Green card policy change may leave immigrants seeking legal status vulnerable to deportation

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reportedly closed off a pathway for citizenship for immigrants who apply for green cards through a spouse or other family members, raising the prospect of deporting them and breaking up their families.

NBC News reported that new guidance issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services made a change to its policy manual stating that federal immigration authorities may begin removal proceedings for those seeking legal status through a spouse or other relative.

“Petitioners and alien beneficiaries should be aware that a family-based petition accords no immigration status nor does it bar removal,” the guidance said.

In an Aug. 1 memo about the policy change, USCIS said, “Fraudulent, frivolous, or otherwise non-meritorious family-based immigrant visa petitions erode confidence in family-based pathways to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and undermine the immigration system in the United States.”

“USCIS must ensure that qualifying marriages and family relationships are genuine, verifiable, and compliant with all applicable laws,” the memo said.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, a group that works to apply the perspective of Catholic social teaching in policy and practice to the U.S.-Mexico border region, told OSV News, “The administration continues to insist that they are simply targeting criminals in immigration enforcement operations, but that’s not what is happening.”

“They are deploying ICE agents to arrest people showing up to their immigration hearings,” Corbett said. “They are taking away people’s legal status and making them undocumented by revoking their parole and TPS. And now they are threatening to go after those trying to pursue lawful residency.”

On social media, USCIS argued it was “consolidating and clarifying certain requirements for family-based immigration” to “increase the integrity and security of our immigration processes.”

But Corbett argued, “Rather than trying to rack up numbers with an indiscriminate mass deportation campaign, we should be focusing on offering legal pathways to migrants who are desperate to do things the right way.”

“That’s something everybody can agree on,” he said.

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