FAQ: The Trump Immigration Registration Requirement

On his first day in office, President Trump issued a series of hateful anti-immigrant Executive Orders. One of these Executive Orders, entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” included a provision ordering the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Justice (DOJ) and State to publicize the so-called “legal obligation” of noncitizens to register with the U.S. government, ensure those who are not already registered do so, and prioritize failure to register for civil penalties and criminal prosecution.

On February 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo to all DOJ staff telling them to prioritize a number of migration-related offenses for criminal prosecutions, including registration-related provisions. A January 21 DOJ memo instructs U.S. Attorney’s Offices to develop a process to handle increased prosecutions, raising concerns of streamlined prosecution processes such as Operation Streamline that short-circuit due process.

On February 25, DHS announced the imminent creation of an unprecedented registration process for undocumented immigrants with the goal of compelling their self-deportation with the threat of criminal prosecution. On March 7, DHS released an Interim Final Rule set for publication on March 12, with an effective date of April 11. The Rule claims to merely implement existing law, and does not even attempt to analyze the administrative and community costs that will flow from its implementation.

Members of the public will have until April 11, 2025 to comment on the Rule and until May 11, 2025 to comment on the new Form the administration has created for the registration process, called the Form G-325R.

The administration has been clear that it is creating this new registration process to further its agenda of mass deportation, including pushing people to what they refer to as “self-deportation.” In the February 25th DHS announcement, a DHS spokesperson said: “President Trump and [DHS] Secretary Noem have a clear message for those in our country illegally: leave now.” In an interview with Fox News, DHS Secretary Noem explained the registration process in this way: “We are putting in place and enforcing the Alien Registration Act which is using every single tool at our disposal to do exactly what President Trump promised the American people…. They will be fingerprinted, they must announce that they are here, and if they do so they can avoid criminal charges and fines and we will help them relocate right back to their home country.”

The Trump administration is using out-of-date registration laws as a backdoor way to criminalize people for being undocumented and target community members for detention and deportation.

• The government will use the registration process to target immigrants for arrests, criminal prosecutions, and deportations.

It is critical for community members to know that the government could – and likely will – move to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants who register. Community members residing in the U.S. for less than two years are vulnerable to being placed in expedited removal, a process that allows DHS to deport someone quickly without giving them a chance to go before a judge.

The government is also threatening to target people who do not register for criminal prosecution. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has instructed its prosecutors to prioritize the prosecution of immigration-related offices, including the registration-related misdemeanor offices described below. For immigrant communities, this will mean that any contact with law enforcement, including ICE or local police cooperating with ICE, could lead to criminal charges in addition to immigration detention and removal proceedings.

The Rule also raises concerns that the government may seek to press criminal charges against people who are already in the United States lawfully and/or have already completed a fingerprinting process that constitutes evidence of registration if they do not notify the government of a change of address within ten days of the address change. Failure to notify change of address is a federal misdemeanor as well as a separate ground of deportability that can give DHS the authority to start removal proceedings even against a green card holder.

It is also important for community members to consider that coming forward to register may make them vulnerable to prosecution under separate criminal charges, including the federal offenses of illegal entry or reentry.

• The registration requirement may also impact immigrants’ ability to obtain immigration benefits in the future.

Most immigration benefits or visas are “discretionary,” meaning that the government can use someone’s past negative action to deny them the immigration benefit or visa. The government could consider a person’s failure to register a negative factor when determining whether to grant an immigration benefit such as a green card or visa.

• The registration Rule requires children to register.

Finally, the Rule places an alarming requirement on children between the ages of 14 and 18 years old to submit themselves to registration, fingerprinting, and background checks. Subjecting potentially hundreds of thousands of children to invasive reporting requirements raises numerous concerns and belies the outdated nature of the law on which this Rule is based. In the decades since that law was written, our society has seen significant evolution in the law and science of our understanding of childhood and adolescence, including intervening law that recognizes the significant differences and vulnerabilities of children like In re Gault, Roper v. Simmons and Matter of Devison.

• It will separate families, harm communities, and increase racial profiling.

