🚨 Green Card Holder Detained at the Airport?!

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]I just posted a video about four ways in which permanent residents, green card holders, can find themselves in deportation proceedings in the United States. And I wanted to do today's follow-up video on why a permanent resident could get detained or deported when they're trying to reenter the US after traveling abroad. So, I get a lot of questions about this. Like, is it safe for me to travel? There are immigration lawyers on YouTube who say, "No one should be traveling internationally unless they are a US citizen." I respectfully disagree with that opinion. I think most permanent residents can still travel safely or with minimal risk. And I want to discuss the two situations that, in my experience, have accounted for 95-plus percentage of issues that people have coming back to the United States. So, the first one is obvious. It's criminal issues. But, there's more to it than just have you ever been convicted of a crime because, you know, you might have had a speeding ticket, and that speeding ticket might have been really serious.

[00:01:03]And that might have risen to the level of like a misdemeanor or or criminal offense, and not just a traffic violation. Or you may have had a DUI in the past. So, if you got your DUI, for example, before you became a permanent resident and you disclosed it on your green card application, then it's really nothing to worry about. However, whenever you try to reenter the US, you are likely to get flagged for secondary inspection, where they're going to hold you, verify that your conviction doesn't render you inadmissible. It depends how many people are waiting there in line with you, and then they'll let you in.

[00:01:37]You could be waiting for anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. So, criminal issues, if you're not inadmissible, you're still likely to get flagged for secondary inspection. If you are inadmissible, and and the problem is, like, the Biden administration may not have caught the inadmissibility issue. The Trump administration is implementing some different background checks. So, for example, if you were inadmissible because of a conviction in a foreign country and the US government just never knew about that, that may actually render you inadmissible. And then the new government with new technology might find out about that inadmissible offense. You were always inadmissible.

[00:02:16]The Biden administration just never caught it. Just This is a hypothetical example. I'm not saying this actually happened. And now under new technology, the government finds out about it. You may say like, "Hey, I've traveled many times after that criminal conviction."

[00:02:29]Yeah, but you were inadmissible every time. The government just didn't figure it out until very recently. And during your recent entry, you were detained and placed into deportation proceedings.

[00:02:40]I've heard stuff like this happening in the news, you know, as soon as Trump became president. You know, you you heard stories about permanent residents who've had their green card for 40 years are finding themselves detained and deported when they're trying to reenter the United States.

[00:02:54]A lot of it was inadmissibility issues that just flew under the radar. Anyway, guys, this is generally what I tell most of my clients. This is not legal advice.

[00:03:03]I would need to speak with you directly to hear your case, how you got your green card, any issues to determine how much risk you would be taking by traveling internationally. So, if you want to speak with me, you could always schedule a consultation by clicking the link in the video description below. And what I generally tell my clients is, if you're going to do a brief departure, you want your travel is going to be generally short, like under 6 months. I ideally, under the current environment, less than 3 months and not spending that much time each year outside of the US.

[00:03:33]Let's say spending less than a quarter of each year outside of the US. If you're going to be traveling briefly, like for a vacation, and you have no criminal history, you generally don't have that much to worry about when you're coming back into the US. It's possible that you'll get stopped for a secondary inspection, but unlikely. So, generally speaking, if you have no criminal history and it's going to be a short departure, there's very minimal risk for a permanent resident traveling internationally. I also want to end the video by saying there are exceptions here. I have seen people who got their green cards through asylum or special immigrant juvenile status, who during their very first re-entry into the United States after getting their green card, were sent to secondary inspection and interrogated about the facts underlying their asylum claim, about whether the facts of their special immigrant juvenile status case were fraudulent or true. I have heard of stuff like this happening. It has happened to my personal clients, so it is possible, but it's just not a statistically likely outcome. And that's why I started the video by saying 95% of the issues people have in airports coming back as permanent residents have to do with travel history spent particularly whether or not you are maintaining a permanent residence in the US or spending too much time outside the US or criminal history. That's what 95% of my experiences have been with, but it is possible that you could get flagged for some other rare reason and be questioned by customs officers when you're trying to re-enter the United States. All right, guys, if you have any questions about this video, if you're trying to apply for US citizenship and you want to know, like, is your criminal history going to create issues? Is your good character going to create issues?

[00:05:20]Or if you have questions about renewing your green card, or you're in the process of applying for permanent residence, you know, I focus my practice on family-based green cards, naturalization, removing conditions, and deportation defense. So, any questions about these topics would be good for a consultation, and to schedule a consultation, you just click the link in the video description below or give my office a call. If you're new to my channel and you want to stay up to date on immigration policies directly from an immigration lawyer, be sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys next time for another video.