The Department of Homeland Security is considering a new policy that would impact immigrants in the United States who came from countries subject to President Donald Trump's June travel ban.
The New York Times reported Friday a draft of the new policy says U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would consider "country-specific factors" in green card, parole and asylum applications.
Coming from a country on the travel ban list — mostly those in Africa and the Middle East — would be considered "significant negative factors" on immigration requests.
The policy would apply to immigrants already living in the U.S. after passing security and background checks, including the tens of thousands of Afghans resettled in the country after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021.
Most of the Afghans who resettled in the U.S. are here under humanitarian parole or temporary status and are navigating an immigration system that does not provide any path to permanent legal status for them.
Shawn VanDiver, president and co-founder of San Diego-based nonprofit #AfghanEvac, said the policy amounts a travel ban for people already in the country.
"What we're worried about is that USCIS will use this to force people who could be out of limbo into a permanent limbo or even worse — deportation from our country — after having made it here," VanDiver said.
VanDiver was in Washington, D.C. Monday visiting lawmakers with other advocates to rally opposition to the change.
There are 19 countries on the list.
"These are folks who are fleeing persecution," VanDiver said. "Some of them came here as (asylum-seekers). Some of them came here as refugees, some are wartime allies that were flown here by the U.S. government and told, 'hang out for a second, you'll get through immigration process and you'll have your shot at the American dream.'"
It's the latest in a series of administration decisions that ended almost all Afghan resettlement in the U.S.
On Trump's first day back in office January, he ordered a halt to all refugee travel. This included thousands of Afghans and their families screened and approved by the State Department to relocate to the United States, including thousands still housed at U.S.-run sites in third-party countries, such as one in Doha, Qatar.
The January suspension of refugee resettlement was followed by a travel and VISA ban that included Afghanistan and the end of Temporary Protected Status for Afghans. In July the U.S. State Department closed the office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE.
CARE office staff were reportedly among the 1,300 department workers laid off this summer.
Not all refugees are being treated equally. Last month the administration announced it would restrict the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. to 7,500 and that white South Africans would be given priority.
Under President Joe Biden about 100,000 refugees were admitted per year.