The Trump administration’s explicit goal with this Rule’s publication is to create a hostile environment for immigrant community members. While their stated targets are undocumented immigrants, the very mechanics of enforcing registration expands the target to anyone who looks or sounds foreign to law enforcement. The rampant ensuing racial profiling that will ensue will make hostile environments in communities across the country for immigrant and U.S. citizen members alike. Our communities will pay a high price for generations to come, including heightened over-policing, local economic disruptions, and broken families.

The principal federal law referenced by the Rule is at Section 1302 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code. This law dates from an earlier and largely obsolete registration process from the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The provision says that all noncitizens who are 14 years old or older, have not already registered by applying for a visa, and stay in the U.S. for 30 days or more have a duty to apply for registration and be fingerprinted within those 30 days. Parents and legal guardians of noncitizen children under 14 have a duty to apply for registration for their children.

Registration is not an immigration status nor does it provide someone with immigration status. Registration means providing personal and immigration history information to DHS and getting fingerprinted so that DHS can run a background check. In exchange, DHS provides a document constituting proof of having registered.

The Trump administration is threatening to prosecute people with a number of misdemeanor criminal offenses connected to the registration requirement including:

• Willful failure to register or to register one’s child under 14, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or up to six months imprisonment or both (8 U.S.C. § 1306(a));
• Failure to carry proof of registration, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or up to 30 days imprisonment or both (8 U.S.C. § 1304(e)); and
• Failure to notify the government within 10 days of a change of address, punishable by a fine of up to $5000 or up to 30 days imprisonment or both (8 U.S.C. §1306(b)).

The Rule also points to a separate criminal offense for a person who registers using false statements, which is both a misdemeanor offense and a specific ground of deportability under section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The registration Rule outlines a new registration process, which instructs people to first create an online account with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and then to complete and submit through that account a new form called the Form G-325R. The new Form G-325R requests detailed biographic information about the person registering, including country of birth and citizenship, date of arrival in the United States and “activities” engaged in while here, and anticipated date of departure. It also asks for detailed biographic information about the person’s spouse, mother, and father, including country of birth. Once the form is submitted, USCIS will send the person a notice for an appointment to be fingerprinted at a USCIS service center. With the person’s fingerprints, photographs and signature gathered, the government will run background checks on the person and then create a “Proof of Alien Registration” document, which will then be available in the person’s USCIS online account.

Many noncitizens present in the U.S. have already registered as part of their immigration processes, and this Rule does not require them to do so again. The Rule sets forward a complex list of processes and Forms that people are expected to analyze to determine if the new registration requirement does or does not apply to them.

Based on the text of the Rule, the following groups of noncitizens are likely to have already registered, although it is advisable for community members to consult an experienced immigration lawyer for information on any individual situation.

• Lawful permanent residents (green card holders)
• People who were granted parole under INA 212(d)(5)
• People admitted to the U.S. on a nonimmigrant or immigrant visa (even if since expired)
• People who are or were in removal or deportation proceedings
• People granted employment authorization (even if since expired)
• Refugees
• People who applied for permanent residence (even if application denied)
• People who have Border Crossing Cards (even if expired) and people who entered as crewmen

The Rule singles out the following groups of noncitizens as people who are supposed to register using the new process, while stating that the new process will be available for all unregistered immigrants regardless of immigration status:

• People who entered without inspection and have not been encountered by DHS
• People who entered without inspection and have applied for or were granted asylum, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or deferred action including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) but were not granted an Employment Authorization Document or advance parole
• Children who have a pending petition for an immigration benefit or other derivative beneficiaries of immigrant petitions present in the U.S. who have not been granted an Employment Authorization Document
• Canadian business or tourism visitors who were not issued an I-94 arrival/departure form
• Children who turn 14 years old within 30 days of their birthday, even if they were previously registered by a parent or legal guardian

The Rule does not specify a deadline for registration, other than for noncitizen children who turn 14 years old to register within 30 days of their 14th birthday. While the Rule relies on the law at United States Code Title 8, Section 1302 that establishes a duty to apply to register within 30 days of entry, it is silent as to whether there is a deadline for people already in the United States to utilize the new registration process.

