DHS Halts Green Card Grants Except in Extraordinary Cases The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday that it will stop processing green card applications for most immigrants currently in the United States, except in rare circumstances. This policy requires all qualified immigrants to leave the country to apply for permanent residency, even if they are eligible for a green card and even if returning home would disqualify them from obtaining one. The decision marks a significant shift in U.S. immigration policy, with critics calling it a radical expansion of DHS’s long-standing approach to legal immigration. Under the new policy, individuals who entered the U.S. on temporary visas—such as students, temporary workers, or tourists—must return to their home countries to apply for green cards. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of DHS, has framed this requirement as an “extraordinary form of relief,” a term not found in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The law, which has been in place for decades, explicitly allows for adjustment of status within the U.S., a practice that has been followed by every administration since its enactment. The policy change follows a months-long trend of USCIS drastically reducing green card approvals. Over the past year, approvals have dropped by nearly half, primarily due to delays in processing applications. The new memorandum now outlines a plan for mass denials, effectively ending the ability of most legal immigrants to adjust their status within the U.S. This shift has left 1.2 million green card applicants in limbo, many of whom have been waiting for years for their applications to be processed. The decision has sparked widespread criticism, particularly from legal experts and immigration advocates.#department_of_homeland_security #us_citizenship_and_immigration_services #immigration_and_nationality_act
