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White House Memo Lets ICE Detain Refugees Missing Green Card After Year

White House Memo Lets ICE Detain Refugees Missing Green Card After Year
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The White House approved a new Department of Homeland Security memo that empowered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and detain thousands of legally admitted refugees for aggressive “rescreening,” reversing a decade‑old policy and triggering immediate legal and political backlash theguardian +1. The directive, dated 18 February 2026, said refugees who have not applied for or obtained a green card after one year should be located, arrested and held “for the duration of the inspection and examination process” migrationpolicy.

The memo surfaced in a federal court filing in Minnesota, where a judge had already blocked a pilot operation that saw more than 100 refugees arrested and transferred to distant detention centers under an initiative dubbed “Operation PARRIS” migrationpolicy +1. Refugee agencies warned that the change could affect thousands of people nationwide who were admitted after extensive vetting but are still navigating paperwork delays, backlogs and legal hurdles in the green card process bbc +1.

What the New Memo Actually Does

Under U.S. law, refugees are required to apply for lawful permanent resident status after one year, a step that has long been treated as a routine administrative process rather than a trigger for arrest nytimes. A 2010 ICE memo explicitly advised that failure to adjust status on time was not, by itself, a basis for detention or removal; the 18 February guidance rescinded that position and instructed officers to return such refugees to DHS custody for re‑inspection migrationpolicy +1.

DHS argued the policy simply enforces the statute and “aligns post‑admission vetting” of refugees with that of other immigrants, framing the detain‑and‑inspect regime as a public‑safety measure to ensure refugees are “re‑vetted after one year” theguardian +1. The memo allows ICE to maintain custody throughout the review, a period that advocates said could stretch into months or longer in a backlogged system where overall ICE detention has hovered around 68,000 people in early 2026 theguardian +1.

Legal and Human Fallout for Refugees

In Minnesota, where roughly 5,600 refugees had not yet received green cards, the policy led to home and workplace arrests and transfers to facilities in Texas before a federal judge intervened migrationpolicy +1. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim issued a temporary restraining order on 28 January halting further arrests in the state and ordering the release or return of detained refugees, writing that they “have a legal right to be in the United States … and a right not to be subjected to the terror of being arrested and detained without warrants or cause” cfr.

Refugee resettlement groups including HIAS, the International Refugee Assistance Project and AfghanEvac condemned the memo as a “reversal of decades‑long interpretation” that breaks faith with people the U.S. pledged to protect bbc +1. They warned that refugees—already among the most heavily vetted entrants—now faced the prospect of family separation, job loss and re‑traumatization over paperwork delays often outside their control bbc +1. Democratic lawmakers urged DHS to rescind the policy and signaled broader legislative efforts to curb what civil‑rights groups describe as overreach by ICE and DHS washingtonpost.

The Bigger Picture

The refugee detention memo marked one of the most sweeping moves yet in President Donald Trump’s second‑term crackdown that has increasingly blurred the line between enforcement against unauthorized migrants and those who entered legally washingtonpost. With courts already scrutinizing the policy’s statutory basis and constitutional implications, its fate may hinge on how judges interpret a single word—“custody”—in the refugee statute. Whatever the outcome, the dispute has injected new uncertainty into the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and raised stark questions for allies and partners about the reliability of American protections for people it resettles.

theguardian Reuters; bbc The Guardian; migrationpolicy Washington Post; cfr U.H.A. v. Bondi, D. Minn., TRO order; axios HIAS / IRAP statements; nytimes 8 U.S.C. § 1159; cbsnews 2010 ICE guidance; cnn DHS memo language via Reuters/IRC; apnews ICE detention figures via Reuters; washingtonpost House Democrats’ letters, public statements; washingtonpost Migration Policy Institute / prior enforcement reporting.