Imagine going to a routine green card interview at a USCIS office and ending up in handcuffs. According to reports from the New York Times and CBS 8, this is now happening in the US, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun detaining individuals during their green card interviews.
Immigration attorney Saman Nasseri told CBS 8 that ICE and USCIS have started enforcing a policy under which ICE arrests applicants who have overstayed their visas — even if they entered the US legally and have no criminal history.
“ICE and USCIS have started implementing a policy where ICE is now making arrests at USCIS offices during the green card interviews on anyone who is a visa overstay. If they’re out of status, ICE makes that arrest at the interviews,” Nasseri said.
Nasseri said five of his clients, all spouses of US citizens with no criminal background, were detained last week during routine green card interviews.
Attorney Habib Hasbini reported similar cases, noting that the arrests appear to be concentrated at the San Diego USCIS office. He said the first incident happened on November 12, just before ICE issued a related memo, and that he has since received multiple calls from families whose loved ones were detained at the same facility.
Hasbini urged applicants to continue attending scheduled interviews, warning that skipping them could lead to denial for abandonment — but advised they be prepared for the possibility of arrest.
Multiple cases from San Diego
As per a report by the NYT, at least two immigrants were arrested in San Diego interview rooms in front of their American spouses, including one case involving a 4-month-old baby. In one instance, American citizen Audrey Hestmark said her German husband, Tom Bilger, was taken by masked ICE agents who showed a QR code instead of identification.
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In another, British national Katie Paul, who is pregnant and considered high-risk, was detained despite the couple’s plans to remain in the US.
Several dozen foreign-born spouses have been detained in the San Diego region since November 12, according to immigration lawyer Andrew Nietor, in what attorneys say is a sharp escalation of enforcement during routine marriage-based immigration interviews. Nietor, a former chair of the San Diego chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told NYT that the estimate is based on communications among members about their clients. The exact number remains unclear as many couples attend these interviews without legal representation. The government has not released any official tally of such detentions.
In each of the known cases, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents told the spouses that they had overstayed tourist or business visas. An arrest warrant reviewed by The New York Times stated that “probable cause” existed to believe the individual was “removable from the United States.”
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A USCIS spokesperson, Matthew J Tragesser, told the newspaper that apprehensions at USCIS offices can occur if individuals are found to have outstanding warrants, are subject to court-issued removal orders, or have committed fraud, crimes, or other immigration violations. Such arrests are usually carried out by ICE, he said.
Green card process
Green-card applicants frequently find their temporary visas expiring while their adjustment-of-status applications remain pending for months or longer. Under a 1986 immigration statute, a spouse who originally entered the US lawfully remains eligible for a marriage-based green card even if their visa has lapsed.
“Congress was unambiguous — these people are eligible for green cards,” Doug Rand, a former senior official at US Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration told NYT.
Although federal law does not bar immigration authorities from detaining spouses with expired visas or placing them in deportation proceedings, such arrests have historically been rare during the green-card application process. The Trump administration, however, has begun carrying out these detentions without announcing any formal policy change.
