The Trump administration will now require people seeking green cards to leave the United States during the application process — a sweeping change that could upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of people seeking the right to legally and permanently live and work in the US.

In a new rule announced Friday, US immigration authorities said green card applicants would have to return to their home countries to apply for permanent visas.

The abrupt policy change stands to affect a large swath of the legal US immigration population, compelling those seeking legal permanent residency to leave the country — separating families, forcing people to leave their jobs and disrupting communities in the process. Applying for a green card is a notoriously arduous process that can take several months to years to complete.

— CNN

The Trump administration has instated bans or restrictions on citizens from nearly 40 countries.

Another policy from the administration this year has paused issuing visas to immigrant visa applicants from 75 countries.

— BBC

Adjustment of status has been part of immigration law for decades and traditionally granted to applicants who meet statutory requirements, said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“These are individuals who are here legally, who got in line, who are complying with the law,” Dalal-Dheini said. “Now, overnight and without warning, the administration is trying to upend that system.”

— Bloomberg Law

Attribution

Why and by whose power were you sent?

What do you see that you may wish to steal?

Why this dancing? Why do your dark bodies

Drink up all the light? What are you demanding

That we feel? Have you stolen something? Then

What is that leaping in your chest?

— from The United States Welcomes You by Tracy K. Smith