March 26, 2025 6:50 a.m. 

On Tuesday, Senate Ron Wyden joined a group of Senate colleagues in a letter to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services opposing the Trump administration’s resurrection of an immigration policy that forces immigrants to register with the federal government and carry proof of their registration at all times.

The letter said, “The Administration has explicitly linked this revived registration requirement to enforcement powers, empowering federal prosectors to target immigrants who fail to comply. This creates a perilous dilemma for immigrants who entered the country without inspection and have had no prior contact with federal authorities”.

The release said the registration policy echoes historical precedents that have been widely discredited and condemned including the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The lawmakers claimed the administration’s move is reviving a dangerous precedent that will undermine fundamental civil liberties, disproportionately burden immigrant communities and millions of mixed-status families and transform America into a “carry your papers’ country”.

The letter was led by Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts. In addition to Wyden, it was signed by six other Democratic senators along with Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.