A US judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a recently announced policy by President Donald Trump's administration targeting about 5,600 legal refugees in Minnesota waiting to receive green cards, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
A judge in Minneapolis ruled that federal agents likely violated a number of federal laws when they arrested some of those refugees for further background checks. He issued a temporary restraining order that bars agents from arresting refugees in Minnesota who have not been charged with immigration violations.
The judge said the order would remain in effect until additional legal arguments are presented to the court by human rights groups challenging the policy.
The Trump administration in early December sent thousands of immigration agents to Minneapolis in an operation that officials said was aimed at enforcing immigration laws and stopping fraud.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's immigration policy, criticized the court's decision. "The sabotage of democracy by the judiciary is endless," he wrote in an op-ed in Ex.
A lawyer for one of the human rights organizations involved in the case said the court order would impose "extremely necessary restrictions" on federal agents.