ICE traps immigrants at green card interviews

• Some people arrested in this process are eligible for bond or can become eligible through a habeas corpus petition. Otherwise, a detainee ends up seeing out the legal immigration application from immigration detention.

Zoom in: In San Diego, ICE recently arrested an undocumented immigrant at a U.S. Customs and Immigration Service interview after he applied for a green card, immigration lawyer Jan Bejar told Axios.

• The client married a U.S. citizen, but had overstayed a tourist visa after entering the country with his parents at the age of 12. USCIS approved the green card petition on the same day as ICE made the arrest.
• "This whole thing could have been avoided because as the officer said, 'Your case is perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with it,'" Bejar said.

In Cleveland, Courtney Koski's client was arrested in late November at an interview while also applying for legal status through marriage. The client had been in the country for 25 years, and was brought to the country as a child. But she was living with a removal order after her parents missed their court hearing.

• Though her petition was also approved, she remains in ICE custody.
• Her husband's "very distraught. He's suffering without his wife during the holidays," Koski said.
• "He was trying everything he could to help her legalize her status here and now she's being punished for trying to do the right thing."

Zoom out: The local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association has been tracking arrests similar to what happened to Bejar's client, pegging the number at several dozen, according to the New York Times.

• But ICE and USCIS have not officially shared how many people nationally are being arrested at their hearings.
• "It's not like a blanket you shouldn't ever arrest anybody," said Michael Knowles, a retired asylum officer who is president of AFGE Local 1924, representing USCIS employees around Washington.
• But Knowles said his "union would argue that our law enforcement partners ought to exercise discretion about where, when, how and why they're going to arrest somebody."

Between the lines: Some USCIS offices have received written guidance with instructions about notifying ICE when a person of interest comes in for an interview. That includes a directive to notify ICE agents when an interview is close to ending, according to a source with knowledge of the document.

• ICE and an investigative division at USCIS pre-screen cases for potential arrests and use the interviews as opportunities to make them, the source said.
• "The Trump administration has been abundantly clear: aliens must respect our laws or face the consequences. Overstaying a visa is an immigration law violation that can result in deportation," USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said in a statement.

The bottom line: Critics of this policy say it will drive more people living in the country undocumented into the shadows.

• A combination of potential arrest at court hearings and now USCIS offices — though these case loads are different — adds to the fear of detention if you engage with the legal system.
• "Really what they're doing is creating such fear in the community that people are afraid to pursue their rights," said Bejar. "People are afraid to file for adjustment, people are afraid to go to their interviews, and people who are in custody just don't want to fight because it's so devastating."