New York, NY—The Trump administration and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new policy directing immigration officers that many individuals seeking green cards will have to return to their home country to apply.
USCIS also stated it would grant green cards to many people inside the United States only in “extraordinary circumstances.” However, it is unclear which groups would be eligible for an exception under the memo. Statutory text enables in-country adjustment of status for refugees, noncitizens with a final grant of asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) visa recipients, and survivors of human trafficking (T visa), serious crimes (U visa), and violence against women (VAWA).
Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO, New York Immigration Coalition:
“The Trump administration’s new memo is a blueprint to deny residency from immigrants who meet the legal criteria to stay in the country. Adjustment of status in-country has never been an “extraordinary” process, and this shift in language is an attempt to make a well-established process into an artificially restricted one. Immigrant New Yorkers – who are already facing escalating attacks from the federal government – will face increased risk of arbitrary denials and family separation. We need policies that expand stability and protect families, not ones that destabilize communities and punish people for pursuing lawful immigration pathways. We call on the Trump Administration to rescind this flawed directive and restore the normal USCIS adjudication process for green cards.