Overview
- USCIS submitted a rule to roll back the 2022 public‑charge protections, giving officers wider latitude to deny permanent residence to applicants deemed likely to rely on government support, with formal publication set for the Federal Register.
- Draft DHS guidance reported by The New York Times would instruct officers to weigh “country‑specific factors” — including the president’s travel bans and weak document verification systems — as significant negatives in green card, asylum and parole decisions, though the policy is not final.
- USCIS now says it does not distinguish operationally between legal and illegal migration, and reports roughly 3,200 case referrals to ICE since January that led to about 2,000 arrests at USCIS facilities.
- DHS and USCIS have ended or curtailed TPS and parole programs for several nationalities, with the agency declaring TPS “truly temporary” and ending the CHNV humanitarian parole in favor of stricter, case‑by‑case reviews.
- Immigration attorneys and advocates warn that common documents — including a work visa, an employment authorization card or a pending asylum case — do not shield individuals from detention or removal, and they predict legal challenges and chilling effects on benefit use.