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aaron reichlin-melnick
'Stunning Betrayal': Refugees at Risk of Arrest Under New DHS Memo
"You cannot invite people under one set of rules and move the goalposts after they arrive," said one group, calling for "lawful, humane, consistent treatment of refugees and allies."
Feb 19, 2026
Rights advocates are sounding the alarm over a new US Department of Homeland Security memorandum that puts legal refugees across the United States at risk of arrest as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping anti-immigrant agenda.
The US Department of Justice submitted the memo to a federal judge in the lead-up to a Thursday preliminary injunction hearing about DHS arrests of refugees in Minnesota, where Trump recently sent thousands of immigration agents who were subsequently accused of various acts of violence, including fatally shooting citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The document was first reported on Wednesday by Law Dork's Chris Geidner, who has unsuccessfully fought to make such filings available remotely. Right now, for this case, they are only available at the federal courthouse in Minnesota.
While the Trump administration claims it is ending "Operation Metro Surge" and removing most Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who have terrorized the Twin Cities, the arrest policy detailed in the memo overhauls a long-standing interpretation of federal law for the entire country.
As American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick laid out on social media Thursday: "Refugees are people vetted overseas by US Refugee Officers through an often yearslong process. They enter the country legally and on a path to citizenship. Refugees are required to apply for a green card one year after they arrive, but they CANNOT apply earlier than that."
The Wednesday memo from US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow and ICE acting Director Todd Lyons states that after being in the country for a year, refugees "must return, or be returned," to DHS custody "for inspection and examination for admission" as a green-card holder, officially called a lawful permanent resident.
"If the refugee does not voluntarily return, DHS will return the individual to custody (i.e., arrest and detain) for this purpose... DHS may maintain custody for the duration of the inspection and examination process," the memo continues, adding that the detention period "is not indefinite, but also is not limited to merely 48 hours."
Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, declared in a Thursday statement that "this unprecedented policy weaponizes a routine administrative milestone as a pretext for detention."
"These are families the United States government already screened more rigorously than any other category of immigrant," she stressed. "Only after years of background checks, biometric screenings, and in-person interviews were they invited to rebuild their lives here. To now subject them to arrest and open-ended detention is a stunning betrayal of both our legal commitments and our moral compass."
DHS is claiming—in the memo and on social media, in response to new reporting—that the Refugee Act of 1980 requires the policy. Reichlin-Melnick emphasized that "reaching this conclusion required overturning decades-old interpretations."
"In a section of the memo that is truly Orwellian, the Trump [administration] says it's REFUGEES who have a 'misguided belief' about the law—even though its policy is a brand new interpretation of a 45-year-old law—and so it's THEIR fault they're traumatized when ICE comes to jail them," he noted.
"Making matters worse, the Trump [administration] is REFUSING to adjudicate green-card applications for refugees who come from one of the 39 countries Trump banned," Reichlin-Melnick added. "So under this policy, a refugee who applies for a green card exactly on time, doing nothing wrong, can be jailed by ICE."
The International Refugee Assistance Project is representing refugees in the Minnesota case. IRAP's vice president of US legal programs, Laurie Ball Cooper, told CNN that "this memo is part of a broad and concerted effort to strip refugees of their legal status and render them deportable... This government will clearly stop at nothing to terrorize refugee communities, and really all immigrants, while trampling over our constitutional rights."
Beth Oppenheim, CEO of HIAS, the world's oldest refugee agency, agreed that "this policy is a transparent effort to detain and potentially deport thousands of people who are legally present in this country, people the US government itself welcomed after years of extreme vetting."
"I have never seen anything like this in my 25 years of refugee protection work," Oppenheim said. "This memo was done in secret, with zero coordination with the organizations that serve refugees. It is a betrayal of our values and our legal commitments, and it will cause extraordinary harm."
Vignarajah also described the memo as "a broad attempt to redefine refugee status as conditional and revocable at will," and argued that "you do not welcome families fleeing war and persecution under one set of rules and then move the goalposts after they arrive."
Calling for "lawful, humane, consistent treatment of refugees and allies," AfghanEvac similarly said on social media that "you cannot invite people under one set of rules and move the goalposts after they arrive."
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State Dept. Official Signals Review of Foreigners 'Praising, Rationalizing, or Making Light of' Kirk Killing
"The US government seeking to punish those who make light of the incident is a complete betrayal of the First Amendment and spits in the face of the principle of free speech and debate," said one lawyer.
Sep 11, 2025
"So much for free speech."
That's how multiple social media users responded Thursday after a top official signaled on the platform X that the US Department of State will review foreigners' remarks on the Wednesday killing of Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk, a key ally of Republican President Donald Trump.
"In light of yesterday's horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country," Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote Thursday morning.
