Refugees International Condemns DHS Memo Authorizing Detention of Thousands of Lawfully Admitted Refugees

Statement from Refugees International Director for the Americas and Europe Yael Schacher: 

“The Trump administration is escalating its persecution of lawfully resettled refugees – people the United States promised to protect. A newly released memo has authorized the roundup, detention, interrogation, and deportation of thousands of refugees who fled persecution in places like Somalia, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Venezuela – and were interviewed, vetted, and resettled in the United States. The move is historically unprecedented and based on false and hateful distortions of both refugees and U.S. law. 

The memo baselessly claims that resettled refugees were not – and should not have been – legally admitted to the United States. It attempts to upend decades of settled interpretation of the 1980 Refugee Act by arguing that, one year after arrival, refugees do not simply have their green card applications processed by USCIS – but instead must be detained and re-vetted to determine whether they are in fact refugees and allowed to stay in the country. According to the memo, any refugee not adjusted at the one-year mark is subject to arrest and revetting. 

This legalistic sleight of hand helps the Trump administration ensnare refugees in a trap set last year when USCIS slowed and then halted adjudication of adjustment of status applications by refugees. 

An estimated 100,000 people may be subject to this policy, which will inflict profound trauma on refugee families and communities across the country. The so-called “revetting” is as cruel as it is unnecessary: there is no need for it, as all resettled refugees have already been through an extensive vetting process before even arriving in the United States. The memo falsely presumes that refugees may have attained their status through misrepresentation and fraud, have ties to terrorism ties, or have criminal backgrounds. The memo particularly and unfairly singles out refugees from the Western Hemisphere as unworthy of refugee status. 

This is a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration’s racist and unjustified attack on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Having already betrayed people promised resettlement – and resettling Afrikaners instead – the Trump administration is now planning to rip resettled refugees from communities that have welcomed them, where they are now working, paying taxes, and attending school. 

Refugees International is supporting court challenges to this policy and stands in solidarity with refugees and the communities and organizations that support them.”

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Etant Dupain at edupain@refugeesinternational.org.