Profs. Nadia Anguiano '17 and Linus Chan Quoted in Sahan Journal About Increase in Federal Prosecutions of Immigration Cases in Minnesota

Professors Nadia Anguiano '17 and Linus Chan were interviewed in the Sahan Journal about the increase in federal prosecution of immigration cases in Minnesota. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged 32 illegal reentry cases this year — a marked increase from the last eight years. 

Anguiano, who leads the Law School's Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic, part of the James H. Binger Center for New Americans, explained that the current Trump administration is sending more “aggressive” directives to federal law enforcement than in recent memory. Anguiano emphasized that one of Bondi’s orders directs all U.S. Attorneys' Offices to give quarterly reports to the DOJ detailing how many immigration cases are referred to their offices, how many they’ve prosecuted, how many they’ve declined to prosecute, and the resulting sentences and deportations. “That is sending a message that attorneys are being monitored, and that they’re being compared across the country in terms of the numbers of prosecutions and removals,” Anguiano said. “That, in my view, leaves no room for the imagination of the consequences if you don’t measure up to the numbers that the top levels of the administration are seeking.”

Chan, the director of Minnesota Law's Detainee Rights Center, pointed out, "Reentry crimes haven’t historically been charged at high rates in Minnesota. Instead, they’ve been most common in U.S. Attorneys' Offices in states along the Mexican border, where the crossings occur." Chan also said federal law enforcement is “doing a lot more interior enforcement” because crossings on the U.S.-Mexican border have dropped from a peak high in December 2023.