Business lobbying, court ruling rattle Trump’s green card crackdown

A federal court ruling and an unreported corporate lobbying effort have thrown the Trump administration’s green card crackdown into fresh uncertainty, weeks after a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy memo triggered panic and confusion among immigrant families and legal advocates.

Days after a late May USCIS memo directing foreigners to apply for permanent residence from their home countries “except in extraordinary circumstances,” businesses and industry groups reportedly campaigned privately against the policy. They pressed the White House and the departments of Homeland Security, Labor and State through phone calls and emails, sources familiar with the discussions told the Washington Post. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pressed administration officials over the policy’s workforce consequences, while the tech industry separately raised concerns with the White House, the sources said.

USCIS officials reportedly assured business leaders that most work visas would remain unaffected. However, the agency has yet to issue any formal written guidance to that effect. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) also filed an amendment to a budget bill that would effectively reverse the green card policy for legal immigrants, though a vote on the measure remains uncertain.

A federal judge in Rhode Island also handed the administration another legal defeat on immigration last Friday, striking down several USCIS policies and writing in a 135-page opinion that the measures had “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold — solely by virtue of their countries of birth.” Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled that a global hold on asylum applications, a freeze on immigration benefit approvals for nationals of 39 travel-ban countries and a halt on the processing of citizenship applications for longtime lawful permanent residents violated federal immigration law and were improperly fueled by “anti-immigration sentiments.”

The decision requires the government to work through a backlog of more than one million pending applications under its standard adjudication process. It also struck down a policy under which immigrants from travel-ban countries who entered the country after 2021 and had already been approved for benefits were subject to re-evaluation, a provision the administration defended on national security grounds but which the judge struck down. The DHS’ general counsel, as per The New York Times, blamed the ruling on “the left,” calling it “sabotage dressed in legal clothing.”

As we previously reported, Asian immigrants are among those most affected by the ongoing uncertainty. Immigrants overall make up nearly one in five healthcare workers in the U.S., and Filipinos account for a disproportionate share of that workforce, including nearly 171,200 immigrant nurses, according to the American Immigration Council. Nearly 1.5 million Asian immigrants are reportedly in family-based green card backlogs, with some visa categories for some nationalities facing waits approaching or exceeding two decades.

The stakes extend beyond paperwork delays. With the government’s prior blessing, many applicants let their original visas lapse during years-long waits for green card interviews. Under the new policy, lawyers say a denial at interview could trigger immediate removal proceedings, while those forced to depart could face reentry bans of three to 10 years.

The administration has yet to issue any formal written guidance reversing or clarifying the original memo.