Refugees and Asylum

At a Minnesota hearing where a judge is weighing whether to extend the PARRIS arrest injunction for refugees, DHS filed a national policy memo saying refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody one year after admission for “inspection and examination” and that DHS “may maintain custody for the duration,” a move that has paused green‑card approvals and could affect roughly 200,000 refugees admitted during the Biden administration. DOJ told the court it believes it has authority to arrest at the one‑year mark but framed actual detentions as discretionary, a stance plaintiffs disputed and that drew criticism from advocates and Sen. Tina Smith.

A Feb. 18 DHS memo directs that refugees must either obtain a green card within a year or "present themselves to the agency" for inspection, and says failure to do so can result in detention — formally rescinding prior guidance that not applying for a green card was not grounds for deportation. Refugee groups and the memo’s filing in a pending federal case warn the change could affect tens of thousands (largely recent arrivals), effectively conditions admission on compliance and raises deportation risk amid cuts to resettlement funding that help with green‑card applications.