"I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action," Landau added. "Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the State Department can protect the American people."
Lawyers swiftly stressed that the comments Landau is aiming to track down would be "fully protected speech under the First Amendment" to the US Constitution.
American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said, "You can agree that it's a tragedy that a man was assassinated and also believe that the US government seeking to punish those who make light of the incident is a complete betrayal of the First Amendment and spits in the face of the principle of free speech and debate."
"It is appalling to see US government officials trying to police the speech of people outside the US and to direct consular officers to deny and strip visas from anyone who made a joke about Charlie Kirk's assassination—and rely on X for reports," he continued. "The First Amendment applies to the federal government; 'Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech.' Directing people to have a benefit denied and potentially be deported over a joke in very poor taste violates the First Amendment."
After one X user suggested visitors to the United States don't have the same rights as citizens, Reichlin-Melnick explained that "the First Amendment is a restriction on government action that applies even when the government seeks to restrict the speech of noncitizens. If you'd like, I can cite you dozens of court cases confirming that noncitizens enjoy First Amendment protections."
Kirk and his allies—including Trump—have long framed the late 31-year-old as a free speech supporter. A lengthy pop-up message about his death on the Turning Point USA website even says that "Charlie has become America's greatest martyr to the freedom of speech he so adored."
In response to Axios' reporting on Landau's threat, Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, sarcastically said: "Yes, this definitely seems like an appropriate and constitutional use of the State Department's surveillance authorities. And definitely a fitting way to honor a person whom Trump admin officials have labeled a First Amendment hero."
pretty wild that it so quickly became normalized that immigrants don’t have even basic free speech rightswww.axios.com/2025/09/11/c...
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— Olivia Messer (@oliviamesser.bsky.social) September 11, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Writer Miriam Elder similarly quipped, "The free speech government honoring the free speech martyr."
Trump also publicly fancies himself a protector of free speech, but since returning to office in January, he has targeted law firms that represent clients and causes he opposes, news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with, and foreign students who criticize Israel's US-backed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Although elected officials across the US political spectrum have condemned Kirk's killing and his unidentified shooter remains at large, Trump claimed in a Wednesday night speech that the rhetoric of the "radical left" is "directly responsible" for his death.
The president also pledged that his administration "will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country."
While Kirk's fatal shooting has sparked widespread condemnation of all political violence, the far-right crusader's longtime critics have also highlighted his attacks on marginalized people, promotion of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and strong opposition to stricter gun laws—including his assertion that "it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment."
Landau wasn't the only key official making threats about commentary on Kirk's killing. Congressman Clay Higgins (R-La.) said on X early Thursday that "I'm going to use congressional authority and every influence with Big Tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk."
"If they ran their mouth with their smartass hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man who dedicated his whole life to delivering respectful conservative truth into the hearts of liberal enclave universities, armed only with a Bible and a microphone and a Constitution... those profiles must come down," he said. "So, I'm going to lean forward in this fight, demanding that Big Tech have zero tolerance for violent political hate content, the user to be banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER."
"I'm also going after their business licenses and permitting, their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively, they should be kicked from every school, and their driver's licenses should be revoked," he added. "I'm basically going to cancel with extreme prejudice these evil, sick animals who celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination. I'm starting that today. That is all."
Several X users responded with examples of Higgins' long history of problematic commentary.
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) CEO Greg Lukianoff told Higgins: "No. The state may not coerce private institutions to censor speech that the state itself cannot censor under the First Amendment. Besides, you are not safer for knowing LESS about what people really think."
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'What People Have Feared': ICE Impersonator Zip-Tied Woman and Stole $1,000
"Any criminal can now put on a mask, say he is from ICE, and conduct any crime," one group warned.
Jun 10, 2025
"This is what people have feared."
That was how American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick responded on social media Monday to reporting that a man impersonating a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent zip-tied a woman working as a cashier at a cash-only auto repair shop in Philadelphia and stole around $1,000 on Sunday afternoon.
The incident comes as Republican U.S. President Donald Trump tries to deliver on his campaign promise of mass deportations, sparking protests, including in Los Angeles, where Trump has deployed Marines and federalized the California National Guard—a move the state's Democratic governor and attorney general are challenging in court.
"Expect many, many more stories like this. The Trump administration is a criminal enterprise, emboldening street crimes and white collar crimes."
"He kept saying he is immigration officer," the 50-year-old cashier in Philadelphia, a legal U.S. resident who is from the Dominican Republic, told Fox 29's Steve Keeley. Showing the journalist her bruises, she said that the man tied her arms behind her back, and "every time I tried to turn around to look at his face, he twisted me around roughly."
