The Department of Homeland Security issued a Feb. 18 memo directing federal immigration agencies to detain certain refugees who entered the U.S. lawfully but have not obtained lawful permanent resident status — a green card — at least a year after arrival.
The memo was submitted in a federal court filing and frames the one-year mark as a mandatory point for renewed screening of refugees without adjusted status. According to CBS News, the directive gives refugees the option to voluntarily schedule an immigration interview; however, it instructs ICE to actively track down and arrest anyone who fails to do so.
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Why advocates see the memo as a major shift
Advocacy groups argue the government is upending decades of precedent by fundamentally changing its approach to legal refugees. Beth Oppenheim, chief executive of HIAS, called the policy an “unprecedented and unnecessary breach of trust,” The Washington Post reported. Reuters noted that AfghanEvac’s Shawn VanDiver characterized the move as a “reckless reversal of long-standing policy” that abandons previous promises of safe harbor.
The Post reported that more than 200,000 refugees entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, and that advocates estimate about 100,000 have not yet obtained green cards and could be subject to detention under the new policy
What the directive tells ICE and USCIS to do
The new rules were authorized by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow. The memo dismisses older guidelines as inadequate, arguing that federal law legally binds DHS to detain and re-interview these individuals. The document justifies the “detain-and-inspect” protocol as a necessary measure to protect public safety and to align refugee vetting with other immigration channels.
CBS reported the mandated review seeks to uncover potential immigration fraud or risks to national security. If authorities discover “red flags” during these screenings, the refugee could lose their legal status and face deportation.
How the memo surfaced amid Minnesota litigation
The Post reported that DHS filed the memo just a day before a hearing in Minnesota, where a federal judge recently issued a temporary injunction to stop ICE from detaining thousands of local refugees. In that case, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim indicated that the government’s practice of arresting refugees for re-screening likely broke federal laws.
This localized enforcement campaign, dubbed Operation PARRIS, involved transferring detained refugees to Texas facilities for interrogation.
