Green Card Holders Face Increased Scrutiny as U.S. Immigration Policies Tighten

The Trump administration's stated efforts to deport masses of undocumented immigrants from the United States and remove foreign students who participate in pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses seem to have expanded into increased scrutiny towards legal residents as well.

“We have seen a disturbing trend from the federal government to target people who have legal immigration status,” said Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

On Friday, a New Hampshire resident with a valid green card was detained in Boston by immigration officers and subjected to what his family said was horrific treatment.

Fabian Schmidt, an electrical engineer, is a German national who obtained his green card in 2008. The card was reportedly recently renewed, and Mr. Schmidt, who has an American wife and daughter, had no pending legal issues. However, when he returned from a trip to Luxembourg on Friday, he was stopped at the Boston Logan airport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Mr. Schmidt's family says that while they were waiting for hours with no word from their loved one, he was being “violently interrogated” by immigration officials, resulting in his eventual hospitalization.