5 things you need to know about Trump’s changes to the residency process

This article is also available in English. Read it here.

If the goal was to confuse everyone, mission accomplished.

Just before Memorial Day, the Trump administration issued a a drastic new political directive aimed at legal immigration. This directive would require most temporary visa holders and humanitarian parolees residing in the United States to return to their home countries to await the issuance of their permanent resident card.

The memorandum and the accompanying press release They contradicted a longstanding policy that allows immigrants to stay in the US while waiting for green cards, saying people would have to return to their home countries except in “extraordinary” cases.

Then, late last Friday, the Trump administration began to downplay the importance of orders from the previous week that have already caused panic, confusion and anxiety among immigrant families and advocates.

The Department of Homeland Security told the New York Times that this is not a widespread policy and that officials of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services They always had the power to decide on the matter.

“It’s a precautionary measure,” said Patrick Kolasinski, a Modesto immigration attorney. “It seems very clear to me that what they’re doing by covering their backs is … a little bit of a public backlash, but also an attempt to avoid litigation, because trying to change that policy the way they did is completely illegal.”

An anonymous spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security also told the Times that among the groups that could be severely affected are people who stay in the country longer than their visas allow, or who come from countries whose citizens use heavy public assistance.

The department did not respond to CalMatters’ questions about the apparent reversal of the recently announced policy. as reported by the New York Times.

There are still many unanswered questions about the new policy and its implementation, but legal experts say it is part of a recurring strategy by the Trump administration to go after those who try to meet the legal requirements to obtain regular immigration status. employers, especially those in the technology sector voiced their opposition to the new regulations, arguing that it could disrupt operations and cause a flight of talent.

The new regulations will almost certainly end up in court, but what situation are people in now?

Here are some things you should know:

Who is affected by the new permanent resident card rules?

The most at-risk groups include family members of US citizens, laid-off technical workers, families of mixed immigration status, and international students.

The change will primarily affect people who are already in the United States and applying for permanent residency, a process known as adjustment of status. About half of the green cards issued each year are issued to people already living in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In 2023, 112,100 Californians obtained permanent residency through adjustment of status. That number is higher than any other state, accounting for nearly one in five status adjustments in the United States this year.

The largest share of applications based on family ties compared to applications based on employment. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), approximately 64% of all new green card recipients in 2023 obtained their status through a family relationship with a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.

It’s unclear whether the policy will apply to people with pending correction requests. Lynn Damiano Pearson, director of legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center, said immigration attorneys are already seeing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials questioning applicants in ways that suggest the answer is “yes.”

Some immigration attorneys told CalMatters that during interviews last week, agents asked people why they were applying for permanent residency from the United States and whether there were any factors that prevented them from applying and waiting in their home countries.

“People are being questioned about consular procedures in a way that seems to flow directly from this new memo and leads us to believe, unfortunately, that this administration plans to implement the policy retroactively,” Damiano Pearson told CalMatters last week.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to CalMatters’ question about whether the policy change applies to people with applications already processed. Instead, in a written statement, the department said the policy “will not have a significant impact on highly qualified applicants or trained professionals who have complied with the law.” The spokesman declined to release his name.

Congress created an amendment to the statute

Congress created an amendment to the statute in 1952 and has been used by administrations of both political parties for more than 70 years. More than half a million people use it every year. The new memorandum reframes this process as “extraordinary.”

“This memo is wrong. It’s reprehensible. It’s illegal,” said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He added that he was “absolutely confident that it will be taken to court.”

Nina Sheridan, spokeswoman for California Attorney General Rob Bonta, made the same point. “The Trump administration continues its campaign against legal immigration by erecting barriers and deporting immigrants who attempt to follow the established process to obtain permanent residency,” he said. “We are watching the administration’s next steps with its latest attempt to ignore existing laws and policies, and we are evaluating our options.”

The Department of Homeland Security told CalMatters that the memo “reiterates long-standing laws and policies” that have been “overlooked by the Biden administration.”

Immigrants fear a deportation trap

Many people who have applied for permanent residency, with government approval, let their original visa lapse while they wait for their interview, sometimes for years due to a backlog of paperwork. According to the new policy memo, lawyers fear this could be used against them.

Advocates fear that people will be denied an interview and then immediately face deportation proceedings. Last year, some people were detained during routine immigration encounters and subsequently detained, sometimes for months.

Damiano Pearson said it’s too early to say how often that might happen, but said experts can’t rule out the possibility of ICE agents detaining people immediately after their citizenship interviews.

Many applicants are unable to return home

For most applicants, the consular process is more than a simple plane ride home to sign some documents. State Department backlogs and backlogs can take years to resolve.

“This is not about buying a plane ticket and waiting a little longer,” said Ben Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “For many people, consular processing is neither realistic nor safe, and for others it can mean months or years of separation from their spouses, children, employers and communities, all of whom are American citizens.”

Visa processing has been completely suspended in more than 70 countries.

Immigrants who have overstayed their visas can be barred from re-entry for between three and ten years if they are forced to leave the country and apply for a new entry permit from abroad.

“We don’t know from the text of the memo whether these issues will be taken into account,” Damiano Pearson said.

“This memo obviously created a lot of panic and fear among people who thought they were on the way to getting a green card.”

What do lawyers tell their clients?

Kolasinski, the immigration attorney, said he has clients with green card interviews this week who are nervous about what might happen next.

“You walk in and have no idea what kind of agent you’re going to find or what rules they operate under,” he said.

“There is no rule of law anymore. There is no predictability anymore. It’s pure chaos and it’s been like that for a year and a half,” Kolasinski said.

His advice to clients with interviews scheduled: Don’t go it alone. “Today, no one should do anything immigration-related without a lawyer present,” he said.

Mohammed Al Elyu, journalism engineer at CalMatters, contributed to this report.