Trump Green Card News: New Directive Could Affect Hundreds of Thousands
Trump green card news turned on a new Trump Administration directive that could change how some immigrants adjust legal status while staying in the United States. The guidance could affect hundreds of thousands of people, including temporary workers, refugees and parents who overstayed a visa and have a U.S. citizen child who is at least 21 years old.
The administration now says the U.S.-based adjustment process is discretionary and should not take precedence over consular processing outside the United States. For people already using that path, the shift adds uncertainty to cases that had long been handled without leaving the country.
Martha Arevalo on the directive
Martha Arevalo, the executive director of CARECEN, said the goal is to push people out of the system. “Supposedly, the strategy is to make it so difficult for our community that we self-deport or that we go back to our home country,” she said. “But the reality is that this is our country.”
Her warning goes to the practical effect for families and workers who had been able to stay in the United States while their cases moved forward. Immigration law experts said Congress created the U.S.-based adjustment process specifically to prevent family separations.
CHIRLA and court plans
Angelica Salas, the executive director of CHIRLA, said immigrant rights groups plan to fight the policy. “Our sister organization, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, has actually sued this administration multiple times for violations of our due process rights, for putting forward these kind of processes that only hurt our community and that divide our families,” she said.
“So one more time, we're going to take him to court,” Salas said.
The directive lands in the middle of ongoing applications, where legal experts said people seeking to adjust status now face new uncertainty. The executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law warned that the directive raises a significant risk for applicants and urged people to consult an attorney or seek pro bono legal assistance to understand possible deportation risk.
U.S.-based adjustment shift
For years, people in the affected groups could adjust status without leaving the country. The new guidance puts consular processing outside the United States ahead of that path, changing the practical route many applicants may have expected to use.
That leaves affected families and workers with a choice to make quickly: get legal help before acting, because the policy is now in place and immigrant rights organizations are already preparing a court challenge.
