Overview

• White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller urged applicants on X to join USCIS as “homeland defenders” who interview green card, work visa and citizenship applicants for approval or denial.
• The Department of Homeland Security amplified the recruitment with social posts invoking patriotic language and urging people to “become a homeland defender.”
• USCIS’s job advert frames the role as protecting the system from exploitation and highlights case studies about assisting investigations that caught “criminal aliens.”
• Policy updates scheduled for October 20 expand the naturalization civics test and background checks, with officers directed to weigh applicants’ “good moral character.”
• USCIS guidance allows discretionary “neighborhood investigations,” such as seeking letters or interviews from people who know an applicant, a scale of inquiry not seen widely since the 1990s, drawing criticism from immigration experts; Newsweek sought DHS comment.