U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is creating its own armed law-enforcement team to crack down on immigration fraud and protect the integrity of the immigration system, the agency announced Thursday.
The agency primarily responsible for issuing citizenship, visas and green cards is training special law enforcement agents to investigate, make arrests and pursue criminal charges against those who violate immigration laws, according to the USCIS press release. The change implements Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s delegation of certain law enforcement authorities to the USCIS, and is part of the Trump administration’s broader, whole-of-government approach to addressing illegal immigration.
“USCIS has always been an enforcement agency. By upholding the integrity of our immigration system, we enforce the laws of this nation,” said USCIS Director Joseph Edlow in a statement. “This historic moment will better address immigration crimes, hold those that perpetrate immigration fraud accountable, and act as a force multiplier for DHS and our federal law enforcement partners, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”Until now, USCIS has handled fraud investigations through the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate, which referred cases to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to The Wall Street Journal. Those officers did not carry weapons or make arrests.
The agency plans to start with roughly 200 agents embedded at immigration offices nationwide, focusing on fraud patterns such as immigrants from the same country filing near-identical applications or applicants faking disabilities to bypass the English exam, WSJ reported. The new law enforcement body will also prioritize revoking citizenship from individuals who obtained it by providing false information on their applications.
The change will bolster USCIS’s capacity to conduct investigations independently and clear its backlog of illegal immigrants who seek to exploit the immigration system, the agency said.
Along with ramping up deportations and securing the southern border, the Trump administration has also tightened vetting for immigrants seeking entry into the country.
USCIS announced in August that it would more heavily scrutinize foreign nationals applying for citizenship by assessing not only an alien’s lack of misconduct, but also identifying their “positive attributes” to society. The agency also began screening applicants for “anti-American” sentiments, and has resumed neighborhood checks for citizenship applicants.
“I’m not expecting this to have a chilling effect on applications,” said Edlow, according to WSJ. “I’m expecting this to have a chilling effect on fraudulent applications, and that’s what I want.”
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