The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to deport at least 50 green card holders through a new unit dedicated to revetting thousands of immigrants with permanent residency across the country, according to internal data obtained by The New York Times.<\/p>\n
Those cases represent a small fraction of the total number of green card holders who have been reviewed so far. About 2,890 cases had been reviewed or were still being assessed as of May 7. Eighty percent of those cases were deemed as requiring \u201cno further action.\u201d More than 500 green card holders were still under review.<\/p>\n
The figures reveal the early results of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to screen green card holders suspected of committing fraud or posing threats. The recent creation of the unit also underscores how aggressively administration officials are trying to root out immigrants they believe should be stripped of their legal status and removed from the country.<\/p>\n
It is the latest sign that the administration is broadening its immigration crackdown beyond those living in the country illegally to those who have gained lawful status. Officials have launched campaigns to try to revoke the statuses of refugees and naturalized citizens<\/a> in recent months, provoking fear among many longtime residents that their status is not secure.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has said it is necessary<\/a> to revet<\/a> broad groups of immigrants because of lax screening standards under the Biden administration. But the effort is coming under criticism by some former homeland security officials under Democratic and Republican administrations who have questioned the use of resources and pointed out that the internal figures show only about 2 percent of green card holders reviewed were deemed potentially deportable.<\/p>\n Zach Kahler, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees the immigration system, said the agency was \u201cevolving through organizational realignments to better protect American citizens and support our mission priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cU.S.C.I.S.\u2019s first and foremost mission is to safeguard America by rigorously vetting and screening aliens,\u201d Mr. Kahler said in a statement. \u201cWe will continue to implement changes as we identify opportunities to strengthen the U.S. immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Kahler said the people being revetted included those arrested and convicted of various crimes, including sexual assault, domestic violence, driving under the influence and possession of drug paraphernalia. Some \u201cadmitted to membership in an organization suspected of illegally or illicitly obtaining export-controlled information and technology for Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,\u201d Mr. Kahler said.<\/p>\n He added that those who were being screened also included people who were determined by U.S.C.I.S. to have lied to get their permanent resident status.<\/p>\n But the fact that few of those targeted were found to have been approved improperly suggests that the sweep included a broader pool of people than just those convicted of crimes or who had committed fraud.<\/p>\n Tens of thousands more green card holders across the country have been identified for review, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. Officers working for the unit have been tasked with reviewing criminal records and applications submitted by green card holders to find indications of potential fraud, the person said.<\/p>\n Some former homeland security officials questioned the effectiveness of the agency\u2019s focus on revetting immigrants already approved for legal status.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been a lot of questions about whether or not this is a responsible use of U.S.C.I.S.\u2019s resources, especially when you consider how backlogged the agency is,\u201d said Sarah Pierce, a former policy analyst at Citizenship and Immigration Services who is now the director of social policy at the center-left think tank Third Way. \u201cI think the numbers only continue to raise those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n The agency had more than 11 million pending applications for a variety of immigration benefits at the end of September, according to the latest data from U.S.C.I.S. That backlog has continued to grow over the years, roughly doubling<\/a> since the end of 2019.<\/p>\n The unit tasked with reviewing green card holders is part of a new division within the agency called the \u201cTactical Operations Division,\u201d according to documents reviewed by The Times. It has several units, including \u201cLPR Operations,\u201d \u201cDenaturalization\u201d and \u201cRefugee Revetting.\u201d The New Yorker reported earlier on the division\u2019s creation<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an email reviewed by The Times, Daniel Andrade, the division\u2019s director, described the unit dedicated to screening green card holders as an \u201cLPR removal apparatus,\u201d referring to lawful permanent residents. About 40 immigration officers are working on screening green card holders, according to the documents.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s revetting efforts are significantly broader and more aggressive than previous efforts<\/a> to review immigrants lawfully in the country, according to former homeland security officials.<\/p>\n A green card holder\u2019s criminal record would typically be reviewed by Citizenship and Immigration Services when that individual applied for renewal, naturalization or another benefit. Through the new unit, the agency is more proactively reviewing and seeking to deport green card holders.<\/p>\n \u201cThis intense focus on revetting is new,\u201d said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, the senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.<\/p>\n