( Spanish) — The mass deportation plan that the new Donald Trump Government intends to carry out would focus first on undocumented immigrants with criminal records, although The possibility has also been raised to extend them to all illegal immigration in the country, whose total population it is estimated in tens of millions of people.
In this sense, what happens to immigrants who reside legally and permanently in the United States, that is, those who have a green card?
That population also adds up to millions of people. According to Department of Homeland Security figuresFrom 2014 to 2023, the United States Government granted more than 10 million legal permanent resident cards, of which more than 1.1 million were delivered in 2023 alone.
So, could those people be at risk of deportation? The short answer is yes, but only under certain conditions.
According to information From the United States Government, foreigners with a green card have several rights:
- They can live permanently in the US.
- Work in the country.
- They are protected by the laws of the United States, the state where they reside, and local jurisdictions.
Although foreigners with a green card They can live and work permanently in the US, they can also be deported, says the US Government.
A person can maintain the rights granted by their green card “as long as he does not commit any action for which he may be deported or removed as established by immigration law,” he explains in his website the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Elizabeth Uribe, an immigration attorney at Uribe & Uribe APLC, told that the green card It represents a privilege in the United States and, therefore, care must be taken with the actions carried out to avoid losing permanent legal residence.
“A person who is a resident should not be deported unless they have a case in immigration court and the judge determines that they no longer have the privilege of being a resident and issues a deportation order.” […]. There are certain things that a resident can do to put that status at risk,” Uribe commented.
Specifically, section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Law from the United States details the reasons that can lead to the deportation of a foreigner, regardless of whether he has green card or not.
Among the causes are the following:
- Persons who have encouraged, induced, assisted, instigated, or aided someone else to enter the United States illegally.
- For marriage fraud.
- For aggravated crimes or attempts to commit an aggravated crime. Some of them are bribing a witness, child pornography, drug trafficking, trafficking and use of firearms, fraud and falsifying documents, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC).
- For multiple criminal convictions.
- For escaping an immigration checkpoint.
- For crimes of domestic violence, harassment and violation of a protective order.
- For crimes against children.
- For human trafficking.
- For terrorist activities.
- For sabotage, conspiracy or treason and sedition.
–With reporting from ‘s Krecyte Villarreal, Alicia Wallace, Priscilla Alvarez and Kate Sullivan.
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