What Actually Changed on May 26

DHS General Counsel James Percival signed a memo on May 26, 2026, ordering ICE attorneys within the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor to develop "anti-fraud policies" targeting immigration lawyers who file false asylum claims. The previous DOJ sanctuary city lawsuits were about blocking ICE access. This directive targets the legal infrastructure that represents migrants in court.

According to CBS News, which obtained the memo, the directive does NOT create new penalties. It tells ICE to start using an existing federal statute — 8 U.S.C. § 1324c(d) — far more aggressively than before.

The Numbers Behind the Stick

The penalties under that statute are real. According to the Justice Department, first-time violations can cost $4,730 per fraudulent document or act. Repeat offenses climb to $11,823 per document or act. For an immigration attorney handling dozens of cases, a single enforcement action could be financially devastating.

Each case would begin with a "notice of intent to fine" — a formal charge — and defendants can contest it before an administrative law judge. But the threat alone is the point. File enough cases, and attorneys start self-censoring.

What DHS Says

Percival stated in the memo: "For many years, millions of illegal aliens have committed fraud in our immigration system. No place is this more rampant than in immigration court," according to DHS's official press release.

He went further: "It is standard practice for immigration attorneys representing illegal aliens to assert that virtually every illegal alien is going to be persecuted or tortured in his or her home country."

No data was attached to support the claim.

DHS framed the directive as fulfilling a March 2025 executive order from President Trump, which specifically called out immigration attorneys and "powerful Big Law pro bono practices" for coaching clients to lie. The language in the new memo mirrors that order almost word for word.

What Immigration Lawyers Actually Say

Victoria Slatton, an immigration attorney and former DHS asylum officer, told Bloomberg Law that fraud does exist in the system. But she drew a critical distinction: "There's a difference between a weak case, a frivolous claim and a fraudulent claim."

A weak case — one that doesn't meet the legal threshold for asylum — is NOT the same as a fraudulent case. An attorney who files a weak case isn't committing fraud. If ICE starts treating every losing argument as evidence of intentional deception, that raises serious due process questions.

Heather Hogan, policy and practice counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association and a former asylum officer, told Bloomberg Law that actual organized fraud tends to originate from criminal rings in migrants' home countries — NOT from American immigration lawyers. She also noted that attorneys are already trained to screen out cases they believe are fraudulent.

Neither Slatton nor Hogan is arguing that fraud doesn't happen. They're arguing the memo is so vague it could swallow legitimate legal practice whole.

What Mainstream Coverage Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets are framing this almost entirely as a civil liberties threat to attorneys. CBS News led with attorney vulnerability and kept the fraud allegations at arm's length. That's fair to note — but it undersells the legitimate problem of asylum abuse.

Right-leaning and conservative outlets, meanwhile, are running with Percival's characterization that fraud is "rampant" and "standard practice" without demanding the receipts. Where is the data on how many asylum claims are fraudulent versus merely unsuccessful? DHS has NOT published that number — and Reason correctly called that out.

If fraud is this rampant and the tools to fight it already exist in federal law, why wasn't this enforcement happening before?

Also Happening Simultaneously

This memo didn't drop in a vacuum.

Also on Thursday, the DOJ filed lawsuits against four states — Maine, Washington, and two others — for refusing to issue undercover license plates to federal immigration officers, according to The Hill. That's a separate but related escalation: the federal government is now suing states for blocking ICE operational security.

The White House also launched a space-themed website mocking government secrecy around "alien encounters" — using the dual meaning to showcase immigrant arrest statistics, according to The Hill. The administration is clearly not slowing down its immigration enforcement messaging.

What Happens Now

DHS is NOT inventing new law here. The fraud penalties in 8 U.S.C. § 1324c(d) have existed for years. What changed is the political will to use them — and the explicit targeting of attorneys, not just migrants.

If there really are attorneys filing manufactured asylum claims at scale, pursuing them is legitimate and overdue. The asylum system exists to protect people facing genuine persecution. Abusing it harms both American credibility and the people the system is supposed to help.

But a memo with no data, no defined standards, and no explanation of how ICE will distinguish weak cases from fraudulent ones creates broad enforcement power. Attorneys may stop taking legitimate cases rather than risk a $10,000-per-document fine.

The administration needs to show its work. "Trust us, it's rampant" is not a legal standard.