Welcome to the February 2026 issue of CVT World, CVT’s periodic compilation of the latest news, stories and public activities from our team.

CVT Responds to Impacts of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota

A Message of Thanks from a CVT Client
As highly militarized federal immigration enforcement surged in Minnesota, six clients were taken by ICE and flown to Texas. All are asylum seekers, lawfully present in the United States. As of Feb. 15, however, we are happy to report that three of them have been released. One of them shared this message of thanks with CVT:

Torture Survivors Living in Minnesota Face ICE
“Our clients are facing a brutal reality: Life in the United States is now like the life they fled,” writes Sara Nelson, program manager, in this article about what clients have faced in Minnesota as ICE agents have swarmed the region and detained six clients, all of whom are lawfully present in the U.S.

Our clients are facing a brutal reality: Life in the United States is now like the life they fled.”

-Sara Nelson, CVT program manager

CVT Colleagues Comment in News Media on ICE Impacts

Minnesota Star Tribune: “This is not the freedom I sought. This is a prison of fear,” said a CVT client anonymously in this front page article titled “Minnesota Refugees and Immigrants Are Hiding in ‘A Prison of Fear.’” He notes that before fleeing his home country, he saw the same tactics in use, including “checkpoints, warrantless searches, profiling based on skin color or accent and arrests for nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Scott Roehm, senior director of global justice and accountability, is also quoted saying, “Nobody is safe from what’s happening right now. Nobody. It’s a climate of terror, and you’re seeing more people recognize that.”

This is not the freedom I sought. This is a prison of fear.”

-Anonymous client to the Star Tribune

Minnesota Public Radio: Jill Davidson, targeted case manager & social worker, Sara Nelson and Yasna Shahbazi, psychotherapist, all spoke in this article on MPR’s website and in the audio story that ran on All Things Considered. The clinicians describe how clients repeatedly say that the situation in Minneapolis is what they fled back in their home countries. Yasna said her client sessions are all “’back to ground zero,’ as if the torture from years ago happened yesterday.” Reporter Cari Spencer also spoke to two anonymous CVT clients, both of whom are hiding at home, about what they are experiencing in Minneapolis now. One client said he is finding hope from the Minnesotans pushing back on ICE. “There are a lot of good people,” he said. “We will remember it. I will remember it.”

‘There are a lot of good people,’ he said. ‘We will remember it. I will remember it’.”

-Anonymous client to MPR

Star Tribune, Editorial: John Rash, editorial columnist at the Star Tribune, writes here about what has happened to CVT Minnesota-based clients during the militarized ICE enforcement, quoting Sara Nelson and Scott Roehm. They describe how clients are now living through a situation as frightening as what they fled in their home countries. Scott said that under normal circumstances, clients come to CVT and “feel safe, particularly in the environment of working with our clinicians, or they’re in the process of getting there on the road that is their healing journey. Now they’re terrified.”

Star Tribune: Sara Nelson is quoted in this article titled “‘No Humanity’: Detainees Describe Conditions Inside Whipple Federal Building.” The reporters share descriptions of conditions at Minnesota’s Whipple building, where people detained by ICE are held and frequently flown to Texas, as is the case with all six of CVT’s Minnesota-based clients. Sara comments people being cut off from communication at the Texas facility, saying, “it’s like they’re in a black hole.” This article was on the front page of the Sunday newspaper and picked up by global news media.

CNN: Sara Nelson is quoted in this CNN article titled, “They Were Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Minnesota. Still, ICE Detained and Flew Them to Texas to Face Deportation.” Sara comments, “The fear is that the cases will just get administratively canceled and they’ll get deported without having their day in court or without due process,” she said. Sara adds that if they are deported, they may become a target once again because they fled their home countries originally, saying “People are going to die, to be totally frank.” This article was picked up globally.

