A family of three Afghan refugees walked into Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services’ (IRIS) headquarters with their driver’s licenses, their social security cards, and all the other government documents they could gather. They left an hour later with a “Purple Folder” full of immigra tion records — a folder that will prepare them for a possible re-interview by United States immigration authorities under a new policy of President Donald Trump’s administration. The family members sat at a meeting room table, rifling through wallets and filling out online forms, with help from a pair of legal interns and an interpreter fluent in both English and Dari. Through a calm exchange of paperwork, the family took their first step in preparing to defend their protected status in the United States. The family had come to IRIS’ offices on Temple Street on the first Thursday of July as one of the first participants in the Purple Folder Project — a new initiative aiming to fight back against an era of unprecedented precarity for refugees. Though much is uncertain, IRIS Managing Director of Legal Services Michael Doyle believes that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may have already targeted five IRIS-affiliated refugees for covert re-interviews. “Before Trump, refugees were safe,” said Nallely, the staff member in IRIS’ legal department who came up with the idea for the Purple Folder Project. “Once you were a refugee, you were a refugee.” The Trump administration, however, has taken steps to scrutinize and potentially reverse the permanent status of various groups of refugees and immigrants — all of whom entered the United States legally, through an extensive vetting process, after fleeing life-threatening persecution or conflict.  Earlier in 2026, USCIS launched a concerted effort to re-interview refugees in Minnesota through an initiative called Operation PARRIS — short for Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening. After the effort began in early January, a judge paused the initiative in late February. Officially, USCIS announced Operation PARRIS as an effort to re-interview refugees who arrived in the state within the prior three years and who have since been awaiting their green cards. The agency framed the operation as an effort to root out “immigration fraud.”  In practice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used the operation to arrest and detain Minnesotan refugees, including children, without warning or explanation.  A federal judge blocked the detentions of refugees associated with Operation PARRIS in February. Even so, according to a guide by Refugee Council USA, the judge’s ruling “does not stop the administration from calling refugees in for ‘inspection’ or re-interviews.”  IRIS is now gearing up for the possibility that the organization’s clients who have not yet received green cards could face re-interviews by the federal government. When asked whether re-interviews are occurring in Connecticut, USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler responded in a written statement that “USCIS has implemented procedures in conjunction with longstanding law as Congress intended by requiring aliens admitted as refugees to be fully re-vetted after a year to determine their ability to remain permanently in the United States as the law requires and the courts have upheld.” He linked to the federal code outlining the process for refugees to apply for a green card. Kahler continued, “The Biden administration failed American citizens by undermining basic vetting and screening processes for aliens. Unfortunately, this recklessness allowed dangerous people, including national security and public safety threats, into our country that may pose a serious risk to the nation. USCIS will always prioritize the safety of the American people.” Refugees, in particular, undergo a years-long, rigorous vetting process prior to even entering the United States. They are screened by multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies and undergo an extensive interview by USCIS. The various agencies verify that each refugee faced persecution based on a protected status in their country of origin and that they did not perpetrate any crimes. According to Doyle, the Trump administration is not simply trying to carry out green card interviews. The federal government “is clearly trying to evict as many [refugees] as possible,” said Doyle.  Refugees have faced federal “hostility” in the past, he said, but “nothing to this extent.” Five Mysterious Interviews According to Doyle, three adults in a family from Afghanistan and two children (ages 8 and 13) in a family from the Democratic Republic of Congo received notices from USCIS calling them in for interviews in early May. The notices “look just like green card interview notices,” said Doyle — and the individuals who received them had all applied for green cards.  But something wasn’t adding up. At the time, the Trump administration had halted all green card applications for refugees coming from a set of 19 countries, including Afghanistan and Congo. The clients’ applications weren’t supposed to be moving forward. (Since then, in June and July, multiple federal judges have ordered the policy to be reversed.) Doyle and his colleagues suspected that the interviews were an extension of Operation PARRIS, an attempt to re-vet the legal status that the refugees had already secured. Two months later, it remains unclear whether that theory is true. The interviews ended up being only slightly more intensive than typical green card interviews, according to Doyle. “We prepared them really heavily leading up to the day,” Doyle said — ensuring they were ready to answer highly specific or emotionally intense questions that might come up in the interview. “We had to prepare them for the possibility of detention. They listened very well and were very well prepared, which is why it went very well.” Even so, Doyle said, “at the end, the officer made sure to inform the couple that no approvals would be forthcoming” — in other words, the supposed green card interviews wouldn’t lead to any advancement in their green card applications.  According to Doyle, the families have not heard anything from USCIS since. Since then, according to Doyle, no other IRIS clients have received mysterious interview notices. Still, the organization wants families to be prepared to defend their immigration status. The Purple Folder Project was inspired by a national movement among immigrant rights activists to put together “Red Folders” for immigrants at risk of ICE detention. Red Folders often contain documents that might help a lawyer defend the person’s case, as well as anything to ensure that children and other family members are cared for in the event of a detention.  Drawing from this concept, IRIS staffer Nallely (who requested that her last name be kept out of this story) came up with the idea of a “Purple Folder”: a folder compiling everything the U.S. government has ever documented about a refugee, to ensure they are ready for a possible re-vetting process. Which is how a family of three Afghan refugees found themselves in an IRIS meeting room on a recent Thursday afternoon, ready to fill a violet-colored paper folder with written evidence of their stories. A “Red Folder” For Refugees The family — a mother, a father, and a son, all adults who requested not to be named or photographed for this story — arrived in the United States two and a half years ago as refugees. They moved to Meriden, where they’ve lived ever since. The family members speak Dari, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. They’re currently taking English classes through an adult education program while seeking out work opportunities.  