Dem
47
GOP
53
A new administration policy requires almost every foreign national in the U.S. who wants a green card to go back to his or her home country and apply at the U.S. embassy or consulate there. This certainly applies to everyone illegally in the country, but also to people legally in the country, in some cases for years. This includes folks on H-1B or other visas, the spouses of U.S. citizens, foreign students, and pretty much everyone else applying for a green card unless there are extenuating circumstances.
If someone has been in the U.S. for years and has a job and family, going overseas to apply for a green card and possibly waiting for years for a decision (maybe a rejection, because the consular officer was in a foul mood that day) is life changing, to say the least. And if someone is rejected, there is no appeal from that decision. Once the applicant has left the country, he or she may not be able to come back. In the old system, people who were legally in the U.S. could apply for a green card while in the U.S. and could continue working until a decision was made.
The new system will not only be a disaster for the immigrant, but also in many cases for the company the immigrant works for. People with specialized skills on H-1B visas may not be easy to replace. That is why the H-1B was granted in the first place.
Leon Fresco, a former DoJ immigration official, said Trump sees this as a fallback position in case the Supreme Court rejects his XO ending birthright citizenship. In other words, Trump may be changing his focus from stopping illegal immigration to stopping all immigration, including legal immigration. This isn't his first action in that direction; he already imposed a $100,000 fee for companies to apply for an H-1B visa. (V)