WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, the Trump Administration’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted expanded law enforcement powers to special agents to increase arrests, carry firearms, execute search and arrest warrants, and present cases for prosecution. These new powers will only fuel the mass detention and deportation machine, separate families, exacerbate labor losses, and further unnecessarily militarize our increasingly inhumane and unjust immigration system.
Nicole Melaku, executive director of NPNA, first spoke with NBC News to raise the alarm about the weaponization of government agencies, like USCIS, that have historically been tasked with ensuring eligible people can adjust their immigration status in a timely, trustworthy, and fair manner.
Said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director, “Across presidential administrations, the role of USCIS has been to process immigration applications, helping people to adjust their status, remain united with their families, and take the patriotic step to become U.S. citizens. The Trump Administration is trying to take this away. Making citizenship tests more difficult, barring more people from naturalization, and transforming USCIS into yet another armed agency with no congressional oversight is a dangerous and reckless expansion of Trump’s agenda to detain and deport—rather than to protect or serve.
“This is a profound betrayal of the promise of democracy. By attacking lawful avenues to adjust immigration status, this administration is making clear that its efforts were never about ‘doing it the right way,’ but rather about establishing a culture of denial for all immigrants. As they return from recess, Congress must take the reins on immigration enforcement oversight, uphold the pathway to citizenship, and ensure safety and fairness in the immigration adjudication process.”
Said Lisa Sherman-Luna, Executive Director, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights, “Most Americans agree immigrants who call our country home should be able to access pathways to adjust their immigration status and become citizens. But the Trump administration has made clear they have no intention of answering that call as they continue to make it harder and harder for immigrants to live safely in our communities. This literal arming of USCIS is just another escalation in their end goal of turning an already disorderly system into a machine of terror, hell-bent on catching as many hard-working Americans in its jaws as they can. The mask has come off: their immigration agenda was never about process, procedure, or legality. It has always been about reshaping our nation into one that benefits the white, wealthy few at the expense of the majority. But together, our families and the millions of Americans who are on our side will continue to fight this machine at every turn, throwing sand in the gears by knowing our rights, protecting our neighbors, and fighting back through the courts every step of the way.”
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The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is a multi-ethnic, multiracial coalition of 88 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights organizations with reach across over 42 states. Together with our members, we advance immigrant and refugee equity and inclusion, build and expand immigration legal services and integration programming capacity, and drive campaigns that strengthen democracy through increased civic participation. See our website for more information at partnershipfornewamericans.org.