US immigration officers reassigned to refugee and voter screening

The Trump administration has reassigned all immigration officers from the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) to two new high-priority initiatives. According to internal correspondence, these officers will now focus full-time on screening South African refugees and investigating alleged ‘unlawful’ voters.

This shift has left the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) unable to provide personnel to train asylum officers for the near future. The FDNS is responsible for detecting fraud and national security concerns within immigration applications, including asylum claims. The disruption to training may further delay the processing of asylum cases, which have already faced significant slowdowns.

This reallocation of resources comes amid broader efforts by the administration to overhaul immigration procedures, including a recent USCIS proposal to refer asylum applicants for deportation without interviews or hearings.