DHS announces undocumented immigrants registry that includes fingerprints
Immigrants wait to be transported by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on January 20, 2025 near Sasabe, Arizona. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
Undocumented immigrants age 14 or older must register and provide fingerprints or face a fine or even imprisonment under new Trump administration plans announced Tuesday.
The big picture: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the escalation in the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants that she vowed the administration would enforce.
Driving the news: Undocumented immigrants will from Tuesday be required to register and create an USCIS online account, per a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services online page.
- The Department of Homeland Security will soon announce a form to complete the registration requirement, according to the post.
- The requirement applies to anyone in the U.S. for 30 days or longer.
- Once a person has registered and been fingerprinted, DHS will issue "evidence of registration," which immigrants over 18 must carry and keep with them at all times, according to USCIS.
- Willfully fail to depart the U.S.
- Fail to register with the federal government and be fingerprinted.
- Fail to tell the federal government of changes to their address.
- The program provides "them an opportunity to come back someday and to be a part of the American dream," but if they don't register, "they're breaking the federal law, which has always been in place," Noem told Fox News' "Jesse Watters.
- "We're just going to start enforcing it to make sure" the undocumented immigrants go "back home," Noem said. "And when they want to be an American, then they can come and visit us again."
- https://www.axios.com/2025/02/26/trump-immigrants-registry-jail-fine-threat
