The letters were mailed starting in January — first to Minnesota, then elsewhere across the country. Some landed in mailboxes here in Pittsburgh.
“The purpose of this letter is to notify you of the intent of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to terminate the refugee status you were granted upon admission,” read one such letter obtained by Pittsburgh’s Public Source. It told the recipient — whose name and address were redacted from the copy provided — that “available evidence” showed they didn’t meet the definition of a refugee under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The screening process for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is extremely stringent and takes up to three years. Even after entry it includes biographic checks, medical screenings, forensic document testing and in-person interviews. The letter recipient was lawfully resettled in the country in 2024, which means their claim — that terrorists in their East African country of origin would kill them — was credible enough to pass muster. It’s unclear if the person lives in the region, though one of the four local resettlement agencies — which contract with the state to aid refugees — confirmed that similar letters were sent to recipients in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
Above the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) seal at the top right, the letter’s attention line shows one word: “PARRIS.”
Operation PARRIS, announced by USCIS on Jan. 9, stands for “Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening.” It’s a sweeping Trump administration initiative to re-vet thousands of refugees through new “background checks, reinterviews and merit reviews of refugee claims,” according to the news release, which characterized the effort as a “war on fraud.” (Research shows immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens.) It targets those who haven’t yet obtained their green cards, which refugees are required to do within one year of arriving in the country.
“They’re shocked, right? They’re thinking, … ‘I went through so much vetting … and when I got here, I was finally free.'”
Dana Gold
The operation was piloted in Minnesota, where more than 100 refugees from about a dozen countries were arrested in January and flown to detention centers in Texas for interviews. None had criminal records and all cases reviewed by the New York Times had applied for green cards. Experts said DHS wants to expand PARRIS to other states, which could affect some refugees in the Pittsburgh region. It follows the administration’s indefinite refugee ban, which has been in place for more than a year.
Lawfully present refugees tend to feel less vulnerable to immigration enforcement than undocumented people and other types of immigrants. It’s why the letters — and the broader federal crackdown on refugees — have stunned those who’ve resettled here and the network of nonprofits and community groups that serve them.
“They’re shocked, right?” said Dana Gold, COO of Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS), one of the region’s four resettlement agencies. They’re thinking, “I went through years in a refugee camp, I went through so much vetting, I went to cultural orientation classes … and when I got here, I was finally free. I was going to be able to contribute and build a life here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Now some in Pittsburgh’s refugee communities feel the U.S. broke its promise to keep them safe after they escaped violence and persecution in their home countries — including those in regions that were destabilized by American interventionism. “It’s the worst kind of betrayal,” said local immigration attorney Jackie Martinez, referring to the administration’s treatment of Afghan refugees who risked their lives to aid the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
News of the threat of detainment and even deportation — a possible death sentence for refugees — is spreading via word of mouth and through the efforts of resettlement agencies as they prepare vulnerable families for the worst. They’re preparing by:
- Briefing clients to keep information flowing through communities
- Teaching them how to use an app to instantly alert emergency contacts and legal aid if they’re arrested
- Hosting legal clinics and facilitating access to pro bono representation.
PARRIS is being challenged by a class-action lawsuit filed in Minnesota federal court. Legal experts said it’s an unprecedented departure from decades of refugee resettlement protocol and is almost certainly unlawful — an opinion reflected in a ruling from U.S. District Judge John Tunheim. He partly granted a preliminary injunction on Feb. 27 that bars the administration from arresting and detaining lawfully resettled refugees under the initiative while litigation continues.
Public Source sent detailed questions to DHS’ Office of Public Affairs and a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which was enforcing PARRIS in Minnesota before the court’s preliminary court ruling. Neither agency responded by deadline.
Refugees without green cards face the highest risk
Gold said there are hundreds of refugees in the region without green cards — an estimate based on a JFCS assessment of people its attorneys represented. She declined to provide a more specific figure to avoid tipping off federal agents.
“I say there’s three people [and] they may start looking for three people,” she said, noting the agency has learned that those who arrived between 2021 and 2025 are among the most vulnerable.
