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Trump admin pauses some green card applications: How will this affect Indian immigrants?
The Trump administration has reportedly paused some green card applications, a move that could affect many, including Indian immigrants.
The Trump administration has reportedly paused some green card applications. A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told Newsweek that the pause on some so-called adjustment of status applications was made because of two executive orders signed by Donald Trump.
"This sweeping and indefinite stop on green card processing is yet another attempt for this administration to baselessly paint all immigrants as a national security risk," National Immigrant Justice Center Director of Policy Azadeh Erfani told the outlet.
Will the pause affect immigrants?
The pause could leave thousands of applicants with a longer wait time for permanent residency. The president has vowed to deport millions of illegal immigrants while he is in office. In fact, some advocates are afraid that individuals who do not have criminal records might also be included to boost numbers.
The possibilities have been worrying several people, including Indian immigrants. India happens to be the source of the largest number of migrants globally. Over 2.9 million Indian immigrants lived in the United States as of 2023, migrationpolicy.org. In the US, the Indian population has continuously and substantially grown since 1960. The greatest number of arrivals happened between 2000 and 2023, according to the website.
It is unclear which applications were affected, and how long the pause would last. However, it would be a vetting on top of a process for refugees and those who were granted asylum in the US.
“There’s a certain amount of documentation you have to provide as a refugee as well as an asylee,” Laura Collins, director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute, told NBC News. “All of these people who are approved for resettlement or to remain in the United States, that’s because the United States government already approved them to be here.”
Collins recalled that in the first Trump administration, USCIS ensured every blank on a form was correctly filled out. “So if you didn’t have a middle name ... they would send your application back and say, ‘Well, you didn’t fill in your middle name portion,’” Collins said, adding that USCIS might even check social media, “things they probably already vet, but asking for another set of eyes or a slightly longer look at it.”
At least 67,800 green card applications were filed by asylum seekers between October 2023 and September 2024. Almost 40,000 were submitted by refugees, who are permitted to apply after arriving in the country at least a year earlier. The average wait times for those applications to be decided on by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) were approximately 10 and 8 months respectively. However, decisions could be delayed even more because of the pause.
According to DHS, the action was a result of two of Trump’s executive orders: ‘Protecting The United States From Foreign Terrorists And Other National Security And Public Safety Threats’ and ‘Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists.’ The first one instructed DHS and other agencies to increase vetting and screening of people seeking legal status in the US, including people trying to get into the country and individuals already admitted from countries considered to be "security risks."
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, slammed the pause in an X post. He wrote, “DHS is suspending green card applications for people who are already living in the US with asylee or refugee status! These applications have insane wait times already, and Trump is freezing them solely to make it easier to deny the applications and deport them.”
The pause has also been criticised by National Immigrant Justice Center Director of Policy Azadeh Erfani as a “discriminatory animus against people who seek refuge.” Erfani told Newsweek, “USCIS already conducts extensive vetting of all individuals who apply for permanent resident status. Already, our clients wait over a year for USCIS to process their applications. This stop in processing will unfairly block people who have full eligibility to gain permanent status in the United States."