Sky News: Scott Roehm spoke here about immigration enforcement in Minnesota and more broadly in the United States. “Very few people in the United States are safe,” he said, commenting on the need to completely dismantle ICE in its form, noting that the government’s stated aim to remove violent criminals in the U.S. is a ruse, as our clients are being taken even though they are not criminals and have lawful immigration status. “It’s part of a widespread and comprehensive assault on fundamental human rights, targeted at immigrants in this country and refugees and asylum seekers in Minneapolis.”

It’s part of a widespread and comprehensive assault on fundamental human rights, targeted at immigrants in this country and refugees and asylum seekers in Minneapolis.”

-Scott Roehm, senior director of global justice & accountability

La Nacion: Dr. Florencia Montal, senior evaluator & researcher, and Sara Nelson are quoted in this article. “They are people who had been escaping from horrible situations in their countries and now find themselves here with something similar,” said Florencia about CVT clients who have been deeply impacted even taken by ICE. She also mentions that a list was surreptitiously created by ICE agents and circulated to gather addresses for people who were seeking grocery deliveries when they could not leave their homes.

New Tactics published this podcast, “Immigration Enforcement in Minnesota: A Conversation with CVT Experts.” Consultant Melissa McNeilly speaks to Alison Beckman, senior clinician for external relations, and Yumna Rizvi, senior policy analyst, about the United States’ militarized immigration enforcement impacts in Minnesota and beyond.

Additional News and Updates

Former LRA Survivors Share Stories in New Book

“Sharing my story helped me release pain I had carried for years,” said Beatrice Ladu, a survivor of LRA war in Northern Uganda, to Patrick Uma in this article about CVT’s new report on survivor-defined justice for mothers and children born of war. Report co-author Joel Odokonyero, CVT transitional justice specialist, said, “This work centers survivor voices. We wanted to understand what justice means to them, not what outsiders assume it should be.”

Sharing my story helped me release pain I had carried for years.”

-Beatrice Ladu, survivor of LRA war

“At Last We Can Breathe”
In this article, Dr. Justin Hett, clinical advisor for mental health, writes about how the work of the team supporting Syrian survivors was affected first when the Assad regime fell in late 2024, and then when the U.S. government pulled its funding in early 2025. Programming came to a halt, but progress for the people of Syria did not. He writes, “Now the question was how to do as much as possible in what would likely be a small window of time available.” The team developed new materials and looked closely at sustainability and resilience, rolling out new and highly successful trainings as part of the Survivors of Torture Initiative (SOTI).

Working in Coalition with Partners

Working with partners brings strength to CVT’s policy advocacy. We regularly participate in organized coalition actions that support survivors of torture. Below are recent coalition and partner actions.

• CVT joins Coalition for Just Reparations and additional partner organizations this statement as alleged ISIS affiliates are transferred from Syria to Iraq, calling for efforts to fight impunity and protect the rights of survivors while upholding international legal and human rights standards. The authors write, “While accountability for ISIS crimes remains an urgent priority, counter-terrorism frameworks cannot reflect the full gravity and systematic nature of ISIS committed crimes, amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” Human Rights Watch shared the statement here.
• A call to protect sensitive locations including schools, hospitals, places of worship, and more, from harmful immigration actions: CVT joined more than 430 organizations in signing this letter to Congress calling for oversight on Department of Homeland Security practices and accountability for abuses being seen in Minnesota and across the country during immigration enforcement. The authors write, “Legislation must have consequences for immigration enforcement officers who violate the law and protections for individuals who are victims of those violations.”
• CVT signed this letter to Congress, joining more than 80 human rights organizations in calling for a halt to the “Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening,” or PARRIS, operation by the Department of Homeland Security. This policy subjects refugees to re-vetting, even though they are already settled in the U.S. The authors write, “There has never been a more important time to speak out in support of comprehensive, meaningful measures to rein in DHS’s unaccountable – and increasingly violent – campaign of enforcement, deadly force, and detention.”