BY VEENA RAO

Atlanta, GA, October 7, 2025: Immigration attorneys in Georgia say the system has change into harsher, much less predictable, and extra scary—not just for undocumented immigrants, but in addition for many who have lived legally in the US for years.

In conversations with NRI Pulse, immigration attorneys, who didn’t want to communicate publicly, described a wave of latest rulings and enforcement actions that they consider are eroding long-standing authorized protections. “It looks like the foundations are altering each week,” mentioned one legal professional. “Even circumstances determined years in the past are being reopened or overturned.”

Based on the attorneys, the Division of Justice and the Board of Immigration Appeals have been revisiting beforehand determined circumstances and issuing sweeping new interpretations. One of many newest rulings, often called Matter of Hurtado, bars anybody who entered the US by crossing the border—together with asylum seekers—from being launched on bond if detained.

“Which means even individuals who got here a long time in the past to hunt asylum can now be held indefinitely if they’re picked up,” an legal professional defined.

In one other case earlier this yr, Matter of Q-L-, the court docket dominated that anybody who entered the nation and not using a visa may very well be held beneath provisions requiring necessary detention. Since that call, legal professionals say bond approvals have just about stopped. “It’s as if the system is being redesigned to maintain individuals locked up,” one legal professional mentioned.

One lawyer described the ordeal of a consumer who had entered the U.S. within the late Nineteen Nineties looking for asylum. Her authentic removing order was vacated after years of authorized wrestle, and her green-card software was lastly transferring ahead. However when immigration authorities referred to as her for a routine fingerprinting appointment, she was arrested. “She had finished the whole lot proper,” the legal professional mentioned. “However as a result of the system hadn’t been up to date to point out that her case was reopened, they detained her. Even after realizing the error, they refused to launch her.” Beneath the brand new Hurtado determination, the legal professional mentioned, the lady can’t be launched on bond—a scenario they referred to as “draconian and heartbreaking.”

The legal professionals mentioned worry now extends past undocumented immigrants. “Even authorized immigrants are scared,” one mentioned. “Once I see a police automotive, I get nervous—and I’m a citizen. That’s how tense issues have change into.” One other legal professional mentioned shoppers who’re required to report often to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stay in fixed dread. “We will’t inform them to go or to not go,” the legal professional mentioned. “In the event that they go for his or her check-in and get detained, we might not have the ability to get them launched. But when they skip it, they danger being labeled flight dangers, and ICE may arrest them at residence.”

Their solely authorized software in such circumstances is to file a habeas corpus petition in federal court docket, asking a decide to order a launch. However that may solely be finished in any case different treatments are exhausted. “It’s a catch-22,” the lawyer mentioned. “They’re trapped both means.”

Some attorneys famous that sure immigration purposes, like green-card renewals and citizenship petitions, are being processed sooner than earlier than. However they warn that pace has come at a value. “Up to now, in case your software had a lacking doc, it will simply be denied and you could possibly reapply,” one lawyer mentioned. “Now, USCIS officers can difficulty deportation notices and even arrest candidates. Native immigration workplaces now have armed U.S. marshals on web site. Persons are afraid to go to interviews.”

Just a few weeks in the past, new federal steerage added one other layer of hysteria: citizenship candidates should now show they’ve “wonderful ethical character.” “It’s not sufficient to go a background verify,” mentioned one legal professional. “They now need letters from neighbors or group members vouching for you. However how many individuals actually know their neighbors properly sufficient for that?”

Attorneys additionally pointed to the not too long ago handed Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia scholar who was killed earlier this yr. The regulation makes any immigrant charged—not convicted—with sure crimes, together with theft and housebreaking, topic to deportation. “That’s an enormous change,” one lawyer mentioned. “Even when your case was dismissed otherwise you have been discovered harmless, you possibly can nonetheless be deported. We’ve seen college students lose their standing for minor infractions like site visitors tickets or shoplifting prices from years in the past.”

A number of immigration legal professionals mentioned they noticed college students all of a sudden lose their authorized standing this spring after receiving AI-generated letters from ICE claiming their SEVIS information have been revoked. “Many had finished nothing fallacious,” one legal professional mentioned. “Some simply had a rushing ticket.” After class-action lawsuits, these circumstances have been briefly halted, however worry lingers. “We now inform college students to not drive if they will keep away from it,” the lawyer mentioned. “Getting pulled over is the simplest option to find yourself in detention.”

Attorneys are additionally alarmed by what’s taking place to asylum seekers and Afghan refugees. In current months, asylum circumstances have been summarily dismissed if candidates fail to submit full proof instantly upon submitting—one thing almost inconceivable for these in detention. In the meantime, Afghan nationals who got here to the U.S. beneath Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications are receiving letters revoking their inexperienced playing cards. They’re advised to show inside 15 days that they labored for U.S. contractors years in the past, usually by offering letters from supervisors who now not exist. “These individuals risked their lives serving to U.S. forces,” one legal professional mentioned. “Now they’re being advised to supply paperwork from war-torn areas the place nobody is left. It’s a setup for failure.”

Minor offenses that after carried little consequence—akin to promoting alcohol to minors, small-business violations, and even slot-machine infractions—can now set off immigration motion. “Many South Asian enterprise house owners function gasoline stations or comfort shops,” one legal professional mentioned. “In the event that they’re charged with one thing as small as promoting a tobacco product to a minor, it may possibly now be used towards their immigration standing.”

Home-violence and gambling-related prices are additionally resulting in speedy deportation proceedings. “Even with out conviction,” an legal professional emphasised, “the harm is completed.”

Regardless of the sweeping adjustments, the attorneys mentioned mainstream media protection has been minimal. “A Supreme Courtroom determination permitting immigration brokers to query individuals primarily based on look barely made the information,” mentioned one. “Folks do not know how a lot the bottom has shifted.” Attorneys say they’ve appealed to lawmakers and met with members of Congress to precise concern, however few are prepared to talk publicly. One Georgia congressman privately advised attorneys that he supported authorized immigration however didn’t wish to be quoted. “It’s disheartening,” one lawyer mentioned. “The general public doesn’t know, and politicians are afraid to speak.”

Supporters of the brand new insurance policies argue {that a} stricter method is required to forestall abuse of the asylum system and to revive public confidence in immigration enforcement. They are saying current court docket rulings merely implement present legal guidelines that had been inconsistently utilized up to now.

Because the authorized panorama continues to shift, attorneys and immigrant households alike are left navigating uncertainty. Whereas the federal government insists it’s imposing the regulation, immigration advocates say the price is human dignity. Between these two realities, 1000’s of lives cling within the stability.