Airlines Scramble to Adjust to Trump’s New World

Carriers seek clarity as passenger lawyers say American border officers are pressuring green card holders.

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By Justin Bachman

January 30, 2017 at 8:11 PM UTC

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As new U.S. travel rules plunged several large American airports into chaos, lawyers for some travelers who are long-term legal residents said the government had urged them to relinquish their status as a requirement for reentering the country.

This was among the more curious developments over a weekend in which a Trump administration order restricting entry into America was met with condemnation abroad and furious protests at home. The official U.S. document, Form I-407, “record of abandonment of lawful permanent resident status,” was distributed on several aircraft that landed this weekend at Los Angeles International Airport, said Rachel Odio, an immigration lawyer with pro-bono law firm Public Counsel. Other travelers saw the forms after they had been detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees in the airport, she said.