Overview:
The Trump administration has paused inexperienced card processing for refugees and asylees, citing extra safety screening wants. Consultants say the shift alerts a broader tightening of immigration beneath Trump, creating longer wait instances and extra uncertainty for susceptible populations.
By April Xu
The Trump administration has quietly halted the processing of inexperienced card functions for sure people, together with immigrants granted refugee or asylum standing, citing that “extra screening and vetting” was wanted to establish “potential fraud, public security, or nationwide safety considerations,” CBS News reported Tuesday.
Based on the report, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) has paused the adjustment of standing course of for refugees and asylees in search of lawful everlasting residency. These people have already demonstrated that they’re both unwilling or unable to return to their residence international locations due to persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution primarily based on race, faith, nationality, membership in a selected social group, or political opinion.
Consultants see this as a part of the Trump administration’s rising vetting of immigrants.
“What we could be seeing in it is a sort of reorientation of USCIS,” stated Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a coverage analyst on the Migration Policy Institute‘s U.S. immigration coverage program.
The transfer by the administration provides additional delays and uncertainty to an already prolonged and complicated course of for many who search security within the U.S.
“Below the Biden administration, there had been actually report excessive ranges of processing of functions, together with for inexperienced playing cards and naturalization, it was prioritizing adjudicating these functions,” Bush-Joseph informed Documented. “Now beneath Trump, we’re seeing this deal with vetting and fraud detection, and that is available in coordination with restrictions on entry to safety and standing in america,” she added.
This week, the Trump administration introduced it would revoke temporary legal status for roughly 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans as a part of the CHNV (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela) humanitarian parole program. Final month, the administration additionally paused all immigration functions from Latin America and Ukraine under Biden-era programs.
Bush-Joseph famous that it stays unclear whether or not this particular coverage change will have an effect on different inexperienced card candidates. Nevertheless, she identified that the Trump administration’s actions, which have included firing probationary employees and encouraging retirements throughout federal companies like USCIS, might cut back the company’s workforce and result in processing delays.
“On the finish of the day, in plenty of these classes for immigration advantages, the quantity of personnel and sources devoted to adjudication determines how rapidly these transfer beneath any administration,” she stated.
This text was republished from Documented NY. It was written by April Xu and printed on March 26, 2025. The unique article is accessible right here: https://documentedny.com/2025/03/26/trump-green-card-refugees-asylees-immigration.