USCIS Declares Green Card Process a 'Privilege,' Not a Right — Attorneys Promise Court Fight
A new policy memo reframes adjustment of status as 'administrative grace' — a term attorneys say misreads the law and sets up an inevitable court challenge.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Wednesday to make it significantly harder for immigrants already living legally in the United States to obtain permanent residency, issuing a policy memorandum that reframes a decades-old legal immigration pathway as an act of bureaucratic charity that the government can withhold at will.
The USCIS Office of the Director issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0199 on May 21 — a document that bears no individual signature. The unsigned memo instructs agency officers that adjustment of status — the process by which immigrants present in the United States apply for a green card without departing for consular processing abroad — is “a matter of discretion and administrative grace” and “extraordinary relief,” not a guaranteed legal process.
The memo directs USCIS officers to weigh immigration violations, employment history, and whether an applicant could have pursued a green card through a U.S. consulate overseas as adverse factors when deciding whether t…