Green card applicants married to U.S. citizens face new uncertainty amid arrests

A British mother holding an infant, a Ukrainian refugee, the wife of a Navy veteran, a German man about to celebrate his first wedding anniversary.

A British mother holding an infant, a Ukrainian refugee, the wife of a Navy veteran, a German man about to celebrate his first wedding anniversary. These are some of the spouses of U.S. citizens who were recently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at what they thought were going to be routine green card interviews.

There have been several dozen known cases out of San Diego alone, but cases have also been reported in New York City, Cleveland and Utah, according to attorneys and local news reports.

Immigration attorneys told NBC News that this marks an “unprecedented” break in decadeslong practice policy, and that their clients are panicked they could be detained even when they are eligible to become legal permanent residents by law and have no criminal histories.

Jan Joseph Bejar, an immigration attorney in San Diego who recently had a client detained, said if the arrests spread around the country, “It’d be huge. It would be really devastating.”

The detentions are one of the latest tactics in President Donald Trump’s policies targeting legal pathways for immigration and increasing scrutiny of green card applicants.