GREEN CARDSDHS Quits Granting Green Cards—Almost Entirely
DHS announced Friday that it will cease granting green card applications except in extraordinary circumstances. Every legal immigrant must leave the country—that is, self-deport—even if they are qualified for a green card and even if leaving would disqualify them.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Friday that it will cease granting green card applications except in extraordinary circumstances. In short, DHS grants green cards when a qualified immigrant who is inside the United States applies to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. Now, every legal immigrant must leave the country—that is, self-deport—even if they are qualified for a green card and even if leaving would disqualify them.
The policy is a radical expansion of DHS’s “quiet quitting” on legal immigration that has been going on for months. As I previously detailed, DHS—or, more precisely, its component known as US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—has slashed green card approvals in half over the last year. This drop came primarily from not processing applications. Now USCIS’s new memorandum details a plan for mass denials. USCIS has gone from the “quiet-quit” to walking out on 1.2 million green card applicants.
“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,” USCIS states. It calls adjustment of status inside the United States an “extraordinary form of relief.” The idea that this is an extraordinary form of relief is entirely baseless. This language and framing are not in the statute, section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which has existed for decades. The law grants the authority to do it, which every administration has faithfully done according to the intent of Congress, until this one.
As the figure below shows, most legal immigrants—56 percent—since 1980 adjusted status inside the United States. In no sense is this a policy reserved for extraordinary situations. The reason it has expanded so greatly over its existence is because more people come to the United States temporarily. More people coming means more opportunities for those people to apply to adjust.
How USCIS (Mis)interprets the Law
The USCIS claims that it is contrary to congressional intent to have so many temporary residents applying to adjust to permanent residence. This is wrong. In 1952, Congress created the adjustment of status provision because it was causing so much hardship to Americans and their families to have to leave the United States for the sole purpose of getting a visa to come right back. It was an illogical, complicated, and expensive process with no upside. Since then, Congress has repeatedly attempted to expand the use of the adjustment of status.
