The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just issued a new memo, stating that refugees who hadn’t gotten their green cards should be arrested and detained indefinitely. When you consider the administration’s $38.3 billion plan to acquire and retrofit huge warehouses across the country into new immigration detention centers, it creates a terrifying reality for immigrants.
This new directive rescinds a 2010 memo that stated failing to apply for lawful permanent resident status within a year wasn’t a reason to detain refugees who entered the U.S. legally. Two Trump officials, acting ICE director Todd M. Lyons and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow, wrote that the memo was incomplete. They claim the law requires DHS to detain these refugees and subject them to new interviews while in custody.
The Trump administration is essentially recasting refugee status as conditional, not permanent. Per the Washington Post, the memo says that refugees who haven’t adjusted their status must be “located, arrested, and detained.” They must then go through a second round of “congressionally mandated” vetting to screen for public safety, fraud, and national security risks.
Refugees flee for safety, and that just got taken away
Advocates and judges are pushing back. They argue that while the Immigration and Nationality Act mentions refugees returning to DHS “custody,” this has never meant detention. Historically, USCIS would simply issue notices. The International Refugee Assistance Project also pointed out that Congress doesn’t demand revetting as part of status adjustment.
The law requires the federal government to ‘inspect’ and verify, but not re-interrogate refugees about their original proven claims. This new policy follows the arrests of dozens of resettled people in Minnesota as part of Operation PARRIS. Many were quickly transported to Texas detention centers and later released without their identity documents.
Trump administration expands ICE authority to detain refugees for “re-vetting.”
— Melissa Nann Burke (@nannburke) February 19, 2026
Refugees are *legal* immigrants who generally undergo years of vetting before admission to the US https://t.co/eaZF4ASqFd via @detroitnews
Refugee resettlement groups see the operation as a failure of the nation’s promise to offer safe harbor. An executive of HIAS said, “This memo, drafted in secret and without coordination with agencies working directly with refugees, represents an unprecedented and unnecessary breach of trust.” AfghanEvac echoed the frustration: “You don’t invite people into the United States under one set of rules and start moving the goalposts after they arrive.”
US Advocates are worried that refugees will be sent back to the dangerous places they fled, which violates international law. Meanwhile, per The Guardian, USCIS expects to spend $38.3 billion on a plan to acquire and retrofit buildings across the U.S. into regional processing centers, some of which will hold 7,000 to 10,000 people at a time.
Didn't These Used To Be Called Concentration Camps??
— Merribeth Herbert (@beansi50) February 18, 2026ICE to spend nearly $40B on detention centers, documents show https://t.co/7SHdcHQ4Aa
DHS states that this is needed due to a surge in ICE hires and an anticipated rise in arrests, aiming to “ensure the safe and humane civil detention of aliens in ICE custody, while helping ICE effectuate mass deportations.” These will be “the primary locations” for deportations, where detainees will be held for 60 days after initial processing, before deportation. The entire undertaking is so cruel that lawmakers even made it personal for the ICE director.
