PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The American Civil Liberties Union said it’s asking Gov. Lincoln Chafee to change state immigration policy in light of President Barack Obama’s action to defer deportation for millions of people in the country illegally.

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the ACLU, said he will send a letter this week to Chafee asking him to revise his policy before he leaves office in January “to provide better protection to immigrants.”

“We’re concerned that the policy may confuse some of the people involved in implementing the policy,” Brown said. “It also creates the situation where, until the federal policy actually takes effect, Rhode Island could be detaining people that the federal government now acknowledges shouldn’t be detained.”

Earlier this year Chafee directed the Department of Corrections to require a warrant before it honored detainers, but a month later he pulled back and ordered executive agencies to stop requiring warrants. Instead, he required that detainers be accompanied by a judicial deportation or removal order.

Obama’s action ends the Secure Communities program, under which local law enforcement officials were asked to hand over immigrants arrested for a crime to federal authorities. A new program will set up different priority levels based on the conduct for which immigrants are detained.

Immigration officials have also been directed to specify that a person is the subject of a final order of removal or probable cause if they request a detainer.

“Gov. Chafee’s policy is inconsistent with, and more stringent than, the one that will be taking effect at the national level,” Brown said.

Chafee’s spokeswoman said the governor wanted to review the ACLU letter and see what it is requesting before commenting.

The state is being sued in federal court by a naturalized U.S. citizen who was held on an immigration detainer. The woman was held in 2009 without a warrant so immigration authorities could investigate whether she was a citizen. A federal judge earlier this year found the detention violated her Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and allowed her lawsuit to proceed against the state and federal governments. The case is pending.

That decision and others prompted localities across the country to begin requiring warrants before honoring immigration detainers, with many saying they did not want to be sued.

Gov.-elect Gina Raimondo’s Transition Director Joy Fox said Raimondo believes the immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed by Congress. She said Raimondo is reviewing immigration policies and then will decide whether to make changes.