Enrique Espinoza has an unusual perspective for an immigration lawyer, having moved from Mexico nearly two decades ago and become an American citizen.
He’ now guides his Chicago-area clients through an immigration system far different from the one he navigated. Under President Donald Trump, political asylum decisions have been halted, green card-holders from countries “of concern” are facing new vetting, and other protections have been stripped away.
Espinoza says the sweeping changes have sent a message: “Give up, and pretty much self-deport.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has gotten far less attention than its counterparts in the federal Department of Homeland Security — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
But, as ICE and CBP have carried out aggressive deportation campaigns in Chicago and elsewhere, the little-known agency has begun transforming itself from an agency that serves immigrants to a law enforcement entity that’s making it harder for them to gain legal status to be in the United States.
Espinoza says one of his clients, an asylum-seeker, chose to return to Venezuela after being detained by federal immigration officials for more than a month. Another Venezuelan client with a pending asylum case is considering the same path after suffering a bad leg injury when he was arrested outside a Home Depot during the “Operation Midway Blitz” stepped-up immigration enforcement effort around Chicago.
Espinoza says he’s been warning clients about reports of arrests during green card appointments elsewhere in the country.
“That means that somebody in the past will go through the process without any hesitations, [but] now they might think twice and decide not to advance their case,” he says. “And that is problematic not just for the applicant but for every single one of us as a country.”
USCIS recently announced a series of dramatic changes after two National Guard members were shot Nov. 26 in Washington.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who was granted asylum by the Trump administration after working for a CIA-backed counterterrorism unit in his native Afghanistan, has been charged in the attack that killed National Guard Spec. Sarah Beckstrom and wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow responded by indefinitely blocking immigration requests by other Afghans, ordering a “rigorous reexamination” of all green card-holders and halting all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
The ideology driving the immigration overhaul stands in contrast to the mission statement crafted by Edlow’s predecessor, Ur Jaddou: “USCIS upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity and respect for all we serve.”
Now, USCIS is hiring “Homeland Defenders” to scrutinize applications for immigration benefits using an ad that features Trump extolling his “America First” agenda over a montage of historical clips of white immigrants. “Protect your homeland,” the ad says. “Defend your culture.”
The agency has begun reviewing immigrants’ social media accounts for “anti-American ideologies” as part of the enhanced screening and vetting that has been introduced. As of last month, USCIS had made thousands of referrals to ICE and other law enforcement agencies for potential deportations.
And federal rules have been changed to create special agents within USCIS to investigate immigration fraud and “act as a force multiplier for DHS and our federal law enforcement partners.” Those agents are empowered to carry guns, make arrests and execute warrants.
In late October, congressional Democrats from Illinois wrote to Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, seeking answers about the new law enforcement roles and USCIS’ coordination with ICE and CBP.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., says Cuffari hasn’t responded. Ramirez says she fears that Trump “is creating his own force of terror” that has nothing to do with public safety. As the wife of a green card-holder, she says she was dismayed by the recent arrests at immigration appointments, slamming the practice as “a violation of due process.”
“It is an absolute attack, assault and destruction of our immigration system,” she says.
Conflicting views on immigration
When the Immigration and Naturalization Service and other agencies were consolidated to create DHS in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the new department’s enforcement and service functions were separated by Congress.
Doris Meissner, who was INS commissioner for seven years under President Bill Clinton, says the move was designed to empower USCIS to “have a mission that was supportive of legal immigration” and “a culture of adjudication,” as opposed to ICE and CBP.
But the Trump administration’s unprecedented changes have broken down those silos, she says, pointing to the arrests of immigrants applying for naturalization and the gun-toting agents planned at USCIS.
“The entire focus now is on the possibilities of fraud, on characterizing legal immigration processes and people who are applying for legal immigration as somehow un-American or trying to take advantage of the immigration system,” says Meissner, now a senior fellow and director at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “That all completely overstates and mischaracterizes what legal immigration has been about and continues to be about.”
Meissner says the shift that’s underway could deter the roughly 1 million people a year who historically have come to the United States, affecting the country’s growth, economy and ability to compete. “This is not advancing our national interests,” she says.
Edlow has offered a different view. In an interview in September, the USCIS director said President Joe Biden had left a “mess” of 1.5 million backlogged asylum cases, asserting that none of the applicants had “actual claims for asylum” and instead had applied just to obtain a work permit. He expressed support for wiping out other protections and prioritizing “merit-based immigration.”
“I’m not saying that immigration is not important,” he said. “But immigration is there to supplement what we already have in the United States, not to supplant it, especially our economy.”
Edlow was speaking to the Center for Immigration Studies, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group with “a decades-long history of circulating racist writers [and] associating with white nationalists.” The immigration studies group’s late founder, John Tanton, was “the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement,” according to the law center.
Edlow previously was general counsel for ICE and deputy director for policy of USCIS. He was later listed as a contributor to Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump’s second term.
In the interview with the Center for Immigration Studies, Edlow said it wasn’t sensible for USCIS to be considered “a service-only agency” and that he was “declaring war” on immigration fraud, using the agency’s new special agents.
“This is not about arresting aliens,” he said. “This is about going after fraud and national security cases.”
‘We don’t trust the government’
In recent months, USCIS has announced a series of charges and convictions. Its most significant investigation uncovered what Edlow described as widespread fraud in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, which ICE is now reportedly targeting in a deportation campaign.
When the results of “Operation Twin Shield” were announced in late September, USCIS said officials had “found evidence of fraud, non-compliance or public safety or national security concerns in 275 cases.” That included “the son of a known or suspected terrorist” who had overstayed his visa and engaged in marriage fraud, like others targeted in the investigation, USCIS said.
By then, four arrests had been made, and 42 other people had been ordered to appear in removal proceedings or referred to ICE. The investigation was launched weeks after USCIS announced its employees would be allowed to work in a law enforcement capacity, supported by ICE and other agencies.
ICE is now said to be targeting a community of people from Somalia living in Minneapolis and St. Paul after people from that East African country were convicted in fraud schemes involving social services. During a Trump cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president said Somali people had “ripped off” Minnesota, and he called them “garbage.”
Earlier this year, USCIS was involved in an immigration fraud investigation that led to the indictment of a Downers Grove man. Jose Gregorio Sosa Cardona was accused of posing as a lawyer and fabricating documents for clients seeking asylum. He pleaded guilty last month to the document scheme and to possessing child sexual materials and lying about his taxes. His sentencing is set for Feb. 18. His attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A former USCIS supervisor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says the agency’s coordination with ICE now extends to employees processing immigration cases. Each week, those employees are being directed to review their caseloads to identify anyone who could be detained, the former official says.
Late last month, the The New York Times reported that people married to American citizens are routinely being arrested at green card appointments at USCIS offices in California. The agency didn’t respond to questions.
Espinoza says he hasn’t heard of any similar arrests in the Chicago area but that he now views with skepticism a system that was intended to help his immigrant clients.
“We don’t trust the government,” the attorney says. “We don’t feel that we’re gonna be treated with respect and within the boundaries of the law.”