Caribbean immigration advocates in New York on Tuesday, May 26, strongly condemned a new policy by the Trump administration requiring that Caribbean and other green card seekers return home in order to apply for permanent residency status.
In a stunning move on Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in the new policy memo that Caribbean and other immigrants seeking adjustment of status must do so through consular processing via the Department of State outside of the country.
“The Trump administration’s new memo is a blueprint to deny residency from immigrants who meet the legal criteria to stay in the country,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, told Caribbean Life.
“Adjustment of status in-country has never been an ‘extraordinary’ process, and this shift in language is an attempt to make a well-established process into an artificially restricted one,” he added. “Immigrant New Yorkers — who are already facing escalating attacks from the federal government — will face increased risk of arbitrary denials and family separation.
“We need policies that expand stability and protect families, not ones that destabilize communities and punish people for pursuing lawful immigration pathways,” continued Awawdeh, calling on the Trump administration to rescind this “flawed directive and restore the normal USCIS adjudication process for green cards.”
USCIS said in the new policy memo that “officers are directed to consider all relevant factors and information on a case-by-case basis when determining whether an alien warrants this extraordinary form of relief.”
Spokesman Zach Kahler said the administration is “returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly.
“From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes.
“When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the US illegally after being denied residency,” he added.
Zahler noted that nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the US for a short time and for a specific purpose, and that the system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over.
“Their visit should not function as the first step in the green card process,” he warned. “Following the law allows the majority of these cases to be handled by the State Department at US consular offices abroad and frees up limited USCIS resources to focus on processing other cases that fall under its purview, including visas for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, naturalization applications, and other priorities.
“The law was written this way for a reason, and, despite the fact that it has been ignored for years, following it will help make our system fairer and more efficient,” Zahler added.
The new policy directive comes as President Donald J. Trump, as part of his overall deportation agenda, seeks to strip some Caribbean and other immigrants of their green cards, and, in some cases, US citizenship.
On Thursday, for instance, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a Cuban national allegedly tied to a top Cuban financial official has been arrested and her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, or green card, terminated at his direction.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants residing in Miami, said in a statement that Adys Lastres Morera is now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The US Secretary of State said Morera is the adult sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, who was sanctioned earlier this month by the State Department for her role as the executive president of GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate.
The Trump administration is also seeking to strip the citizenship of a convicted Cuban spy.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that it has filed a civil denaturalization complaint against Victor Manuel Rocha in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The DOJ said Rocha is a native of Colombia, who was convicted of serving as “an unregistered agent for the Republic of Cuba.”
“Under no circumstances should an agent of a foreign adversary be permitted to hold the title of American citizen,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate. “Our mission is clear: to root out these fraudsters and preserve the sanctity of the naturalization process for those who adhere to our laws.
“Any individual who lied during the naturalization process to gain a foothold in this country will be met with the full weight of the Department of Justice,” he added.
The DOJ said the US seeks an order revoking Rocha’s naturalization “based on his admission in criminal proceedings that he began spying for Cuba in 1973 before he naturalized in 1978.
“When he applied for naturalization, Rocha represented, under penalty of perjury, that he had not committed crimes for which he had not been arrested; he was not affiliated with the Communist Party of Cuba; he had not advocated, believed in, or knowingly supported and furthered the interests of Communism; and he believed in the US Constitution and the form of government of the US,” the DOJ said. “None of these were true.”
In 2023, the DOJ said Rocha was charged with several counts related to spying for Cuba and passport fraud.
In April 2024, the DOJ said Rocha admitted that, starting in or around 1973, he “secretly supported the Republic of Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the US by serving as a covert agent of Cuba’s intelligence services.”
The DOJ said Rocha pleaded guilty and was convicted of Conspiracy to Act as an Agent of a Foreign Government and to Defraud the United States and Acting as an Illegal Agent of a Foreign Government.
He was sentenced to and is serving a 15-year sentence, the DOJ said.
It said the US will bring seven independent counts seeking the revocation of Rocha’s US citizenship.
Meanwhile, Caribbean immigration advocates have condemned a proposal by the Trump administration in forcing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to identify the immigration status of Caribbean and other tax payers.
NYIC said that the proposed changes would directly affect undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants who use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), a nine-digit number issued to people who are not eligible for a Social Security number but still file and pay taxes in the United States.
“Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe contributing to their economy and trust that paying taxes will not place them or their families at risk,” Awawdeh told Caribbean Life.
“The Trump administration’s latest effort to use the IRS to force the disclosure the immigration status of taxpayers is a dangerous attempt to weaponize the tax system,” he added, stating that the proposed changes would undermine the trust of public institutions and push hundreds of thousands of immigrant taxpayers further into the shadows.
Awawdeh said undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants in New York contribute US$6.7 billion in local, state, and federal taxes annually, while immigrants with status contribute US$74.8 billion.
“Instead of punishing people who fund our schools and comply with our tax laws, the federal government should be working to protect their rights and ensure that all communities can safely participate in our economy,” he said, calling on the Trump administration to stop targeting Caribbean and other immigrant communities.
Awawdeh also urged the US Congress to uphold taxpayer privacy protections for everyone in the United States.
According to reports, the proposed changes would distinguish codes for undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants from others with ITINs, requiring applicants for codes to clearly disclose their immigration status to the IRS.
Last year, an attempt by the Trump administration for the IRS to share the immigration status of tax payers with the administration, as part of its deportation agenda, was blocked by federal courts.
Several senior IRS officials also resigned over the program fearing violation of federal tax privacy law.
In the interim, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to deport even permanent residents through the institution of a new “revetting” unit.
Speaking for USCIS, which falls under the DHS, Kahler said the changes are also in keeping with Trump’s immigration policy.
“USCIS’s first and foremost mission is to safeguard America by rigorously vetting and screening aliens,” he said. “We will continue to implement changes as we identify opportunities to strengthen the US immigration system.”
In addition, USCIS disclosed on Thursday that it has “partnered” with the DOJ in its recent filing of denaturalization actions in various US district courts against 12 immigrants accused of serious offenses—including providing material support to a terrorist group, committing war crimes, and sexually abusing a minor.
“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized US citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and certificate of naturalization canceled, if the naturalization was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation,” said USCIS in a statement.
