Trump admin changes rules for green card seekers: What it means for NY — PIX on Politics Daily

[0:02] you're watching picks on politics daily with dan mannerino everybody welcome to picks on politics [0:10] daily it is wednesday may 27th i'm dan mannerino and there is a lot going on in the world of [0:16] immigration there's one particular story that is trending online for us for picks 11.com viewers [0:21] it's doing really well socially and because it's a matter that really affects a lot of people and [0:25] a lot of people's loved ones as well and it's regarding immigration status particularly those [0:30] who are applying for green cards and they change now from the trump administration regarding [0:35] green card status and applications our giovanni diaz who covers immigration has more for us if you [0:40] or someone in your family is in the process of filing for a green card listen up there are new changes in [0:45] effect the u.s department of citizenship and immigration services is announcing that [0:50] petitioners will have to start the process in their home country this is a shock for many people [0:55] listening to this here's what this means for more than 50 years people who entered the united states [1:00] legally say with a student or temporary work visa can apply for a green card while still in america [1:07] that way they can continue to work and live their lives while immigration officials process their case [1:12] but now based on this new guidance those same people will be expected to leave the us and apply [1:17] through american consulates overseas the change announced in this memo issued by the uscis will [1:23] likely impact hundreds of thousands of people each year especially those married to american citizens or green [1:30] card holders what they're imposing is a way to get people out without any real indication of when [1:36] they're going to return according to the trump administration the move is aimed at closing loopholes [1:42] in the immigration system but critics say this could separate families delay approvals and force [1:47] skilled workers already living and working in the united states to leave the country what this [1:52] administration continues to do is shrink that lawful pathway and expand unlawful status to people right [2:01] now it takes nearly a year and a half for green cards to be processed in immigration offices in new [2:06] york city according to the uscis website the attorney explains this could lead to more people losing their [2:12] status even if they did everything right since entering the united states by his own doing he's creating more of this [2:20] business of being undocumented and giving more business to detention centers so there's a lot [2:27] going on there right regarding that and it could get confusing for a lot of folks so geo is joining [2:31] me now as is veronica cardenas she's an immigration attorney you just saw her in that piece so thank you [2:36] both for being here and geo i want to i want to start with you um because this was it broke last week on [2:41] thursday right and it created a lot of confusion you immediately hopped on to social posted a video it got [2:45] a lot of attention because people are really interested in this and i guess my initial question when hearing [2:49] the news was what is the timing of it all why specifically now did the trump administration [2:54] come out and say hey we're going to target this right now yeah and the whole point of thanks for [2:58] having me by the way but i think the whole the most interesting part of it is not only the timing but [3:03] also how he played out as you mentioned the news broke late they announced that the memo was issued [3:08] on thursday and then the news actually broke on friday and people were kind of caught by surprise [3:12] because again this influences a lot about people's lives that is like many many families go through this [3:18] i went through this myself you know when you apply for for a change of status within the country you're [3:23] not supposed we're not expected to leave the country in order to change your status you do it here you [3:27] entered legally you're here you apply to for a green card to be to become a permanent resident all of [3:32] that process happening while you're still trying to build a life um and now being said that you will [3:38] have to leave the country in order to do that is a little bit problematic for a lot of people um [3:43] what the trump administration says is that this was never set in stone it was just an understanding [3:49] of how the statute statute was issued like the how the system was processing those claims um and now [3:56] they're reversing that even though it's been in effect for about 50 years like you heard in the piece [4:01] um now they're going to start sending folks back to their country for them to start their process [4:05] in that country and that is going to dismantle a lot of people's livelihoods for sure so i guess anybody [4:12] seeking permanent residence right what you're talking about needs to leave the us go to an [4:17] american consulate in their home country correct and they have to officially leave when well and [4:24] that's where we kind of need a veronica to kind of break it down for us because it really is at the [4:28] discretion of the the the officer who's overseeing each case and that was very clear in the document [4:35] that was issued by dhs last week that it becomes something that is consistently only based on [4:40] whoever is overseeing each case so then they can say if you start your process here in the us [4:45] say you came in as a student which was my case for example you came in as a student and you apply to [4:50] change your status um if your interview for example hasn't