SCOOP: Silent Policy Shift Dooms Detainee Applications
USCIS quietly scraps jailhouse biometrics, guaranteeing “abandonment” denials for detained immigrants who can’t leave to keep their appointments.
WASHINGTON — A quiet policy update from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has created a procedural “dead end” for thousands of detained immigrants, effectively mandating the denial of their legal residency or asylum applications without a hearing.
The guidance, issued Dec. 5 without a public announcement, prohibits federal immigration officers from collecting fingerprints or photos—known as biometrics—from individuals in detention facilities unless they are already facing active deportation proceedings in immigration court.
Immigration attorneys warn this creates a bureaucratic catch-22: Detained applicants cannot leave their facilities to attend mandatory biometric appointments at public service centers. However, under the new rule, USCIS will automatically deny their applications for “abandonment” if they fail to appear.
“This means that if a person is incarcerated and only has a USCIS benefit pending (and not an EOIR application), USCIS will not send officers to the detention facility to collect biometrics, even if requested by family members or an attorney,” said a legal analysis from Shepelsky Law Group, a firm monitoring the change.
The policy shift appears in an update to the USCIS Policy Manual, the agency’s official rulebook for adjudicators. It explicitly rescinds previous “informal agreements” between USCIS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allowed for inter-agency coordination to fingerprint detained migrants.
The “Abandonment” Trap
For decades, migrants seeking green cards, work permits, or asylum have been required to provide biometrics to run FBI background checks. For non-detained applicants, this takes place at local Application Support Centers. For detained applicants, federal agents previously coordinated to collect data inside jails or ICE facilities.
The new guidance (Volume 1, Part C) halts that cooperation for a specific but vulnerable class of migrants: those detained by ICE or local law enforcement who have pending benefit applications with USCIS but are not yet in active removal proceedings before a judge.
According to the updated manual, USCIS “does not approve requests” to collect biometrics from these individuals. Simultaneously, the agency affirmed it “will continue to deny immigration benefit requests based on abandonment” if the applicant misses their scheduled appointment—an appointment they are physically barred from attending.
Silent Rollout
The change was not announced via press release but was posted to the agency’s “policy alerts” webpage under the technical title “Biometrics Collection for Aliens in Custody.”
The guidance states the move is intended to “ensure uniformity in operations” and clarify that USCIS is “no longer obligated to coordinate” with detention officials.
Legal experts suggest the policy operationalizes a “denial loop”:
A migrant with a pending green card application is detained (often for minor visa overstays or status violations).
USCIS mails a biometrics appointment notice for a date during their detention.
The migrant cannot attend. USCIS refuses to visit the facility.
The application is denied for abandonment, wiping out the migrant’s legal pathway to remain in the U.S.
“This update means that USCIS is no longer obligated to coordinate with ICE,” noted a bulletin from the Erickson Immigration Group. “They do not automatically excuse the absence due to the individual’s detention status.”
Broader Implications
The policy arrives amid a broader tightening of immigration procedures. Just days prior, USCIS opened a new centralized vetting center in Atlanta designed to automate security screening, further signaling a shift toward automated, volume-based processing over case-by-case adjudication.
For now, attorneys are advising families of detained immigrants to attempt to reschedule appointments repeatedly in hopes of release, though the new guidance offers no guarantee such requests will be honored.
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And so the flood of criminal activity continues to flow from the TRUMP REGIME like a broken sewer pipe. Blatantly Shredding the U.S. Constitution like so much used toilet paper.
This is beyond illegal 🤬