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Trump hiring armed agents to arrest visa, green card, work permits violators.
Favour Rotimi
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agents in charge of issuing citizenship, visas, and green cards are forming its own police force, as President Trump’s immigration crackdown widens beyond traditional law-enforcement agencies.
Wall Street Journal reports that the primary government agency will now be allowed to arrest people for immigration violations
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it plans to train several hundred federal law-enforcement agents to look for fraud in immigration applications—and arrest the immigrants in question or the lawyers who helped prepare their petitions.
The government agency that processes and adjudicates benefits like green cards and work permits is determined to add armed law enforcement officers to investigate civil and criminal immigration violations.
The officers will be empowered to make arrests, carry firearms, and execute search and arrest warrants with a focus on fraud, the agency said in an announcement on Thursday.
The new law enforcement function is the sharpest indication yet of the agency’s embrace of a new enforcement role as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown.
USCIS this year has also facilitated an increasing number of arrests at field offices by ICE agents. And it’s dramatically expanded issuance of charging documents to begin removal proceedings when immigrants are denied benefits.
“USCIS has always been an enforcement agency,” Joseph Edlow, the agency’s director, said in a statement. “By upholding the integrity of our immigration system, we enforce the laws of this nation.”
It released a final rule Thursday outlining the kinds of cases that will be targeted as well as the legal authority to enforce immigration law, which has traditionally been the purview of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Now, USCIS will be able to handle investigations from start to finish, the agency said, instead of handing off cases to ICE.
Regulations codifying the new authorities will take effect 30 days after they’re published in the Federal Register on Friday.