Afghan and Somali Bantu community leaders in the region said most people in both groups have either become permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Ethnically Nepali Bhutanese people — who started arriving in the 1990s and make up the largest refugee group in Pittsburgh — have also naturalized in large numbers.
But some refugees haven’t applied for green cards within the one-year deadline, the leaders said. Many were stalled by language barriers and struggled to understand the system. Others were preoccupied with work, childcare and affording the necessities of daily life.
“I know some clients” who took four years just to learn “how to pay their bills,” said an Afghan journalist and interpreter. He’s a permanent resident, but requested anonymity because he fears for his safety under the Trump administration’s crackdown.
“You have no clue. Try walking a mile in their shoes to know what they’re going through.”Jackie martinez
Martinez, the immigration attorney, said others are stymied by trauma and mental health issues — the after-effects of witnessing and experiencing some of the most horrific abuses in recent human history. Some might ask, “Well, why don’t you just get that done?” In response, she said, “You have no clue.” Try walking “a mile in their shoes to know what they’re going through.”
One of her refugee clients, an Eritrean, has been eligible to adjust her status for a decade. She works a low-wage health care job during the graveyard shift and couldn’t prioritize her green card application. But fear of being detained at the airport drove her to consider doing so. “This is not a good environment for” refugees who want to travel, Martinez said.
Even some who applied by the deadline are in limbo due to long processing times caused by a backlog that predated the second Trump administration, said Gold. But the administration’s policies could be adding to the delay: In November, USCIS suspended approvals of green card applications filed by refugees. It’s unclear if the pause is still in place.
The Refugee Act of 1980 established the current refugee resettlement program and asylum system. Until now, those who didn’t apply for green cards within one year of arrival retained their refugee status and weren’t threatened with detainment or deportation. “The government understood that processing times were taking longer,” said Gold. She added that the Trump administration has effectively trapped refugees by further snarling the adjustment of status process and then punishing those without green cards. “You did this on purpose — you have created the environment where everybody is now a victim.”
‘You need to prepare for an unjust ICE detention’
Locally, resettlement agencies, immigration attorneys and the Welcoming Communities Network (stakeholders working on behalf of immigrants, asylees and refugees) are mounting an all-out effort to prepare for the possibility that the courts will uphold PARRIS.
Gold said JFCS created a video — translated into 13 languages — to walk clients through the steps they should take to ensure their family and financial obligations are taken care of in the event of their detention or deportation.
The video explains that federal agents may stop them on the basis of their skin color or accent — a practice the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed. It notes refugees in other states, notably Minnesota, had been detained and reinterviewed. “The same could happen in Pittsburgh,” the narrator warned. “You need to prepare for the possibility of an unjust ICE detention.”
Step one, according to the video: Download the Ready Now! app. Developed by the Human Rights First Innovation Lab, the app allows a refugee to record instructions for child, elder and pet care; paying rent and bills; and meeting other urgent needs. If arrested, they can quickly launch the app and tap “Send Alert” to blast messages out to emergency contacts and their legal team. If they don’t have a lawyer, they can configure the app to request help from a legal aid network.
The app can even help a detainee’s community find them within the detention system. And if a refugee’s phone is seized, the developer noted, the information stored in the app is secure.
“I may cry,” Gold said, detailing how JFCS is helping refugees plan for emergency child care. “People are telling us they would rather leave their children here, in the custody of [Allegheny County’s child protective services] … because they know if they go back to Haiti, they will be killed.
“And they don’t want their children killed,” Gold said, as her voice choked up.
If PARRIS isn’t stopped, “families could absolutely be separated by this,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy at HIAS, one of 10 national resettlement agencies that partner with the federal government to assist refugees in their host communities. It works closely with JFCS and other local agencies across the country and is coordinating a response at the national level.
JFCS is also scheduling group meetings, webinars and legal aid clinics in multiple languages to coach people through the necessary prep work.
Resettlement agencies and community leaders declined to connect this reporter with refugees who are vulnerable under PARRIS. Though Public Source offered anonymity and other protections, they said asking families to talk to journalists would run counter to the safety advice they’re giving.
Venuri Siriwardane is the health and mental health reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at venuri@publicsource.org or on Bluesky @venuri.bsky.social.
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to Public Source’s health care reporting.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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