The US administration is preparing a new immigration policy that could significantly restrict green cards and other immigration benefits for people from countries already covered under President Donald Trump's travel ban, according to internal Department of Homeland Security documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The draft guidance, which has not yet been finalised, would direct the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to treat “country-specific factors” from the travel ban as “significant negative factors” when evaluating certain immigration applications.
Doug Rand, a senior USCIS official during the Biden administration, called this “a radical change". “Now they're trying to reach inside the United States and overturn the settled expectations of people who have already been here. This is an escalation of the Trump administration's attack on legal immigration," he told NYT.
What The New Policy Would Change
Under the draft proposal:
- USCIS officers would treat travel-ban “country-specific factors” as automatic negative marks against applicants.
- This would apply to green cards, asylum, parole, and some other discretionary benefits.
- It would not apply to citizenship applications.
Officers currently consider factors like community ties, criminal records and humanitarian needs. The change would insert nationality-based risk into their decisions.
Michael Valverde, who served more than two decades at USCIS, said, “It will be telling if people actually are able to overcome the negative or if this is a de facto ban for people from the listed locations,” as per The NYT.
Countries On Trump's Travel Ban List
The June travel ban blocked citizens of 12 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, from entering the US:
- Afghanistan
- Myanmar
- Chad
- The Republic of Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Libya
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Yemen
Another seven countries face partial restrictions. Citizens of these nations cannot permanently settle in the US or receive tourist or student visas:
- Burundi
- Cuba
- Laos
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
Trump said the ban was necessary because a terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted.”
Why These Countries?
According to DHS drafts, some nations:
- do not share sufficient screening or identity-verification data.
- lack reliable passport security.
- cannot provide documentation USCIS considers adequately verifiable.
Critics argue the policy wrongly penalises individuals for the shortcomings of their governments.
Sarah Pierce, former USCIS policy analyst, said: “There is no way that this policy wouldn't increase denials… the thing that's illegitimate about this policy is that they're predetermining that because someone is from a certain country.”
She added that enforcing the policy for people already inside the US makes it “more legally vulnerable.”
Who Would Still Be Exempted?
From the original travel ban, exemptions included:
- People with existing visas.
- Green-card holders (“lawful permanent residents”).
- Athletes visiting for the 2026 World Cup or 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
- Afghans eligible for Special Immigrant Visas.
- US government employees with Special Immigrant Visas.
- Certain persecuted ethnic and religious minorities from Iran.
- Individuals granted case-by-case waivers in the US national interest.
The new green-card restrictions could still apply to many of these groups when they seek future benefits, unless further exemptions are listed.
