US lawmakers criticise Trump administration’s new green card policy
US lawmakers and immigration advocates criticised the Trump administration’s new policy requiring green card applicants to apply from their home countries. Critics warned the move could disrupt families, impact skilled workers, and hurt America’s competitiveness while triggering legal challenges against the decision
Washington: US lawmakers and immigration advocates sharply criticised the Trump administration’s new policy requiring green card seekers to apply from their home countries, calling it “reckless and wrong”.
Democratic lawmakers said they would pursue every avenue to fight against the “reprehensible” decision of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and push for its reversal.
The USCIS did not specify which groups would be exempted, only suggesting that the policy may not apply to persons seeking asylum.
In a statement late on Friday, USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said that people who “provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path”.
It was not immediately clear whether these exceptions would extend to skilled foreign workers on H-1B visas.
“This puts 1.2 million Indian Americans and their families in limbo after they followed every law, paid taxes and waited legally for decades,” Ajay Bhutoria, former White House advisor to President Biden and immigration advocate, told PTI Videos while reacting to the Trump administration’s new green card processing policy.
Bhutoria said different groups would file lawsuits challenging the new policy.
The earlier policy allowed foreign workers to change from non-immigrant to immigrant status by applying for “adjustment of status” from within the US.
“This reckless policy shows a stunning disregard for the human cost it will impose on hundreds of thousands of people each year. We will pursue every avenue to fight against this reprehensible decision and push for its reversal,” Congresswoman Grace Meng, chairperson of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said in a statement.
“Trump just made legal immigration harder — on purpose. America is able to attract the top researchers, doctors and engineers because of our worker visa programmes,” Congressman Greg Stanton, a Democrat from Arizona, said on X.
“Forcing these immigrants to now leave the US before applying for citizenship will deprive us of their innovation, their tax dollars and their contributions to our economy,” Stanton said.
David J Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, described the policy as “illogical”, saying it would drive talented people to other countries and make America a less competitive place for business.
In a blog post, Bier said most legal immigrants — 56 per cent — since 1980 adjusted status inside the United States and argued that the policy was not reserved for extraordinary situations in any sense.
The USCIS has said it would grant green cards to people inside the country only in “extraordinary circumstances”.
“There are hundreds of thousands of green card applicants in the US. They are nurses and doctors, teachers and engineers, mechanics and farm workers. The Trump administration wants to force them out of the country while their cases are heard,” Joaquin Castro, Congressman from Texas, said.
“It is reckless and wrong, and it will separate husbands and wives, parents and children, and break apart communities. All to fuel the administration’s mass deportation machine,” said Castro, who is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The new White House policy requiring green card applicants to apply from outside the US is a capricious attack on legal immigration. It will hurt families, leave us with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt American competitiveness in AI,” Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, said in a post on X.
“This new policy will force thousands of legal immigrants, including spouses of US citizens, to leave their homes, families and jobs for weeks or even months to get their green cards outside the US. This is an absurd and cruel policy,” Congressman Chuy Garcia from Illinois said.
Pointing out that a majority of people approved for green cards each year adjust their status from within the US, “as provided under law since the 1950s,” Todd Schulte, president of immigration advocacy group FWD.us, said, “The Trump administration’s claim that this is a return to the original intent of the law is plainly false.”
He said the process was expressly created by Congress and had been affirmed several times over the decades. “This is another abuse of power that they are trying to dictate through a press release rather than going through the legally required process.”
Earlier on Friday, USCIS spokesman Kahler said, “From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”
“Non-immigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the US for a short time and for a specific purpose. Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over,” the USCIS said.
“Their visit should not function as the first step in the green card process,” it added.