The Rule does state that people subject to registration requirements are instructed to report changes of address within 10 days of moving under Title 8, Section 1305(a) or face criminal misdemeanor penalties.

Yes, if they are 18 or over. Federal law at Section 1304(e) of Title 8 requires noncitizens 18 years of age and over to carry proof of registration at all times, and makes failure to do so a misdemeanor offense. This decades-old provision of law fell into disuse after its passage given its impracticality. Although there have been limited and sporadic prosecutions for this misdemeanor offense in the decades since, it has also been used by immigration enforcement authorities as a pretext to cover immigration arrests based on racial profiling.

Widespread enforcement of the carry requirement would create a national show-your-papers program that would inevitably catch not only undocumented community members but also U.S. citizens and immigrants with lawful status in its net. This has already occurred in upstate New York, where researchers found that arrest quota incentives for Border Patrol agents led to endemic abuse of the carry requirement as after-the-fact justification for arrests based on racial profiling that resulted in the unlawful detention of lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens, as well as misapplication by Border Patrol agents who erroneously interpreted the registration regulations.

Section 1304(e) requires a noncitizen 18 and over to carry proof of their registration at all times, but does not require them to produce their documents to law enforcement. All people living in the U.S., regardless of immigration status, have certain basic constitutional rights, including the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The new Rule references existing regulations that list the documents considered to constitute proof of registration. The regulations include two slightly different lists of “registration forms” and forms that constitute “evidence of registration.” It is likely that both sets of documents will count as proof of registration.

“Prescribed registration forms” listed in the regulations include:

• I-94 Arrival-Departure Record
• I-485 Application for Status as a Permanent Resident
• I-590 Registration for Classification as a Refugee

“Evidence of registration” listed in the regulations includes:

• I-94 Arrival-Departure Record
• I-551 Permanent Resident Card (“Green Card”)
• I-766 Employment Authorization Document (EAD)
• I-862 Notice to Appear.

The Alien Registration Act of 1940 was passed shortly before the U.S. entered World War II (WWII). It created a process where all noncitizens had to register with the U.S. government at their local post office. The stated goal of the process was to inventory noncitizens in order to identify potential national security threats broadly characterized as communist or subversive. Immigration enforcement was not the point – in fact, propaganda campaigns encouraging noncitizens to register promised legalization for those without authorized status.

After WWII, registration was integrated into the immigration process. Instead of going to the local post office, noncitizens registered as part of the process of immigrating to the U.S. through ports of entry. While noncitizens previously had to fill out a separate, specialized noncitizen registration form, now their immigration application form did double duty as the registration form. This meant there was no way for undocumented people to register under the law, as registration was only for people who qualified for some kind of authorized immigration status.

Over the years, two trends further eroded noncitizens’ ability to comply with a duty to apply for registration. First, various categories of noncitizens were exempted from the registration requirements, including certain Canadians, diplomats, and Bracero (guest worker) program workers. Second, many new forms of immigration status were never incorporated into the registration regulations.

As explained above, the Alien Registration Act of 1940 is the only time the U.S. government carried out a comprehensive campaign to require all noncitizens to register. The U.S. government’s other attempts to force noncitizens to register have been explicitly discriminatory in targeting specific racial groups or nationalities. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 led the U.S. government to create a registration system for Chinese immigrants. This swept up not only people born in China but also people of Chinese descent born in the U.S. and people authorities considered to “look” Chinese.

The only modern example of registration is the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a post 9/11 program created by the George W. Bush administration that targeted noncitizens from 24 Muslim-majority countries and North Korea for registration and tracking. Purporting to address national security concerns, the U.S. government forced 83,000 people to register with NSEERS and placed 13,000 of them in deportation proceedings. The government obtained zero terrorism convictions, all while supercharging racial profiling and tearing families apart. Many communities still live with the pain caused by the deportations of loved ones through the NSEERS system.

The Trump administration’s new registration requirement also recalls one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history, when the government drew on its registration information on Japanese noncitizens to force thousands into internment camps, together with thousands of others who were U.S. citizens of Japanese descent.