Refugees, immigrants not safe right now and should stay home, according to IIMN

"If you are an immigrant living in the state right now, you are not safe to leave your house," observed International Institute of Minnesota Executive Director Jane Graupman. "Our staff aren't coming to work. Our clients aren't going to their jobs. We're rallying to get people to bring food to them because it's not safe for them to leave their houses."

IIMN offers refugee resettlement, English education, workforce and leadership development, college preparation and immigration and citizenship assistance. "Our world at the institute has changed, and most importantly, the lives of our clients have changed dramatically," said Graupman.

Last Friday, they received a memo from USCIS stating they intend to re-interview refugees that arrived during the last five years. They didn't explain that they're doing this to enhance vetting, she observed. In the past, when administrations have advanced vetting, they increase security clearances. A refugee coming to Minnesota has already been through 14 clearances, she explained, including biometric screening, health screening, FBI, immigration, Department of Homeland Security, and State Department. "I don't know what other things they can do," said Graupman, who has worked at IIMN for 30 years.

"We came to work on Monday morning. We had people waiting at our door," said Graupman. These individuals are all in America legally. Refugee is a legal status, she stressed. "Their houses are surrounded by ICE. Guns are drawn on their houses. They are telling people, oh, 'We're only here to because you have some paperwork that needs to be completed.' So a woman opened her door. They took her son. He has no criminal record." From there, people are being taken to the Whipple Building in Minneapolis next to the airport, a detention center, she explained. "Then they're transporting them within 24 hours to Texas, so that their cases can't be heard here. And so that is what we're hearing for every case that we are hearing about," said Graupman.

IIMN is busy gearing up its legal team. "Our clients know not to open their doors unless they have a judicial warrant, but they're not respecting that always, and now they're starting to do other tactics, too. I've never seen this before – anything close to what's happening. And as you are hearing in the news, it's true U.S. citizens are being arrested, whether they're born here or somewhere else. So if you work with immigrants and you employ them, it is really important to really think seriously about how to protect them. And really, I'd say them staying home is probably the best thing that they can do right now, because it really isn't safe for people to leave their homes," advised Graupman.