1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

I write in profound anger and deep shame for this country over the Trump administration’s new directive requiring the detention and re-inspection of lawfully admitted refugees who have not yet adjusted to lawful permanent resident status after one year in the United States. This policy is inconsistent with both the structure and intent of U.S. refugee law. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, refugees are admitted to the United States only after extensive vetting by the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense, and the intelligence community. They undergo biometric screening, repeated background checks, and in-person interviews. Once admitted, they are lawfully present. After one year, they may apply for adjustment to lawful permanent residence. The statute does not mandate detention for failure to complete that process within a particular timeframe — particularly when processing delays and agency backlogs are outside the applicant’s control. Blanket detention and re-inspection of already admitted refugees, absent individualized evidence of fraud, criminal conduct, or security threat, contradicts the humanitarian framework Congress created in 1980. It raises serious due process concerns. And it conflicts with the United States’ obligations under the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, including, most critically, the principle of non-refoulement—the prohibition on returning individuals to persecution. Refugees are not unauthorized entrants. They are people whom the United States has formally recognized as facing persecution and has chosen, after rigorous review, to protect. To detain them after lawful admission because of bureaucratic timing is not enforcement; it is punitive, it is bullying, and it is without practical rationale. It is political cruelty. Reports of refugee detentions and re-interviews in Minnesota underscore the human cost of this approach. Families who believed they had finally reached safety are now facing confinement and renewed uncertainty — despite having complied with U.S. law. The Refugee Act was designed to provide stability and protection, not conditional status subject to political pressure. There is no justification. As someone who has worked within the United Nations system on issues relating to migration and displacement, I am acutely aware of the global standards the United States helped establish and shape. Our credibility in urging other nations to uphold refugee protections depends on our willingness to honor our own statutory and treaty commitments. This policy undermines both. Congress must act immediately to: - Conduct oversight hearings examining DHS and USCIS authority for blanket detention of admitted refugees. - Require production of the legal justification underlying this directive and its compatibility with this country’s laws and international treaties and commitments. - Prohibit funding for categorical detention of refugees absent individualized cause. - Codify statutory clarification that failure to complete adjustment processing within one year is not grounds for detention or status revocation. - Reaffirm U.S. adherence to the Refugee Act and international non-refoulement obligations. - Demand the halt to construction of detention facilities and the conversion of existing structures into such facilities by DHS and ICE, which are being used to hold those being picked up by ICE, many unlawfully. The United States does not strengthen its sovereignty by targeting people it has already promised to protect. It weakens its rule of law. Congress created the refugee admissions system to ensure protection grounded in statute, due process, and humanitarian principle. It is Congress’s responsibility now to defend that framework against reinterpretations that erode its core purpose. None of this makes us safer or stronger. We are losing all dignity and credibility as a country. This policy must be halted and struck down. Our laws—and our commitments—demand nothing less.