Refugees at Risk as ICE Greenlights Arrests for Non-Green Card Holders

New directives from the Trump administration put thousands of refugees in jeopardy, allowing for their arrest and indefinite detention if they lack a green card. This shift, revealed through court documents, marks a significant departure from previous protections afforded to legally present refugees during their first year in the United States.

Under the revised policy, refugees are now required to report to Homeland Security or risk being taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “In my 25 years of working in refugee protection, I have never encountered anything like this,” stated Beth Oppenheim, CEO of HIAS, an international refugee advocacy organization. The group warns of “grave harm” to individuals who sought refuge from violence and persecution, only to find themselves targeted by ICE.

Oppenheim criticized the memo's secretive release, emphasizing the lack of coordination with organizations that assist refugees. “This is a betrayal of our values and legal commitments, and it will cause extraordinary harm,” she asserted.

The memo surfaced amid ongoing legal disputes regarding ICE's actions in Minnesota, where over 3,000 federal immigration officers were deployed last year to conduct mass arrests, including those of recently resettled refugees. A federal judge intervened, temporarily halting ICE from detaining approximately 5,600 refugees in the state. The judge's ruling underscored that refugees possess legal rights to reside, work, and live peacefully in the U.S., free from the fear of unwarranted arrests.

Details surrounding the memo's release indicate it was disclosed just before a court hearing related to allegations that ICE officers arrested refugees during routine check-ins, on their way to work or school, and even at their homes without warrants. Some individuals were reportedly shackled and transported to a detention facility in Texas, over 1,200 miles away.

The latest directive mandates Homeland Security to actively locate and detain individuals without green cards. This memo, signed by ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow, rescinds prior guidance that deemed a refugee's failure to adjust their status as insufficient grounds for removal or detention.

Oppenheim described the new policy as a blatant attempt to detain and potentially deport thousands of legally present individuals—those whom the U.S. government had previously welcomed after extensive vetting processes. “They were promised safety and a chance to rebuild their lives. Instead, DHS is now threatening them with arrest and indefinite detention,” she added.

Numerous factors can delay a refugee's adjustment of status within their first year, including processing delays, language barriers, and the complexities of the immigration system. Advocates argue that the speed at which paperwork is processed is often beyond the control of the refugees themselves.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, criticized the new policy for weaponizing a standard administrative procedure as a pretext for arrests. “These families have undergone more rigorous screening than any other immigrant group,” she noted. “After years of background checks and interviews, they were invited to rebuild their lives here. Subjecting them to arrest and indefinite detention is a profound betrayal of our legal obligations and moral principles.”

Last year, President Trump initiated a review of the refugee admissions program to assess whether admitting refugees served national interests, disrupting the lives of many already approved for entry or in the resettlement process. The administration has since prioritized admissions for specific groups while drastically reducing the overall cap on refugee admissions from 125,000 to just 7,500 annually.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is currently evaluating thousands of refugees who entered under the Biden administration while Homeland Security has broadly rescinded legal protections for around one million immigrants who arrived during that period.

The Minneapolis-St.Paul area hosts approximately 80,000 individuals of Somali descent, most of whom are legal residents or American citizens. However, following a series of fraud cases linked to government programs involving Somali defendants, federal officers were dispatched to Minnesota as part of a broader initiative aimed at deporting millions.

In announcing “Operation PARRIS” targeting refugees in Minnesota, Homeland Security officials labeled the state as “ground zero for the war on fraud.”