The main U.S. government agency in charge of issuing citizenship, visas and permanent residency permits is forming its own police force that will be able to arrest people for immigration violations, according to The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced to the media that it plans to train hundreds of federal agents to detect fraud in immigration applications and arrest the immigrants in question or the attorneys who helped prepare their petitions.
These agents will also carry weapons.
Until now, USCIS was kept separate from the immigration authorities, in part so that immigrants would not feel self-conscious about presenting their case to the government and appearing for their interviews.
The agency’s director, Joe Edlow, told The Wall Street Journal that he envisions the new law enforcement agency investigating patterns of fraud, such as groups of immigrants from the same country filing nearly identical immigration applications or citizenship applicants faking disabilities to avoid the English test.
Edlow noted that another objective of these agents is the skimming of new citizens who lied on their applications.
“I don’t expect this to inhibit applications. I anticipate it will inhibit fraudulent applications,” Edlow noted.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest immigrants during their interviews for citizenship, permanent residency or asylum, according to information from EFE.
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