Trump Tightens Green Card Rules, Cracks Down on Immigration Fraud

追加: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Tonight, the Trump administration tightening the rules for getting a green card, saying it's returning to the original intent of the law. From now on, most foreign nationals who are in the US temporarily and want permanent residency will be told in most cases to go back to their country of origin and apply there through a US consulate. This from the new US citizenship and immigration services memo saying in part, "This memorandum reminds officers and the public that adjustment of status is a matter of discretion and administrative grace not designed to supersede the regular counselor processing of immigrant visas. Now, at the same time, Homeland Security ordering a crackdown on immigration fraud, saying some lawyers coaching illegal immigrants to lie on asylum claims and directing ICE to go after anyone filing false claims.

[00:00:52]Now, joining me now, Simon Henson. He's a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. Simon, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you.

[00:01:03]Now, I want to read you this statement from a USCIS spokesperson. quote, "Non-immigrants like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas come to the US for a short time and for a specific purpose. Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over. Their visit should not function as the first step in the green card process. Your reaction to that?"

[00:01:27]>> Well, it's it's just sort of restating the obvious and restating what's in the law. Um in a lot of cases with immigration law, what happens is that over the years you have uh a very limited discretion which is built in um designed to be used for a few cases a year uh and it gets used uh increasingly until it's basically a rubber stamp. And I think one example is parole which was used under the Bush administration I think a couple hundred times a year and under Biden uh more than 1.5 million times in a way that I think anybody with any experience of immigration law uh would admit was was not how Congress intended it. So this is simply a memo to the field to adjudicating officers reminding them what the law says that adjusting status from one category visa to another when you said to a consular officer I'm going to the United States to study for four years and then I'm going to come back home again but halfway through you decide you want to change status and work or get married that that's not an automatic right that you have to explain uh your reasons for wanting to adjust status and that it should not be granted uh in in every single case. So, it's a guidance to the field uh that has I think been blown out of proportion by people who are not particularly familiar with immigration law.

[00:02:45]>> And what about the green card holders who are seeking renewals? Will they be impacted as well?

[00:02:52]>> Uh I haven't drilled down that far, but I I a green card is supposed to lead uh to citizenship, right? If you're here three out of the last five years and you apply to be a US citizen, that's what's supposed to happen. You're not supposed to be a green card holder forever. That was never the way it was intended to work. It's supposed to be a step on the way to citizenship. How you renew a green card and whether this would affect it, I don't think so because you're not adjusting status. You're simply renewing your green card. This is more like um if you uh you know, for instance, you have people coming over on tourists visas saying they're going to stay a month and visit a relative. They stay a maximum six months allowed and then they apply for an extension for another six months.

[00:03:32]Uh well, you have to have a reason. You have to have a good reason. It shouldn't just be automatic. Or if you apply to uh take a job or or to get married, there should be some basic work done to see that you actually qualify for this, that you aren't that you weren't lying in the first place when you said you were going to come over to the United States.

[00:03:50]>> Now, the language does says most. So, which groups could be exempt from this policy shift?

[00:03:58]I think it's going to take some time to see how the guidance uh plays out, but yeah, if you if you read it, it it's a bit like um the public charge guidance guidance, for example, or student uh guidance where in students are actually supposed to have a home abroad they intend to go back to. They're not supposed to all want to stay in the United States permanently and become immigrants. Now, we know that many of them do for various reasons. Um, but every now and then consular officers in the field are reminded of what the rules actually say. Another example is public charge, which is the concept in the law that if it is obvious when you apply for a visa that you're going to immediately be a burden on the US taxpayer by needing medical care, by needing, you know, institutionalization or something that's going to cost a fortune to the US taxpayer, well, then you're not eligible for a visa. And for a long time, that was basically ignored. they they just kept cutting all the things that could possibly count against that uh off the list until there was almost nothing left. So, this is really just a return to the roots of of of what the law says and and how it should be interpreted.

[00:05:05]And I think we're going to have to see how it plays out with each different category because there's so many different categories of non-immigrant uh that can be adjusted into so many different other categories. And for green card applicants who fear returning to their home countries, for example, Chinese dissident or members of religious groups persecuted in their home countries, how can they navigate this?

[00:05:29]>> Well, I don't think anyone who says coming from China and is claiming political persecution uh and applying for asylum would be affected by this. if they already have uh asylum and they're applying for permanent residence, um I would guess that that would not affect them. I mean, we don't as a matter of course send people back to countries where they have a credible fear of persecution. The problem is this process of of of applying for asylum has been abused uh to such a degree that most of the cases are fraudulent. There are some definitely genuine cases in there. You mentioned China, Cuba, uh countries where there are repressive regimes and if you are, you know, a Yazidi and Sodain's Iraq or whatever, there are lots of cases where you would uh quite likely qualify. But most of the cases who came uh illegally across the border under the Biden administration were coming to get a job and if they applied for asylum was simply to uh run out the clock so they could get more time to stay. And so those kinds of cases um you know presumably would would be judged according to those lights and the cases where people genuinely had a a fear of persecution would be treated differently. Each case is supposed to be judged on its own merits as as the memo says.

[00:06:46]>> Well, Simon Henson, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:06:50]>> Thank you.