Virgil Wiebe, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas and director of the university’s Immigrant Law Center, spoke with WCCO Radio host Vineeta Sawkar about the heightened state of fear facing immigrant communities amid ongoing ICE operations in Minnesota. Wiebe described how asylum seekers and families are being detained and transferred far from legal counsel, while law students and attorneys are working urgently to protect clients’ rights and keep families together.
From the conversation:
Sawkar: Some of you have been texting in that you’ve seen a lot of ICE activity in our community. ICE operations. Just because Greg Bovino and his agents have left and there seems to have been a shift, it doesn’t appear that things have stopped or de-escalated.
What is it like to run an immigrant law center at a time like this, when there is a heightened state of alert, when people are going through legal proceedings to be here legally and are still getting caught up in ICE operations?
Joining us now is Professor Virgil Wiebe from the University of St. Thomas. He runs the Immigrant Law Center there. Professor, give us a sense of what the mood is like right now.
Wiebe: I’d say there are two different moods. One is what we see with our clients. We have a number of clients who are directly targeted by ICE operations. There is a lot of fear. Fear of going out. Fear of going to school or work.
On the other hand, I have a wonderful team of students and staff here at the clinic who are rising to the challenge. In some ways, it feels like we are a fire department, making sure there are fully powered fire extinguishers next to each case. When ICE or Border Patrol arrests someone, they move them so quickly that we have to get into court immediately to try to stop their transfer to Texas.
Sawkar: That’s what I’m trying to fully understand. People thought the intent was to remove violent criminals who are here illegally. But others are getting caught up.
For example, a 5-year-old child, Liam from Columbia Heights, with a bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack, is still in a detention center in Texas with his father. They are going through the asylum process. How is that possible?
Wiebe: The government is advancing novel legal arguments to detain people who are applying for asylum. They are overturning decades of precedent about detention and access to bond.
What we are seeing is a strategy of harming families to coerce people into giving up their claims. Tom Homan, who has been in town, authored the family separation policy in 2017-18, during which more than 4,500 families were intentionally separated.
More than 1,000 children still have not been reunited with their families, and the family reunification task force was eliminated by the current administration.
There is also something called Operation Paris, where more than 5,000 fully vetted refugees in Minnesota are being targeted for detention and transfer to Texas, away from counsel.
Despite all of this, I am inspired by my students, my colleagues, and immigration attorneys across Minnesota. Many are stepping up pro bono. So the mood is fear, but also determination.
