Immigrants who have spent years navigating legal pathways to remain in the United States are finding those same applications used against them, according to attorneys who say the Trump administration is increasingly scrutinizing people with humanitarian protections, including U visa holders, DACA recipients and abused children seeking legal status.

At an immigration court hearing in Phoenix's Executive Office for Immigration Review this month, a man holding a U visa — a protected status granted to crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement — was issued a Notice to Appear and placed into removal proceedings.

Not wanting to share his name for fear of repercussions, he told LOOKOUT after his initial court hearing — where he had no attorney representation — "I thought I was safe. I thought I was good."

U visas are designed to encourage immigrant crime victims to assist police without fear of deportation. But targeting people granted U visas for deportation proceedings may have a chilling effect.

The Department of Homeland Security has also signaled increased scrutiny of Special Immigrant Juvenile visas, a protection granted to minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned. In a June 3 statement, DHS General Counsel James Percival asked state court judges to apply stricter review to SIJ applications, citing a USCIS fraud report that found nearly 19,000 SIJ petitioners between fiscal years 2013 and 2025 had criminal arrest records. An arrest record, however, is not a criminal conviction.

Also included in those allegations of fraud are "known or suspected members" of gangs — a notoriously slippery category that critics say has historically been used to overcriminalize people. Attorneys worry the announcement could deter legitimate applications from vulnerable children.

"I went out and told people: This is a warning sign," Mo Goldman, a Tucson-based immigration attorney, told LOOKOUT. "They're going after people who are trying to do legal processing, using their legitimate legal immigration applications to go after them."

He added that he now advises clients to weigh whether filing certain applications could draw enforcement attention.

"Is it a good investment to pay fees to USCIS when they are basically an arm of ICE?" Goldman asked. "They've gone from a service agency to homeland defenders."

A September 2025 rule published in the Federal Register formally codified expanded law enforcement powers for USCIS, allowing agency officers to carry firearms, execute search warrants and make arrests — partially transforming a benefits agency into an enforcement arm. Immigration attorneys have documented ICE arrests at green card interviews in multiple jurisdictions over the past year and a half.

The uncertainty extends beyond the people already facing immigration court proceedings.

More than half a million people currently hold DACA protections nationwide, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Research published in 2020 estimated that roughly 39,000 DACA recipients — about 11% of recipients at the time — identified as LGBTQ+.

The Williams Institute at UCLA estimated that of the more than 1.1 million people who could have qualified for DACA in 2020, approximately 81,000 were LGBTQ+, including at least 2,000 in Arizona.

Tucson’s Queer Immigrant Rights Networks Grow Amid Fear, Resistance and Raids

Often led by queer members, Southern Arizona’s community defense, mutual aid and ICE watch crews are responding to Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown.

LOOKOUTJohn Washington (he/him)

For many of those immigrants, advocates say the stakes extend beyond losing permission to work or remain in the country. Some could face deportation to countries where LGBTQ+ people experience discrimination, criminal penalties or violence. Others may be returned to countries they left as children and where they have few, if any, remaining ties.

For Karla Toledo, a Tucson resident who has lived in the United States since she was 1 year old, the immediate concern is the approaching July expiration of her DACA status. She has already applied for a renewal, but Goldman, who is also her lawyer, described the situation as being "in a state of limbo.”

"Dozens and dozens of DACA recipients are filing for renewals and not getting them approved," he said. He said people with DACA and other forms of protection are newly vulnerable under the second Trump administration.

Of those people being detained and deported, he said, "The risk is out there."