Although the shop is next to the Philadelphia Police 15th District, it took over two hours before the victim could connect with law enforcement. Police said in a Tuesday statement that the man, who escaped in a white Ford cargo van with red dashes around the middle, remains at large.
Police released surveillance photos of the van and the man, described as a white male in a "black baseball cap with U.S. flag on the front, black sunglasses, black long sleeve shirt, wearing gloves, black tactical vest with 'Security Enforcement Agent,' and dark green cargo pants."
In response to Keeley's social media posts about the robbery, journalist Ryan Grim said early Tuesday that "this type of crime is now possible because ICE agents insist on going around like masked thugs."
Author and Philadelphia native Robert A. Karl warned: "Expect many, many more stories like this. The Trump administration is a criminal enterprise, emboldening street crimes and white collar crimes."
The social media account of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota's Senate District 45 similarly said: "Any criminal can now put on a mask, say he is from ICE, and conduct any crime (including kidnapping and rape) and people are expected to just stand aside? Actual law enforcement DOES NOT conceal their identity and act like street thugs while doing their job. This must stop!"
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Trump Administration Orders Pause on All New Student Visa Interviews
The move comes as the administration plans to expand social media vetting for all noncitizen student applicants.
May 27, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to temporarily suspend scheduling of new student visa interviews as the Trump administration weighs requiring all foreign students to undergo social media vetting.
Politico reported that a cable signed by Rubio on Tuesday said that "effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor... visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued."
While social media screening isn't new, previous efforts were largely focused on returning students who may have taken part in protests against Israel's annihilation of Gaza. The State Department cable does not specifically state what the expanded social media screening will look for, although it alludes to President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at combating terrorism and antisemitism.
Trump's January 29 order titled "Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism" authorizes the deportation of noncitizen students and others who took part in protests against Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of a task force to surveil immigrants' social media posts, including those of around 1.5 million foreign students, for alleged antisemitism. While DHS did not say how antisemitism would be defined, critics note that the Trump administration has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition, which conflates opposition to Zionism—the settler-colonial movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine—with hatred of Jews.
Earlier this year, the State Department also
launched a controversial artificial intelligence-powered "catch and revoke" program to cancel the visas of international students deemed supportive of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Rubio has invoked Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to designate for deportation pro-Palestine international students who the government admits committed no crimes. These include Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Yunseo Chung—all permanent U.S. residents—as well as Rümeysa Öztürk, Ranjani Srinivasan, and others.
The Trump administration's dubious legal arguments have not fared well in courts, as several judges have temporarily blocked the administration from proceeding with deportations of foreign students.
Earlier this month, for example, a federal judge ruled that Öztürk—who was snatched off a Massachusetts streets by plainclothes federal agents and flown to a notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement lockup in Louisiana—had been illegally arrested and ordered her immediate release.
Under mounting legal and public pressure, the Trump administration recently reinstated the legal status of hundreds of terminated foreign students. However, for some, the move came too late, as they have been banned from entering the United States.
Meanwhile, the administration's draconian treatment of international students has put many off of studying in the U.S., a situation universities in other nations are exploiting in a bid to attract applicants who are rejected by—or choose to eschew—the United States as a higher learning destination.
On Tuesday, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick cited figures from the Association of International Educators showing that noncitizen students studying at U.S. colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the nation's economy and supported 378,175 jobs during the 2023-24 academic year.
"If the United States stops taking foreign students, the economic impact would be catastrophic," Reichlin-Melnick
said on social media, adding that the Trump administration's pause on international applicants "should be seen as a deliberate attempt to crash the U.S. economy by destroying higher education."
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How Trump's $1,000 for 'Voluntary Self-Deportation' Could Harm Undocumented Immigrants
One legal expert warned the offer from DHS "would sabotage" pending or future cases people might have in immigration court.
May 05, 2025
The Trump administration on Monday announced what it called "historic travel assistance and stipend for voluntary self-deportation," prompting one expert to issue a warning to undocumented immigrants who may consider the offer.
"If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a key leader of President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. "This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens, and is a 70% savings for U.S. taxpayers."
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), immigrants who use the CBP Home smartphone application to self-deport will receive "financial and travel assistance" as well as "a stipend of $1,000 dollars, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app."
DHS framed the offer as "a dignified way to leave" the United States without encountering Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and claimed people who submit their intent to self-deport in the app "will also be deprioritized for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure."
"DHS's claim that people who do this will be able to return is, in many cases, an outright LIE that will trap people into WORSE outcomes for them than if they stayed and fought a case in immigration court."
Responding to the announcement on social media, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, stressed that "it is incredibly important for all reporting on this to emphasize that DHS's claim that people who do this will be able to return is, in many cases, an outright LIE that will trap people into WORSE outcomes for them than if they stayed and fought a case in immigration court."
