As Trump vows to halt illegal immigration, here's how deportation currently works in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Nathan Kintu came to Minneapolis from Uganda for college in 2012 on a student visa. He fell in love with the United States and he fell in love.
His wife, Victoria, is also a Ugandan immigrant. That's where things get complicated: Victoria had a green card, but that doesn't transfer through marriage and Kintu's student visa was about to expire — that was in 2020.
"I don't have a job to pay a lawyer to go through the process to get a work permit," Kintu said. "You feel like you're going to be deported at any time. You're going to leave the country, they're going to take you out of the country."
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Kintu's case is just one of 7.6 million noncitizens on the agency's docket. Each one is unique and many of them are really complicated. All of these people technically can be deported, but in most cases, a federal immigration judge is the one to make that call.
In Minnesota, ICE agents could get a call from customs and border protection, either at the northern border or one of the other ports of entry, like Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
ICE could also get involved if a noncitizen is pulled over for speeding or arrested on criminal charges. It's often up to local police or the sheriff though to let ICE know about it. Other times, ICE might work off a tip and investigate a business.
The noncitizen could be detained in a county jail and, in Minnesota, just three contracts with ICE. If they're not there, the noncitizen could be monitored in some other fashion, like a GPS tracker or phone check-ins. If there's a low flight risk, they may not even be tracked at all — as long as they show up for their hearings.
There's one federal immigration court in Minnesota in Fort Snelling. There are seven judges.
Only Congress can change how the current system works — not an executive order.
"ICE has to decide their priorities and it's been the case that people who have criminal records are sought out for arrest, but if the new administration wants to deport anyone who's illegal, it's going to jam their ability to actually focus on the people who should be priorities," Graham Ojala Barbour, an immigration attorney in St. Paul, said.
In ICE's St. Paul region, 1,845 noncitizens were detained last year with more than 80% of them facing charges or convicted criminals, according to the agency. More than 1,700 were deported.
"Not all countries take deportees, like Cuba — it's really difficult — or Somalia, it's difficult for ICE to deport people to countries with a complicated diplomatic relationships," Barbour said. "Often people can languish in jail for many months while ICE tries to arrange travel documents and that can be expensive to taxpayers."
Kintu's case lingered in immigration court for five years. Last Wednesday, he finally got his green card.
"It was magical. It felt like I'm free," he said.
Immigration court is not like a criminal court. Everyone who works there is an employee of the Department of Justice and appointed by the attorney general.
