US immigration officials target elderly Indians holding Green Cards as Trump administration tightens scrutiny

green card holders are increasingly facing secondary inspections and overnight detentions by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at American airports. According to TOI's Lubna Kably, immigration attorneys have reported a growing trend of CBP officials questioning elderly Indians who spend winter months in India and pressuring them to voluntarily surrender their green cards by signing Form I-407.

Under the US Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a lawful permanent resident (LPR), or green card holder, returning to the US after an absence of more than 180 days is treated as seeking «re-admission» and becomes subject to grounds of inadmissibility. Although green card abandonment is typically considered when someone stays outside the US for more than a year, attorneys are now seeing increased scrutiny even for shorter absences.

Ashwin Sharma, an immigration attorney based in Florida, said, “I have personally handled cases recently where the CBP has targeted elderly Indian green card holders, particularly grandparents who happen to have spent a bit longer outside the US, and pressured them to sign Form I-407 to ‘voluntarily’ surrender their lawful permanent resident status (green card). And the moment they have tried to push back, they have been met with threats of detention or ‘removal’ by the CBP officers who have been emboldened by Trump to see themselves as judge, jury, and executioner.”

Kripa Upadhyay, a Seattle-based immigration attorney, emphasized that green card holders should not surrender