevent refugees from skipping town before they have been adjusted to lawful permanent resident status.” But the judge ruled that the government’s "position flatly contradicts the plain meaning of § 1159(a) and contravenes forty-five years of agency practice.”

World Relief, an Evangelical humanitarian organization that works to resettle refugees in the U.S., warned in a video published in January that Operation PARRIS was targeting refugees who had not yet resided in the U.S. for a year and had therefore not been subject to the requirement that they return to custody for additional vetting. The organization warned that thousands of refugees it has helped resettle in the U.S. may be vulnerable. 

In a statement shared with The Christian Post, World Relief Vice President of Advocacy and Policy Matthew Soerens praised the court's decision as “a profound relief for refugees in Minnesota who have been living in fear since Operation PARRIS was launched in January.”

While the order only applies to Minnesota, Soerens expressed hope that “the clear legal reasoning Judge Tunheim articulates in halting this horrifyingly unjust process in Minnesota will deter the government from pursuing similar policies in other states.” 

In a previous interview with The Christian Post, World Relief CEO Myal Greene condemned Operation PARRIS as part of “a broader attempt to undermine the resettlement program and the work of the resettlement program.”

“I truly believe that this is part of a larger systematic effort of the government to revoke legal status from immigrants who have entered the country legally, are here under humanitarian … protections and had legal status when President Trump took office," Greene said.