Operation PARRIS is a Gross Betrayal of U.S. Commitments to People who Fled Persecution

January 15, 2026

Statement from Refugees International:

“Through “Operation Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening (PARRIS),” scores of people – including families with children – have already been arrested in Minnesota for being refugees.

This is an unprecedented targeting of people who arrived – legally and fully vetted – through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. It comes as a violent immigration enforcement operation expands across the Minneapolis–St. Paul region, part of the Trump administration’s lawless assault on U.S. communities and its effort to strip legal protections from people with humanitarian status.

Partners in Minnesota have told Refugees International that Somali and other refugees who have begun to rebuild their lives in the state are terrified: despite being legal residents, they fear being targeted if they go to work, to the grocery store, to worship. Their children’s schools are shuttered and local businesses have closed. ICE is even demanding that their landlords inform on them.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has apprehended refugees and flown them to Texas detention facilities – away from relatives and supporters who speak their language and lawyers who can provide them with legal support – to undergo re-interviews despite the extensive vetting they had already received before their admission to the United States.

Refugees International strongly condemns the Trump administration’s hateful and dehumanizing targeting of Somalis and Operation PARRIS’s gross betrayal of the United States’ promise to protect people who fled persecution.

Refugees International will continue to support litigation to defend refugee status, document abuses by DHS, and work with refugee-led and community-based organizations across the country to meet affected community needs and ensure against deportation to harm.”

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Etant Dupain at edupain@refugeesinternational.org.