They each applied for green cards about a year ago but have not yet received an interview date. In a second floor meeting room at IRIS’ Temple Street headquarters, the family sat across the table from Ben Jacoby and Giuliana Agria, a pair of college interns working at IRIS this summer. At the head of the table sat interpreter Mohammad Naim Ashna, who translated each moment of dialogue between Dari and English. The family had brought with them a handful of documents, including the travel receipt documenting their entry into the United States. Agria and Jacoby organized the original records in the Purple Folder that the family would take home, while scanning copies for IRIS to keep on file. The family members rifled through their wallets to present driver’s licenses and social security cards for Agria and Jacoby to scan. The next step was for the family to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with USCIS requesting copies of any possible document related to their immigration file that the government might possess.  They would request copies of the sworn statements in their applications for refugee status, the notes from each of their interviews with USCIS, and the green card applications they had submitted, among other documents. Those documents are also slated to go in the Purple Folder. Anticipating Trauma Translation An anonymized example of a Purple Folder provided by IRIS. One purpose of the folder, according to Doyle and Nallely, is to refresh the client’s memory about the details of the persecution and violence that caused them to flee their countries of origin. Those events, which may have occurred years or even decades ago, formed the basis of the individuals’ authorized entry into the country and may be subject to new scrutiny if a client is re-interviewed.  “Anything that contradicts what is in the official record — you’re potentially in hot water,” said Doyle. The Purple Folder can remind the client of details they may have forgotten over the years, such as the names of fleeting acquaintances or the order in which a sequence of chaotic events unfolded. “Refugees come from war-torn countries. They come from a lot of trauma,” said Nallely.  For many who are fleeing a dangerous situation, she said, “when the trauma is so fresh… their minds, for their own mental well being, will block out” certain memories. “Then, years later, once they’ve processed, once they feel a little more safe,” they may remember “new things they didn’t in the past.” The Purple Folder can help them emotionally prepare to revisit those traumatic memories in context of a high-stakes immigration interview.  Nallely also hopes that increasing the confidence of adult clients in telling their own stories can help relieve pressure on the children of the family. While planning the rollout of the program, Nallely thought back to her own childhood memories as a young immigrant who knew more English than her parents. When she was as little as 9 years old, she served as the family interpreter, translating forms and legal documents for her parents. “I do want to avoid these clients being caught off guard and relying on the children,” she said. “No kid should have to translate legal documents.” Another purpose of the folder is to help clients avoid even the smallest of inconsistencies resulting from inter-cultural translation. For instance, many languages commonly spoken by refugees — from Arabic to Pashto to Ukrainian — don’t use a Roman alphabet. As a result, clients who grew up with those languages may not have a standard way of spelling relevant names and locations in English.  Mix-ups can also arise when refugees are asked to present a date of birth. Many don’t have birth certificates and simply record the date “January 1” with an approximate birth year. “Our Afghan clients use a different calendar” than the Gregorian calendar, Nallely said, “so years and dates are different.”  Other common inconsistencies stem from differences in naming conventions. Some refugees may not have a separate first and last name, said Nallely. On United States forms, some will simply record the name of the town they come from as their last name. The Purple Folder can show clients exactly how the U.S. government has documented each murky date, name, and spelling — with the goal of clearing up any discrepancies that an unforgiving interviewer might use against them. “My Mother Didn’t Have A Last Name” In order to submit their FOIA request, each member of the Afghan family had to create an individual account on the USCIS website. With the help of Ashna’s interpretations, Jacoby and Agria walked each family member through the online form. They asked about biographical details, including the first and last names of everyone’s parents. “My mother didn’t have a last name,” the father said in Dari. “I am not sure of my mother’s last name,” his wife added, also in Dari. When filling out the form, she had simply guessed. “It’s probably fine,” said Jacoby, surmising that the detail would likely matter only if it contradicted something listed in a birth document. Soon, each family member had to submit answers to five different security questions for their account. That task wasn’t as simple as it might seem. The questions were all written in English, and the answers had to be written in the English alphabet. The Afghan family members were used to communicating in Dari, which uses the Persian alphabet. Ashna helped them type the English translations of their answers.  One security question asked where they were located on a particular date on the Gregorian calendar. They each had the same answer — inputting, with Ashna’s help, the name of a city in Afghanistan. By the end of the hour, the FOIA requests had been filed. The family members received all of their documents back in a single Purple Folder. They thanked the IRIS staff members. “We were new to this country,” the father said in Dari. “It is really helpful.” He added that everyone “should respect the rules and regulations of the country. And we do the same thing. It is important to respect the flag of this country.” “The only concern we have,” he said, “is we haven’t gotten our green cards yet… After we receive our green cards, I am sure our life will be more comfortable.” The mother added that “after getting our green cards, we will have the ability to travel.” The first place they want to visit is Canada. A Thousand More To Go So far, IRIS has initiated Purple Folders for a total of 51 individuals in 12 families.  All of those families originally fled Afghanistan, as IRIS is funding the Purple Folder Project with a grant specifically focused on Afghan refugees.  But IRIS leaders are hoping to secure further funding so that they can expand the program to refugees from all over. According to Nallely, IRIS has identified as many as 1,090 clients who arrived in the United States within the last three years and who are not confirmed to have received a green card yet. Those clients may be at risk of a re-interview — meaning that IRIS may have over a thousand Purple Folders to prepare. Nallely also hopes that the Purple Folder Project can serve as a model for other refugee communities to fight back against unprecedented levels of fear and precarity.  “I want this to grow beyond IRIS,” said Nallely.  Doyle agreed. “This program should be offered to every refugee,” he said. 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