Donald Trump might be going nowhere with the implementation of his legislative agenda. But when it comes to executive-branch immigration policy, the administration continues to make real if typically glacial progress.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Monday that the office would begin to require in-person interviews with many potential immigrants as part of the green-card application process. The change would affect those currently in the country on work visas who wish to become permanent residents and those with family members who are refugees.
The change is the latest expansion of the “extreme vetting” Trump has called for as a way of ensuring that those who pose potential security threats can’t enter the country through legal channels. Trump ordered his administration to “improve the screening and vetting protocols and procedures associated with the visa-issuance process” in his controversial travel ban executive order in March.
Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017
“This change reflects the Administration’s commitment to upholding and strengthening the intergrity of our nation’s immigration system,” acting USCIS director James McCament said in a statement. “USCIS and our federal partners are working collaboratively to develop more robust screening and vetting procedures for individuals seeking immigration benefits to reside in the United States.
The change is the latest in a series of small but important tweaks the Trump administration has made to vetting procedures. At the end of June, the White House ended an Obama-era rule intended to speed up visa processing, arguing for a “careful, accurate vetting of visa applicants, not a rushed process to accommodate an arbitrary deadline.” And in August, the State Department proposed a rule change that would authorize them to collect additional personal information from visa applicants, including travel history, employment history, and social media information.
Attorney William Stock told Politico that, while interviews were already part of the agency’s procedures for people moving from employment visas to green cards, it became standard practice over the past decade to issue waivers for those interviews.
“The immigration service realized that most of the time it was a colossal waste of everyone’s time,” Stock said.
