Update March 13, 2024 – An interim final rule (IFR) has been posted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, requiring immigrants to register with the U.S. government. The IFR includes a request for comments that are due on April 11, 2025. The IFR requires that persons who are now subject to the requirement use a newly created registration form to meet the requirements of the rule.
Timeline
March 13, 2024 – Interim final rule posted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
February 25, 2025 – The Wall Street Journal reported that it had reviewed a Trump administration draft plan to create an immigrant registration.
January 20, 2025 – President Trump issued the Executive Order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”
Description As part of his day one series of Executive Orders (EO), President Trump issued an EO entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which includes a provision requiring immigrants who lack an immigration status to register with the U.S. government. The EO specifies that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of State (DOS), and Department of Justice (DOJ) must announce and publicize information about the legal obligation of noncitizens who are not already registered in some way with the federal government (for example through various immigration benefit applications) to comply with the registration requirements at 8 U.S.C. §1301 through §1306, a 1952 law (based on the Alien Registration Act of 1940) which sets out the registration requirements. The EO also states that failure to comply with the registration law will be “treated as a civil and criminal enforcement priority.”
No registration process or system currently exists that would allow any immigrants to comply with a new registry requirement. (The 1940 law required all immigrants to register annually at post offices but was later abandoned by the 1960s.) However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now has a page that is live on their website which provides information about which sorts of documents and immigration benefit applications can establish that someone is considered to have complied with the registry requirement, as well as lists the categories of persons who are not yet considered to be registered and must come forward to apply for registration. Anyone who is 14 or older will be required to register, and parents will need to register their children who are younger than 14.
The Wall Street Journal reported on February 25, 2025, that it had reviewed a draft regulation showing that the Trump administration plans to create a registration form giving immigrants 30 days to complete it after the registry is established, and punishing those who fail to register with fines of up to $5,000 and up to six months in prison.