Immigrants arrested by ICE in Rochester granted bond, including Nupá restaurant worker

Five people arrested by immigration authorities as part of ramped-up enforcement in Rochester were granted bond Tuesday, including a restaurant worker at Nupá Mediterranean Grill whose detention spurred a local outcry.

The restaurant employee and his brother, both Mexicans detained at Sherburne County jail, have no criminal history in the United States or any other country, their attorney Hannah Brown told Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Ryan Wood. She said they have lived in the country since 2016 and 2018, respectively, and “they’ve really established themselves in the Rochester community.” The second brother works at a different restaurant, she added, and their employers submitted letters describing them as integral to operations.

Wood granted a $5,000 bond for each man as requested by the Department of Homeland Security, though Brown had sought a $1,500 bond, citing the brothers’ “limited income.”

Nupá Mediterranean Grill in Rochester posted on social media Feb. 12 that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested one worker and another man in the parking lot outside one of the business’ two locations. Nupá said the worker “accounted for many of our man hours” and “we are mourning the loss of Nupá family and the devastating impact it has on our small business,” in a Facebook post that drew hundreds of comments. The restaurant temporarily closed its north location on Civic Center Drive as a result, though it said on Facebook that it reopened Feb. 22.

“Ideally, their bonds are paid today and they will be released today or tomorrow,” Brown told the Minnesota Star Tribune in an email after the hearing. “The timing of the release is up to ICE and how quickly they can get processed.”

Bonds in immigration court are granted based on a judge’s determination of a detainee’s danger to public safety or risk of not showing up to future court proceedings.

Organizers with the Rochester chapter of Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL) and other advocates protested ICE’s actions that week at Peace Plaza in downtown Rochester. A series of hearings in Fort Snelling Immigration Court on Tuesday shed more light on increased ICE activity in the area — and how the agency is arresting more unauthorized immigrants without criminal histories.

An attorney for another Mexican Rochester resident told Wood her client was detained Feb. 12 while driving. Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Supervising Staff Attorney Robyn Meyer-Thompson said the woman she represents has lived in Rochester since 2022, has no known criminal record and works in the cleaning and restaurant industries. The client acknowledged that she has no driver’s license.

“Her arrest occurred in the context of overall increased ICE enforcement in the Rochester area,” said Meyer-Thompson. She added that some of the woman’s family members were also detained that day on their way to work at a Rochester restaurant, though she did not name the establishment or say whether her client was related to the Nupá employee.

Wood approved a $3,000 bond for the woman.

Two other Mexican brothers residing in Rochester were detained by ICE while driving in the area, according to attorney Gloria Contreras Edin. She told the judge that neither has a criminal history and she believed they had not been the target of immigration authorities when they were picked up. The men were approved for a $5,000 bond.

COPAL Organizing Director Ryan Perez said Monday that there were at least nine detainees from recent Rochester ICE activity. He added there were “multiple folks” who as far as he knew from conversations with loved ones had no criminal record or a deportation order, and in some cases the ICE arrest seemed “like an out of the blue surprise.”

Meanwhile, it was Wood’s last day of hearing detainees' cases. He is leaving his position at the court, after serving as an immigration judge since 2017 and assistant chief immigration judge since 2019.

The departure comes as the Fort Snelling Immigration Court is grappling with a backlog of 42,000 pending cases.

Though Wood was not available for an interview to discuss his resignation, the move comes amid national turmoil in the immigration court system. The Trump administration recently fired the chief immigration judge and at least 20 immigration judges, including five assistant chief immigration judges.

The acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review — which oversees the immigration court system — was also axed. Plans for replacing Wood are unknown, and the EOIR declined to comment.