An immigration attorney in Cleveland is raising concern for his clients after the Trump Administration announced this week that it's pausing some green card applications to further vet the applicants.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a statement Thursday to Ideastream Public Media that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services paused applications for permanent resident cards – more commonly known as green cards – for some applicants in order to expand the screening process. In the statement, Homeland Security said the move by USCIS was made in alignment with one presidential executive order and one presidential action — both regarding foreign terrorism.
"To better identify fraud, public safety or national security concerns, USCIS is placing a temporary pause on finalizing certain Adjustment of Status applications pending the completion of additional screening and vetting," the statement from Homeland Security said.
Attorney Jose Juarez said the added layer of screening is too much vetting. He said it already takes months or even years of screening to get approved for asylee or refugee status. According to USCIS, refugees and asylees must be physically present in the United States for one year to become green card eligible.
“I don’t know if people understand how difficult it is to get asylum here in the United States,” Juarez said. “Just completely unfair for these people who have already gone through the rigors of getting asylum.”
A green card allows someone who's not an American citizen to live and work permanently in the country. green card holders are eligible for naturalized citizenship three years after receiving a green card if they're married to an American citizen, five years if they're not. As permanent residents, green card holders are able to travel freely out of the country, whereas refugees and asylees need to apply for travel documents.
Juarez called the pause in green card applications a tactic to discourage people from exercising their rights to be in the United State legally since delaying the green card procedure further delays the procedure for citizenship.
“You’re just adding more and more time, more delay before these people can even apply for citizenship in the future, which they’re basically trying to achieve the American dream,” Juarez said.
Juarez said the applying for asylee status already involves a rigorous screening process. According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University organization that collects immigration data, most asylum seekers who go through Cleveland’s federal immigration court get denied asylee status.
There are 13 federal immigration judges in Cleveland – each with a different asylee denial rate. Of the 13, the lowest denial rate is 56.9% and the highest denial rate is 95.1%.
“Unless the president wants to show us numbers or wants to show us that there is massive amounts of fraud and not that much vetting, there’s no justification for this delay,” Juarez said. “We already have a system in place. There is already vetting in place.”
After taking office in January, President Donald Trump signed dozens of executive orders, several of which rework the nation's immigration system, following up on his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
“Him doing this is going after legal immigration, which he said he wasn’t going to do,” Juarez said. “You were granted asylum status. You are here legally in the United States. You’re applying for adjustment of status, that is a legal procedure.”
Juarez said he has a few clients now nearing green card eligibility and is concerned that the move to pause applications will affect them when it becomes time to apply.
