US Immigration Agency to Create New Armed Police Force (2)

US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes and adjudicates benefits like green cards and work permits, is planning to add armed law enforcement officers to investigate civil and criminal immigration violations.

The officers will be empowered to make arrests, carry firearms, and execute search and arrest warrants with a focus on fraud, the agency said in an announcement Thursday.

The new law enforcement function is the sharpest indication yet of the agency’s embrace of a new enforcement role as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown. USCIS this year has also facilitated an increasing number of arrests at field offices by ICE agents. And it’s dramatically expanded issuance of charging documents to begin removal proceedings when immigrants are denied benefits.

“USCIS has always been an enforcement agency,” Joseph Edlow, the agency’s director, said in a statement. “By upholding the integrity of our immigration system, we enforce the laws of this nation.”

It released a final rule Thursday outlining the kinds of cases that will be targeted by the new special agents as well as the legal authority to enforce immigration law, which has traditionally been the purview of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Now USCIS will be able to handle investigations from start to finish, the agency said, instead of handing off cases to ICE.

The post-9/11 law that created the Department of Homeland Security didn’t authorize USCIS to pursue enforcement, said David Bier, director of immigration studies at Cato Institute. Those functions were left to ICE and US Customs and Border Protection, he said.

“The purpose of the Homeland Security Act was to separate enforcement in these other agencies from USCIS and its adjudication work,” he said. “There’s no authority for USCIS to change its function in this way.”

ICE recently received a massive infusion of funds from the tax cuts and spending bill passed by Republican lawmakers in July, Bier said. If that agency deemed fraud identified by USCIS as a priority, it “can go make the arrests,” he said.

Lack of Clarity

The rule authorizing the new law enforcement functions doesn’t offer much clarity about the types of violations that USCIS may pursue, said Shev Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The administration’s enforcement agenda has swept up immigrants with arrests and detentions regardless of whether they had any criminal record, she said.

“People will think twice about applying for a benefit even if they don’t think they’re committing fraud,” Dalal-Dheini said. “It’s so ambiguous what types of violations fall under this new authority.”

In a Thursday appearance at the National Press Club, Edlow said the law enforcement role “is not about arresting aliens. This is about going after fraud and national security cases.”

Regulations codifying the new authorities will take effect 30 days after they’re published in the Federal Register on Friday.

USCIS said it didn’t have a target for the number of officers it planned to hire and couldn’t share an expected date when they would begin work at the agency. It also said it plans to work with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and other DHS enforcement agencies to launch a training course and academy.

The plans to add the law enforcement officers were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.