been scheduled yet are you going to have to [4:55] go to your country in order to get that interview done but if you're if you already started your [4:59] process here or are you going to leave the car requested to leave the country start that process over [5:05] again in your home home country and then wait in your home country until your process is finished [5:10] yeah so there is so much that can be uh people are still trying to understand yeah there's a lot [5:15] of layers to it there's a lot of layers it gets very complicated and i mean i was talking to you [5:19] all weekend about it asking you a lot of questions just so i can understand so if i'm having difficulty [5:23] understanding i can't imagine what every regular person who's going through it is trying to [5:27] navigate so let me bring in veronica to the conversation and veronica thank you again for for doing this [5:32] um you know so part of that conversation with geo is when does somebody who has applied for status [5:37] right and maybe hasn't gotten that green card yet when do they officially have to leave do they have [5:41] to leave how do they know that they left right and thanks for having me and this is an important topic [5:47] and i want to make clear that there are two separate tracks to become a lawful permanent resident once [5:52] you're married to u.s citizen or another family member's petitioning for you and that really depends on [5:57] your manner of entry so people who entered without any status um and just you know entered they always [6:05] have to leave the united states to adjust their status if they're married to u.s citizens so this [6:10] does not classify or this doesn't pertain to people who entered unlawfully but right now there's about [6:16] 800 000 family-based petitions and employment-based petitions so this is going to affect around 800 000 [6:23] people in the united states and what is different about this law what this policy is trying to [6:29] change is that people who entered lawfully with status whether it be a visitor's visa or a student [6:35] visa who were in the united states for years lawfully creating their lives then they got married or [6:42] someone's petitioning for them they want them now to leave the united states to finish that process [6:48] at the consulate abroad and this will affect many people but by statute there is a statute written [6:57] congress intended for people who came lawfully to be able to remain in the united states while [7:02] petitions are pending and uscis by its very own nature uh gives people work authorization so [7:10] for that period of time their unlawful presence is stayed okay so just so i'm clear on what you're [7:15] saying right so somebody who comes here with the student visa or isn't or gets married they still [7:19] need to go through the process right um they in the past would have still had to go home the people [7:27] who enter without lawful got it without like the people who entered unlawfully okay would have to go [7:33] home but the people who entered lawfully they would be able to stay continue the process in the united [7:38] states so what if somebody is already in the process veronica right and and to what you were saying [7:42] earlier that you know it could take up to a year and a half for some of these applications to get [7:45] finally processed somebody who's already kind of begun the journey is that someone who can finish [7:50] it out here or they have to now leave right so the policy doesn't really speak to that which adds [7:56] more confusion retroactivity in immigration laws that means that when the policy is stated they do go [8:04] back and reach back people who've already in the process so we still have to see how this is going [8:09] to be enforced but by statute i just want people to know that they should not be leaving at this time [8:15] there is a statute in place that allows for this type of process this policy memo seeks to change [8:21] that but that doesn't mean that it's not going to be challenged understood yeah okay i understand that [8:27] part of it right so i guess if you then go back to wherever your home country is and you begin the [8:33] process of the american consulate you know again to that year and a half process how long could it [8:37] take once you're there so that is another thing that's uncertain and one of the quotes that this [8:42] administration stated was that we're returning to the original intent of the law to ensure that [8:47] non-citizens navigate our nationals immigration system properly and when i hear a quote like that [8:53] i think back to the day when immigration laws were based on national origin quotas where they favored white [9:00] europeans over other countries and we're seeing that there are a lot of travel bans right now from [9:06] countries where people are lawfully seeking to do that consulate process but they're frozen and so once a [9:12] person exits now they're going to be under the jurisdiction of the consulate abroad and there's [9:16] no clear timeline whether that person will be able to come back in and how long so that is one of [9:23] the harshest things about this policy is that they are going to separate even more families who are [9:29] trying to do things the lawful way the way that this administration and every administration prior [9:35] had told them that they had to do it and one of the things that i actually you and i spoke about [9:40] is that this change in policy could also end up causing a lot of people to lose their status even [9:46] right yeah definitely because instead of freezing any unlawful presence while uscis waits right like a [9:55] year and a half two years it's not uncommon for these things to drag on uh it changes too like every [10:02] month