\n A directive announced last week threatened to require most applicants for permanent residency to wait out the process in their home country. But barely a week after it was announced, the Department of Homeland Security sought to backpedal, claiming it was simply a reminder that US Citizenship and Immigration Services officers had discretion on the decisions they made on individual cases.\n <\/p>\n
\n At its most minimal interpretation, the change simply gives individual adjudicators more discretion to determine whether immigrants requesting an adjustment to their status can stay in the United States while that process plays out. At its maximum interpretation, it could have required most people with pending applications, like Francisco, to suddenly leave the US \u2014 and their families and lives behind.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis change in policy puts us in a situation where we made a family decision based on a certain policy expectation, and now that\u2019s been changed retroactively,\u201d Julia said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the possibility of, if that applied to our case, that I would be alone with two newborns in a full-time job.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s really scary to think about being separated when the kids are little,\u201d she added. Julia and Francisco spoke with CNN before DHS sought to roll back the most expansive interpretation of the policy directive.\n <\/p>\n
\n In public statements announcing the policy, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the government agency that is in charge of the country\u2019s legal immigration system, said the change allows the US immigration system to be \u201cfairer and more efficient\u201d while eliminating loopholes that could allow immigrants to \u201cslip into the shadows\u201d and live illegally in the US if their residency application is denied.\n <\/p>\n
\n The initial public announcement of the policy appeared to take a more restrictive posture than the policy itself. The announcement says exceptions would be granted only in \u201cextraordinary circumstances\u201d without laying out what exactly may make one\u2019s circumstances extraordinary.\n <\/p>\n
\n CNN spoke with half a dozen immigration attorneys, all of whom said it is too soon to tell how sweeping the changes would ultimately be. The lawyers said they are making clear to their clients that this represents simply a change in policy, not in law, and that the policy would almost certainly be challenged in court.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI do not expect a massive series of denials, plus there is no way they can apply this memo retroactively,\u201d said Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration attorney. \u201cI bet you there\u2019s a million pending adjustment applications, easy. You cannot say now to those million people, \u2018Thanks for your money, I need you to go to your home country and restart this all over again.\u2019 No judge upholds that \u2014 none.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo, I\u2019m telling clients, \u2018Sit back, relax, let this play out, follow the plan that your lawyer put in place, and you\u2019re going to be OK,\u2019\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n
\n While USCIS described adjustment of status as a \u201cloophole,\u201d the process exists in a statute created by Congress<\/a> and cannot be unilaterally scuttled by administrative policy.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen Congress amends and betters a law 20 times, it\u2019s hard to call that a loophole, as [USCIS] did in this policy announcement,\u201d Kuck said. \u201cIt is the law, and the law will continue to allow for adjustment of status for individuals who otherwise qualify inside the United States.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n USCIS adjudicators appear to be applying aspects of the policy already. A request for evidence on a pending adjustment of status case obtained by CNN asks applicants to specify whether one of a dozen factors that adjudicators could consider weighing in the applicant\u2019s benefit could apply to them \u2014 such as hardship to the applicant\u2019s family if they are denied, evidence of value or service to the community and fluency or proficiency in English.\n <\/p>\n \n But there is no doubt the messaging has sowed chaos among potentially millions of immigrants \u2014 both those waiting on their adjustment of status application and those who had been considering applying for a green card.\n <\/p>\n \n That was likely the point, several immigrations attorneys said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey want it to be arbitrary and capricious,\u201d said immigration attorney Jim Hacking. \u201cThey want people to be scared, and they want people to leave the US voluntarily.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It represents just the latest way the Trump administration is seeking to curb<\/a> avenues of legal \u2014 not just illegal \u2014 immigration, including making efforts<\/a> to significantly reduce asylum claims; significantly curtailing the temporary protected status that allows those fleeing natural disasters or wars to live in the US without fear of deportations; halting almost all refugee admissions; and restricting work and student visas.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think this is yet another very clear indication that this is a nationalist campaign, not just a campaign to clean up the immigration service,\u201d said Maureen Sweeney, a University of Maryland law professor and the director of the school\u2019s Chac\u00f3n Center for Immigrant Justice.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI don\u2019t think this administration was ever interested in a functional immigration system,\u201d she added. \u201cI think that they decided early on that it was in their political interests to shut down as much immigration as they could. I think they decided that anti-immigrant efforts \u2014 the splashier, the better \u2014 play well politically for them, and that\u2019s what this is.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The Department of Homeland Security declined to respond to CNN\u2019s request for comment on those criticisms.\n <\/p>\n \n Those efforts to curtail legal immigration have already led to a significant brain drain in the US among highly qualified scientists, doctors and engineers who otherwise would have stayed to work or study in the country. Technology industry workers, in particular, were among those who lamented the new green card policy<\/a> after it was announced last week.\n <\/p>\n \n Julia and Francisco, both of whom have PhDs and are active in their communities, may become the latest examples of that brain drain. Francisco is also a citizen of the European Union, and the couple is weighing alternatives.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have options, and we\u2019re fighting really hard to stay in the US and contribute economically to the US,\u201d Julia said. \u201cBut if that\u2019s not a possibility, we are competitive in other markets, and we\u2019ll have no other choice but to take our family elsewhere.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary A Trump administration directive threatened to require most green card applicants to wait out the process in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-674821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-2255143480.jpg\")
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