Another wave of detentions and deportations targeting visa and green card holders has sent shockwaves through immigrant communities across the United States.
According to news reports and sources based in the US, many immigrants have begun to raise questions about the rights of legal residents and the scope of the US President Donald Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies.
It was gathered that some college students, long-term permanent residents and individuals with lawful status are increasingly finding themselves ensnared in a crackdown.
Sources from the African immigrant community in the U.S. told Pan-Atlantic Kompass that many with legal visa documents and Green card holders are being advised to stay home and in hiding following the indiscriminate detentions seen lately in some cities. “As we speak Green card holders are being unnecessarily profiled and rounded up by officials. And this can happen anywhere.. malls, schools, airports, on the road… It has never been this bad,” he said, claiming that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not the only agency implementing the Trump’s anti-immigration order as other sister agencies have now allegedly followed suit in hounding some immigrants, notwithstanding their legal status to stay, work and reside in the US.
Warning returning legal immigrants, one US source hinted that “it’s not advisable to travel outside of the US this time due to harassment and even deportation that some green-carder holders and others traveling with student and visitor’s visas currently face at the airports while returning.”
Since Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has made good on campaign promises to ramp up deportations, targeting not only undocumented immigrants but also those with legal status.
Cases like the detention of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder, and the deportation of Ma Yang, a permanent resident since infancy, have shown that the administration of Trump has shifted from the immigration enforcement norms.
Before now, previous administrations largely focused on undocumented individuals or those with serious criminal convictions, however, the administration of Trump appears to cast a wider net, cracking down on some visa holders and green-card holders for reasons ranging from minor past offenses to alleged political activism.
According to reports, there has been a surge in detentions at airports, border crossings, and even within the U.S., often with little explanation provided to those affected.
This unpredictability has left many legal residents hesitant to travel abroad, fearing they may not be allowed to return.
The Trump administration has justified these actions by citing national security, foreign policy concerns, and public safety.
In some cases, officials have pointed to decades-old minor convictions, such as a misdemeanour marijuana possession charge in the case of Fabian Schmidt, a 34-year-old green-card holder detained at Logan International Airport in Boston, as grounds for detention and deportation proceedings.
In others, the administration has invoked a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows deportation of non-citizens whose presence or activities are deemed to have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the U.S.
This provision has been notably applied to students and activists involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
Mahmoud Khalil, detained over his activism at Columbia University, and Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent resident and fellow Columbia student, are among those targeted.
Also, Rasha Alawieh, 34, a kidney transplant specialist at Brown University’s medical school, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport after returning from Lebanon.
Her H-1B work visa issued by the U.S. consulate in Lebanon was revoked, and she was deported.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed on X on March 17 that Alawieh had “travelled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah,” the leader of Hezbollah.
However, Alawieh maintained that she only joined crowds outside the stadium where the funeral occurred and did not attend the ceremony inside.
