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In the memorandum below that was recently filed with the district court in U.H.A. v. Bondi, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintains that if a refugee does not submit an application for lawful permanent resident status and appear for an interview after one year in the United States, they can be detained for an unspecified amount of time. Moreover, according to the memo, DHS is now required to locate, arrest, and detain refugees who do not file applications and appear for an interview after one year. DHS sets no time limit for refugee detention pursuant to this policy, and the length of refugee detention would apparently be whatever time the government itself deems appropriate.
DHS also now claims that this interview includes not only asking questions to determine whether they are admissible as lawful permanent residents (green card holders) but also revisiting their refugee claim, which refugees have already proven to the U.S. government through a lengthy vetting process.
This memo also states that once detained, refugees will be either admitted as lawful permanent residents or placed in removal proceedings.
The DHS policy of detaining and arresting refugees is a dramatic break with past practices that could impact thousands of refugees who have not yet obtained green cards. We have already seen that DHS’s arrest and detention tactics are traumatizing, and re-traumatizing, refugees who have often previously suffered and fled persecution, and who were resettled with the promise of refuge in the United States. IRAP condemns this new, unlawful policy that is based on a contorted reading of immigration law.
More information on IRAP’s challenge to the unlawful detention of refugees in Minnesota is available on IRAP’s U.HA. v. Bondi webpage for the general public, our community guide on the litigation here, and our Explainer here.
For impacted communities, we also recommend consulting and sharing IRAP’s legal information resources on refugee detention and revetting that are available in English, Amharic, Arabic, Dari/Farsi, French, Haitian Kreyol, Pashto, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tigrinya, and Ukrainian, and contain information on requesting legal assistance.
This blog post is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute attorney-client advice. It was published on February 19, 2026 and does not reflect changes since publication.
Please see IRAP’s Legal Practitioner Resources page for additional information for legal practitioners. If you would like to receive email alerts about IRAP’s legal practitioner resources, please sign up here.
