Immigrant rights groups and immigration law experts are raising concerns after the National Security Department announced that it is creating an online database designed to monitor migrants over 14 years old who live illegally in the country.
Migrants who are in the United States without authorization must register their information in a database that tracks them in an effort to “force” self -sports, the DHS said in a press release on Tuesday.
The secretary of the Department of National Security, Kristi Noem, speaks briefly with journalists after attending national security and government issues of the Senate in the Dirksen Senate Office building in Capitol Hill on February 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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However, the registration had not established until Wednesday. A website of citizenship and immigration services of the United States instructed migrants who are obliged to register to create an account in line with the agency.
Promised to “use all the available tools to force illegal aliens to self -description,” a DHS statement said that people who are not registered and present fingerprints could face fines and imprisonment.
“President [Donald] Trump and secretary [of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem has a clear message for those in our country illegally: go now. If you leave now, you may have the opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream, “said a DHS spokesman in a statement on Tuesday.” The Trump administration will apply all our immigration laws: we will not choose which laws we will fulfill. We must know who is in our country for the security of our homeland and all Americans. “
The DHS said that a section of decades of the Immigration and Nationality Law required by the registration of migrants over 14 years in the United States, which have not been traces or registered, and that have been in the country for more than 30 days.
“Historically, we know that we have to sit and pay attention every time a government says that it will establish a record based on the national origin or the breed or religion or any other immutable characteristic, because the dramatic losses of civil freedoms and civil rights will surely continue and potentially worse,” said Heidi Altman, vice president of policies of the National Imigration Law Center.
After the September 11 attack, the administration of President George W. Bush established a system known as the entry registration system to national security output, which required the registration of certain non -citizens, mainly from Muslim -majority countries and North Korea.
“Like the registration system that Trump is imagining here, he settled under a national security appearance or public security concerns that, in the end, only served to gartain civil rights for communities that were attacked and separated to the communities,” said Altman. “There were around 83,000 people who were forced to register through Nseers and many thousands of them were placed in deportation procedures.”
Parents and legal tutors of undocumented immigrants who are under 14 years old and have not previously registered would also have to register in the database.
According to the Trump administration registration, immigrants over 18 would receive evidence that they have registered that “they must carry and keep in their possession at all times,” said the USCIS website.
That requirement is a fear that this is a new type of law “shows your documents,” said Michelle Lapointe, legal director of the American Immigration Council.
“There are some real problems of civil liberties here,” Lapointe told ABC News. “It will end up catching people based on the perceptions of the police of their breed and assumptions that the police make about the immigration state of people according to that.”
“Then, there is a real opportunity for abuse, because this is essentially establishing a system where people have to produce their documents: show their documents to the police to prove their status,” he continued.
Lapointe said that the DHS is also threatening the jail time for not registering, although being in the country without authorization is not always punished with imprisonment.
“The failure of a foreigner to register is a crime that could result in a fine, imprisonment or both,” said Tuesday’s press release.
In many cases, being in the country without authorization is a civil crime and would generally be punishable with elimination instead of imprisonment.
As the Trump administration continues to increase its deportation efforts, Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Association of Immigration Lawyers, said few people can choose to register.
“I do not think that many people will present themselves and register, because they will be too afraid that if they are registered, they will simply be deported quickly, given the aggressive mass deportation plan that the administration is configuring,” Chen said.
