US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes and adjudicates benefits like green cards and work permits, is planned 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 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.
Regulations codifying the new authorities will take effect 30 days after they’re published in the Federal Register on Friday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans to add the law enforcement officers.
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