could be different every administration can be different and so they are creating new classes of [10:08] undocumented people by this very policy something that was never in play before you know and geo you [10:14] know you posted this um on social and it it was picked up immediately it kind of did really well [10:19] socially shared hundreds of times what are some of the things you're hearing right from folks that [10:23] you talk to now on the daily about what they feel about this the kind of the confusion and the layers [10:27] to it all i always say that there are two kind of sets of comments that we receive when we post [10:31] something like this right there's a lot of people who don't understand how it works and they just [10:35] you know pile on on gotta go back to your country enter the country illegally and i always want to [10:40] make sure that we are talking about people and veronica said that too who entered the country [10:45] legally and lawfully myself included i went through the process so i know exactly what that means you [10:50] know you start your process you ask for in this petition that we are talking about here is the [10:55] adjustment of statuses i-485 so you start that process when you have a like a legal status in the [11:01] country and you're trying to become a permanent resident and then you apply for that process [11:06] within the country um and that's what most of us go when we enter the country legally and we do [11:11] everything that we need to do in order to remain here legally um and a lot of people from the other [11:16] side folks are very concerned about what that means for them you know like what am i supposed to [11:21] do am i supposed to leave the country i had someone reached out to me from florida who saw my story [11:25] and she was like my husband is from england he has a green card this is going to impact him to which i said [11:30] not necessarily because this is about the application for a green card for a green card for [11:34] uh chat changing status but if in this case and veronica you can correct me if i'm wrong here but [11:40] in this case it would mean that the person would be just renewing their green card or applying for [11:45] naturalization that wouldn't necessarily impact them in that case correct right yeah absolutely what [11:51] veronica what does it mean for somebody who is say married but hasn't fully gone through the process [11:56] yet i mean this is a splitting up a family right one person has to leave in the meantime [12:01] yeah and that's exactly what they're saying you can get married and then you have to go wait [12:05] for your visa at your consulate abroad when that was never the law and just another point that i [12:12] would like to state is that these applications are not cheap so people pay thousands of dollars [12:18] it's at least two thousand dollars or more for the i-485 so all of those people that paid they're not [12:24] going to be getting their money back if they now have to return abroad to do that and then also just [12:30] uscis the amount of federal employees that they employ they that this is their job to do this [12:35] is the bulk of their job to do these affirmative based applications so if they're not getting that [12:40] revenue that's just going to lead to more loss of federal employees and i have a question veronica [12:45] you and i spoke about this also but you you were a former ice prosecutor you understand both sides [12:51] of this equation and i i remember that when we were discussing this policy and the policy change [12:56] you talked about the fraud task force that they have in eyes in uscis explain to us how that works [13:03] because the whole point of changing this policy according to uscis at this point was to prevent [13:08] fraud and people taking advantage of the system what do you say about that right i don't think that that [13:14] is a reason to do this because there are task forces that specifically go out to [13:21] that whether these i-130s are are lawful with the person is entering into the marriage for [13:27] true purposes so let's say that the family has children does it make sense for that person who's [13:33] doing everything the right way to now be separated from their children and their spouse while they wait [13:37] abroad so there's other ways to deal with fraud fraud has always existed people um and hsi homeland [13:44] security investigations has been investigating fraud um on large scale so they they have the [13:50] mechanisms they have the budget they have the ability to investigate fraud this is not about fraud [13:57] veronica i appreciate you coming on to educate and kind of talk us through it sounds like there's [14:01] still a lot of unknowns that hopefully uh will get sorted out in the next couple weeks but come on back [14:05] and talk about it soon okay thank you thank you and geo thank you very much as well for your continued [14:11] uh reporting on this important issue also geo by the way was just covering what was going on over [14:14] at delaney hall this past weekend with the hunger strike and protest with a lot of elected officials [14:18] who i tried to gain access this weekend that story is now posted to pix11.com and you'll post it on your [14:24] your own socials as well okay thank you geo all right everybody we got a big week on picks and [14:28] politics we have governor hochel coming on this week we have jack schlossberg coming on this week we [14:32] have the new 24 year old mayor of belville new jersey who beat an incumbent coming on this week all ahead of [14:37] of course big three debates in the next three weeks so a lot going on in the political world [14:41] team is hard at work we'll keep you posted on everything in the meantime have a great day