In a stark departure from past guidance, the Trump administration is now giving federal agents more leeway to arrest and detain refugees who entered the U.S. legally, according to multiple reports.
The policy, outlined in a Feb. 18 memo from the Department of Homeland Security, allows federal agents to arrest and detain refugees who do not have a green card. After being in the U.S. for one year, refugees without lawful permanent residency can either present themselves voluntarily or be taken into custody by federal agents, the memo states.
DHS argued that these detentions were necessary to rescreen and vet refugees for potential national security and public safety risks.
This new proposal adds to the administration’s larger efforts to target immigrants who’ve entered the U.S. lawfully, and rolls back longstanding protections refugees have had.
Under guidance issued during the Obama administration, refugees were required to file for lawful permanent residency after a year, but a failure to apply for it wasn’t enough to justify detention. Additionally, Trump officials have suspended green card processing for several countries where some refugees are from, making it difficult for them to pursue their applications.
Refugee advocates note that this policy could apply to roughly 100,000 people and make them vulnerable to detention. They also emphasize that refugees are already heavily screened to enter the U.S.
“These are families the United States government already screened more rigorously than any other category of immigrant,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge, a refugee advocacy group, said in a statement. “Only after years of background checks, biometric screenings, and in-person interviews were they invited to rebuild their lives here.”
A USCIS spokesperson accused the media of “sensationalizing long-established immigration law,” and claimed it was implementing the policy “as written by Congress.” The spokesperson pointed to language in the law that refers to refugees being returned to the “custody” of DHS if they do not obtain lawful permanent residency after being present in the U.S. for at least one year.
“Returning to DHS ‘custody’ has never meant arrest and unlimited detention, attorneys said in court filings,” per The Washington Post.
This move is the latest in the administration’s efforts to curtail lawful immigration. The administration has already ordered the review of more than 200,000 refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. Previously, it also capped refugee admissions at a historically low level and gave priority to white South Africans.
“This is a further attack on individuals with legal status. It targets refugees who were selected and invited to this country by the U.S. government and who are living here lawfully and simply awaiting the next step in their process towards citizenship,” Mevlüde Akay Alp, a senior staff attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project, told HuffPost.