The completion of the requests submitted by certain immigrants to become permanent legal residents is suspended to comply with an executive order, President Donald Trump signed in January.
The citizenship and immigration services of the United States, part of the Department of National Security that manages citizenship, legal status and other immigration benefits, has suspended the processing of some requests for the so -called green cards to do more investigation of the applicants, said the National Security Department in a statement.
Trump’s executive order, signed on January 20, entitled “Protecting the United States from foreign terrorists and other threats of public safety and safety,” requested that the agencies “examine and show the maximum possible degree to all aliens who have the intention of being admitted, enter or are already within the United States, particularly those foreigners that come from regions or nations with safety risks identified.”
CBS News reported on Tuesday that USCIS has ordered his staff to carry out the additional research of refugees or people who were granted asylum and who have requested a legal permanent residence or green cards.
The agency said in a statement attributed to a DHS spokesman who is “placing a temporary pause to finish a certain adjustment of state requests waiting for the completion of additional detection and research.”
The statement did not address what applications were affected, if the pause would affect the expense in the agency, how long it would last and other questions asked by NBC News.
Research on research
For refugees and those who have been granted asylum in the United States, it would be an investigation in addition to a process that had already happened, one that is quite rigorous for refugees that are generally examined abroad before they can set foot in the United States.
“There is a certain amount of documentation that must provide as a refugee and ASYLEE,” News Laura Collins, director of the Economic Growth Initiative of the SMU Institute of Bush at the George W. Bush Institute, to NBC News, told NBC. “All these people who are approved for resettlement or to remain in the United States, that is because the United States government has already approved them to be here.”
People who are granted asylum or admitted to the United States as refugees must wait a year before they can request green cards.
Collins said it remains to be seen how the investigation will be carried out and how long the pause will last. She said that in Trump’s first administration, Uscis made sure that each blank space in a form was completed correctly.
“Then, if I didn’t have a second name … they would send their request to return and say: ‘Well, he did not complete his portion of Second Name,” said Collins. She said it is possible that USCIS verifies social networks, “things that probably already examine, but asking for another game of eyes or a slightly longer look.”
Trump took similar measures in his previous presidential mandate. In his first mandate, USCIS went to review each application “with a fine -tooth comb,” interrupting the agency’s operations, said Collins.
“By slowing down those requests, because USCIS is financed by the rate, if not processes so many requests, he is not receiving so much money, which means that he does not have the ability to keep all contractors and other personnel who have, so he begins to reduce the agency,” he said. “I don’t know if that is your ultimate goal.”
The Migration Policy Institute reported in 2020 that a drop in the number of applications and an increase in research and application spending were fundamental for the deficit of $ 1.2 billion of the agency in 2020.
From 2016 to 2020, almost tripled research spending, from $ 53 million to $ 149 million, according to MPI, a group of immigration experts that has supported the immigration reform that includes the application, as well as a path to citizens for people in the country without legal status.
People are also examined during the process of becoming permanent legal residents, or what is known as adjusting their status. From the moment they are in the United States through the process of obtaining green cards, the authorities verify that they have no criminal record or something that disqualifies them to obtain a legal permanent residence, he said.
Pauses are being implemented as well as USCIS has been moving forward in their workload. He said in a report on his website that he reduced his accumulation of requests 15% in 2023, the first time in a decade he had reduced his request for orders. Decreased again last year, by 11.2%.
