Up to 30,000 Polish citizens in the US may be affected by the strict measures against illegal migrants that the new US announced, according to calculations by Warsaw, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"These are mostly Poles who left for the US in the 1990s and did not take care of their migration status," said Deputy Foreign Minister Henryk Mośczycka-Dędys.
US President Donald Trump wants to take strict action against migrants who enter the country illegally or are already on US territory without a valid residence permit.
The tightening of immigration policy announced by Washington has raised concerns in Poland. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk ordered Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski to prepare consular services in the United States for the possible deportation of Polish citizens.
Sikorski announced that special counters would be opened in front of Polish diplomatic missions in the United States to accept applications for new Polish identity documents.
In the United States, people are not required to register with the police, and authorities in many states have so far been prohibited from conducting checks related to migration status.