Tell USCIS You Don’t Want Increased Immigrant Surveillance

On May 5, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services proposed major changes to the Form AR-11, which many immigrants must use to alert the government of a change in their address. USCIS is accepting public comments on this proposal until July 6, 2026.

For years, immigrants have used the Form AR-11 to notify the government when they move. By law, USCIS requires anyone who has filed an immigration benefit request to notify the agency as soon as possible. Most noncitizens in the United States, including lawful permanent residents (green card holders), must report a change of address to USCIS within 10 days of moving. The Trump administration is now trying to turn this basic form into a tool for collecting personal data that could be used for immigration enforcement, surveillance, or the criminalization of immigrants who lawfully receive public benefits.

How is the Form AR-11 Changing?

USCIS wants to add new questions to the AR-11 that are not related to the purpose of the form. These proposed questions would ask for detailed information about a person’s:

• Employment
• Education
• Receipt of certain public benefits

Updating an address should not require people to share unrelated personal and financial information with the federal government.

How Do Changes to the Form AR-11 Hurt Immigrants?

These changes would create confusion and serious risks for immigrants and their families:

• It will discourage people from filling out a change in address. Many immigrants are already required to report their address (and any other changes) to the government. But if they also need to share sensitive information, or answer questions they might not understand, people may avoid filling out the form altogether due to fear or uncertainty. This is especially likely because this administration’s immigration enforcement has been unlawful and violent, causing fear even among people who have lawful immigration status.
• It creates new ways for the government to share and misuse sensitive data. In today’s environment of heightened enforcement and inappropriate data-sharing among federal agencies, people will understandably worry that:
  • Their information could be improperly shared with other agencies.
  • Their answers to these invasive and poorly defined questions could be used against them during the immigration process.
  • They could be exposing themselves or their family to immigration enforcement or to unjust criminalization for receiving benefits for which they are legally eligible.
• It adds greater burdens onto communities that are already navigating heightened scrutiny and new barriers to economic assistance. These policy changes will disproportionately harm mixed-status families; survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, or other crimes; and low-income families and communities of color, because they are the most likely to use the benefits asked about in the form.

These proposed revisions will also affect lawful permanent residents and other lawfully residing immigrants. With years of experience filling out a previously straightforward form, these residents may face barriers in accurately reporting the new information, which isn’t connected to their change in address and could take weeks or months to collect.

Why You Should Comment on the Policy Change, and How

This form revision is not happening in isolation. It is part of the Trump administration’s larger attacks on vulnerable communities. The administration has made a concerted effort to expand data collection on immigrants and public benefits recipients across the board. All these policies are intended to increase fear and confusion, discourage people from seeking benefits they qualify for, and punish families experiencing poverty. Many of the policies disproportionately harm Black and Brown immigrant communities in particular, introducing more fear and less economic and social stability.

What seems like a simple form revision is aimed at fundamentally reshaping our systems to make daily life even harder for immigrants and their families, with punitive, high-stakes penalties like criminalization, intrusive and biased immigration enforcement, and the loss of benefits they are legally qualified to receive.

You can join us in opposing this proposed change to Form AR-11 by submitting a public comment by midnight EST on Monday, July 6, 2026. You can use NILC’s template comment as a starting point and adapt it to reflect your own expertise and concerns.