New DHS refugee policy mandates additional security check, allows for arrest after a year in U.S.

The Trump administration has adopted a new policy demanding refugees go through a new security check after a year in the U.S., and declaring that they can be arrested and held in detention until they are shown to be clear of red flags.

The policy, revealed in a memo to a federal court this week, comes after President Trump called for stiff new vetting of refugees.

Homeland Security said the law has always envisioned a one-year check-in, by which time refugees were either supposed to have applied for full status as lawful permanent residents, or else come in for a revetting independent of LPR status.

Past administrations largely overlooked the requirement and didn’t impose consequences. DHS said it’s now concluded that refugees need the extra screening.

“DHS must treat the one-year mark as a mandatory re-vetting point for all refugees who have not adjusted to LPR status, ensuring that they are scheduled to ’return’ to custody for inspection or, if they do not comply, that they ’be returned’ to custody through enforcement action,” the heads of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a Feb. 18 memo.

Under American law, refugees are those outside the U.S. seeking protection from persecution. They are similar to asylum-seekers, who are seeking protection but are already in the U.S.

Immigration groups said refugees are already among the most vetted of migrants when they arrive, and asking them to submit to rearrest at the one-year mark is insulting.

The new policy met with fierce denunciations by immigrant rights groups.

“The character of a nation is revealed in how it honors its commitments and how it treats the most vulnerable. Today, we have failed on both counts,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief.

DHS in December adopted the rearrest policy in a more informal memo.

It was put into practice in Minnesota, where the administration said it planned to target 5,600 refugees who had not yet applied for LPR, or green card, status.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim issued an injunction against the policy late last month, blocking future enforcement and ordering those already arrested and being held to be released.

“These refugees have undergone rigorous background checks and vetting, been approved by multiple federal agencies for entry, been given permission to work, received support from the government, and been resettled in the United States,” he wrote. “None have been deemed a danger to the community or a flight risk. None have been charged with any ground for removal.”

He said ICE had long maintained a policy of not pursuing rearrest, and he said the administration needed more justification to change now.

This week’s memo is intended to provide that backing.

The USCIS and ICE chiefs said the revetting is a chance to spot fraud, national security and public safety threats and those who just weren’t complying with the immigration process.

“These critical national interests were significantly impeded by the prior policies, which prioritized speed and volume of refugee admissions over depth and quality of refugee adjudications,” the agency chiefs said.

They pointed to a recent USCIS review that looked at 31,000 refugees from Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela from 2021 to 2024 and found 10% had evidence of public safety risks, such as gang membership, and 42% were deemed to have been “insufficiently vetted” in their initial admission.

The agency chiefs said since the one-year revetting has always been in law, refugees shouldn’t be surprised by it, despite past administrations’ “lax enforcement.”