Reichlin-Melnick explained that "when a person is in immigration court proceedings, if they don't appear for a hearing, they get ordered deported—even if they're provably outside the country already. And having a deportation order makes it VERY hard to ever come back legally. DHS's offer would sabotage cases!"
"This move also raises VERY serious questions about statutory authority and funding sources. No law directly authorizes DHS to pay plane tickets and offer reimbursements to people leaving the country," he added. "The closest legal authority which might apply here is 8 USC § 1260, which authorizes using funding to deport 'aliens falling into distress' who are 'desirous of being so removed.' But that law also imposes a near-total ban on reentry, so if DHS is using that it's even worse!"
Prism immigration reporter Tina Vasquez shared a message from the app on social media Monday.
The CBP Home app features this flyer, with the many supposed benefits of self-deportation.
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— Tina Vasquez (@tinavasquez.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 10:40 AM
"I previously reported on how the Biden administration's attempt to modernize the immigration system through tech actually made things for immigrants more difficult," Vasquez noted. "I'm anxious to see how this app plays out in the deeply unfortunate cases where $1,000 is an incentive to self-deport."
"I also know that if the Biden [administration] offered $1,000 to undocumented immigrants—even for self-deportation—right-wing media would have screamed that Democrats were paying 'illegal aliens' with taxpayer dollars," she added.
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'Corruption in Plain Sight': AOC Warns Laken Riley Act a Boon to Private Prison Industry
"Look at what members of Congress are invested in private prison companies," said Ocasio-Cortez.
Jan 22, 2025
"It's corruption in plain sight."
That's how U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) described congressional colleagues who support Republican-authored legislation that immigrant rights advocates warn is a right-wing power grab under the guise of public safety.
The Laken Riley Act—named after a young woman murdered last year by a Venezuelan man who, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), entered the United States illegally—was passed by a vote of 263-156 in the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon. Forty-six Democrats and every Republican present voted "yes." That was a near-identical tally to the 264-159 vote on a previous version of the bill passed earlier this month.
Senate lawmakers passed the bill on Monday, with 12 Democrats joining 52 Republicans in voting for the measure, which, among other things, expands mandatory federal detention of undocumented immigrants who are accused of even relatively minor crimes. With the House's Wednesday vote, the Laken Riley Act is set to be the first bill signed into law since President Donald Trump returned to office.
Speaking on the House floor on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez said:
I want the American people to know, with eyes wide open, what is inside this bill because we stand here just two days after President Trump gave unconditional pardons to violent criminals who attacked our nation's Capitol on January 6th, and these are the people who want you to believe, who want us to believe that they're trying to quote unquote "keep criminals off the streets," when they are opening the floodgates...
In this bill, if a person is so much as accused of a crime, if someone wants to point a finger and accuse someone of shoplifting, they will be rounded up and put into a private detention camp and... sent out for deportation without a day in court, without a moment to assert their right, and without a moment to assert the privilege of innocent until proven guilty without being found guilty of a crime they will be rounded up, that is what is inside this bill, a fundamental suspension of a core American value, and that is why I rise to oppose it.
"You may wonder why so many of our friends across the aisle who care so deeply about the rule of law happen to be so desperate to pass this bill," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "Look no further than the price tag of this bill, $83 billion. [Lawmakers] know that it can't be paid for. They know that the capacity is not there, and you know what will be there? Private prison companies are going to get flooded with money."
"Look at what members of Congress are invested in private prison companies who receive this kind of money and look at the votes on this bill," she added. "It is atrocious that people are lining their pockets with private prison profits in the name of a horrific tragedy and the victim of a crime. It is shameful. It is absolutely shameful."
The congresswoman's comments came two days after Trump reversed a 2021 executive order issued by former Democratic President Joe Biden meant to phase out U.S. Department of Justice contracts with private prisons. Despite Biden's order, more than 90% of people held by ICE in July 2023 were locked up in for-profit facilities, which are rife with serious human rights abuses, according to the ACLU and other advocacy groups.
Anthony Enriquez, vice president of U.S. advocacy and litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Hill opinion contributor, recently called the Laken Riley Act "a sweetheart deal for the private prison industry."
"Private prison executives look poised to pull off a multibillion-dollar cash grab at taxpayer expense via a cynical ploy to capitalize on the tragic death of a Georgia nursing student," he warned.
Shares in private prison stocks, which had been languishing for much of 2024, have soared since Trump's victory in November, with GeoGroup surging more than 127% since Election Day and competitor CoreCivic up over 63%.
Responding to reporting that ICE is preparing to more than double its detention capacity by opening 18 new facilities, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said on social media Wednesday: "That would likely mean tens of billions in taxpayer funds sent to private prison companies. They are salivating."
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