Rosanna Berardi, Managing Partner of Berardi Immigration Law, was recently featured on Good Morning America, offering legal insight on a sweeping new policy directive that could reshape the path to permanent residency for hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals living in the United States.
The article, Trump administration issues directive requiring green card applicants to apply outside the US, examines a new policy memo issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that instructs agency officers to treat U.S.-based “adjustment of status” applications as an “extraordinary form of relief.” In practice, the directive requires most temporary visa holders and humanitarian parolees currently living in the U.S. to return to their home countries to apply for and complete their green card applications.
At the heart of the story is a fundamental shift in how the U.S. immigration system has operated for decades. Since the 1950s, Congress has specifically permitted non-immigrants to adjust status to lawful permanent resident from within the United States, a framework designed to keep families together and allow U.S. employers to retain valued employees during long visa backlogs. The new directive upends that long-established process, raising immediate questions about its legal foundation, its statutory authority, and its real-world consequences for people who came here legally and have been following the rules.
Rosanna shared her perspective on who stands to be hit hardest by the policy:
“Afghans who assisted U.S. forces, Ukrainians fleeing war, face a specific trap: The memo treats their choice to apply for a green card inside the U.S. as an adverse factor, because their admission was temporary,” Berardi said. “Many have nowhere safe to return to.”
Berardi emphasized that the policy reaches well beyond any single category of applicant, affecting any foreign national with a pending U.S.-filed green card application, including legal workers on temporary visas and humanitarian parolees who entered the country lawfully. For many of these individuals, the requirement to return home is not a procedural inconvenience but a genuine safety concern, particularly for those who fled conflict, persecution, or political instability.
Immigration attorneys nationwide have raised serious questions about whether a policy memo can override decades of statutory authority. The Immigration and Nationality Act explicitly allows individuals who were legally inspected and admitted to adjust their status from within the United States, a framework that has been refined and expanded by Congress for more than seventy years. Legal challenges are widely expected, and the directive is likely to face swift scrutiny in federal court.
As this policy unfolds, Berardi Immigration Law remains committed to guiding clients through an increasingly unpredictable immigration landscape with clear, strategic, and compassionate counsel, ensuring every client understands their options, their risks, and the path forward.
Read the full article here: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/trump-administration-issues-directive-requiring-green-card-applicants-133227082
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