In late May, the Trump Administration announced new guidance for foreign-born residents who wanted to apply for a green card. The adjustment of status memo indicated that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would use its discretion to require many temporary visa holders to leave the United States to apply for a green card from abroad through consular processing. The backlash to this policy was immediate, and USCIS later clarified that most applicants won’t need to leave the United States.
This memo caused a lot of confusion. People have been applying for green cards while on U.S. soil for decades; requiring them to use consular processing would be a massive shift. As the American Immigration Council pointed out, “Congress created the adjustment of status process in 1952 and has amended that section of the law more than 20 times in the decades since. At no time has Congress written this ‘extraordinary discretionary relief’ standard into the law that USCIS is now claiming Congress intended all along.”
Consular processing would mean disruption for businesses who are sponsoring employees for green cards and potentially long separations for family members applying.
We don’t really know how strictly USCIS will attempt to enforce this new guidance, although it seems at the moment that adjustment of status may continue as it always has for many applicants. Policy memos like these are problematic, though, even if they never get fully implemented. Immigration policy through executive action does not provide a stable environment for anyone who deals with our immigration system – including businesses, churches, schools, families, and, yes, immigrants themselves.
Like other executive actions – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, still in litigation; the $100,000 H-1B fee, still in litigation; the 39-country pause on processing, struck down in federal court – the policy change sought still hasn’t been permanently implemented due to legal challenges. Changing policy through executive action is fleeting, chaotic, and unstable.
America benefits from immigration, but we need immigration reform to ensure our future prosperity, vitality, and security. That kind of important change isn’t going to happen in the executive branch, no matter which party holds the presidency. It’s long past time for Congress to lead on this issue.
Figure of the Month
10
At least 10 immigrants have died by suicide in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since January 2025, according to The Associated Press. A shocking seven of those deaths have occurred since October, the highest number recorded in the agency’s history.
Bush Institute Insights
- The George W. Bush Institute and the ONE Campaign launched More Than a Match – a new digital experience in which soccer meets trade, innovation, immigration, and opportunity. This interactive platform explores the story of how the continent of Africa and the three North American 2026 World Cup host countries have a history of strong connections. The project also highlights the role of local communities in strengthening these ties. Fourteen of the 16 host cities have sister-city ties with African communities, while the African diaspora remains one of the most under-leveraged assets for relationship-building and economic growth. More Than a Match explores strategies for what cities, states, and provinces can do to benefit even more from their relationships with the African continent.
Data Dive
- President Trump this month signed the $70 billion funding measure for immigration enforcement and border security, ensuring that these agencies are funded through September 2029. The bill was passed via the budget reconciliation process.
- A recent paper by the Wharton School professor Exequiel Hernandez finds that expanded immigration enforcement has produced measurable impacts on local economies. Using data on 5,388 geocoded ICE raids and millions of commercial points of interest, Hernandez estimates that targeted metro areas saw a 2.7% drop in foot traffic and a 6.2% decline in spending per location per week, equivalent to 8.1 billion fewer visits and as much as $14 billion in spending lost over a single year.
- The United States has a demographic edge over China and Russia: immigrants. In a new Council on National Security and Immigration paper, Julie Myers Wood and Dan Brown explain that despite all three countries having aging populations and similar fertility rates (1.7 to 1.8 children per woman in 2025), only the U.S. population continues to grow. America’s higher net migration boosts our population growth and provides workers in crucial industries. Immigrants make up 73% of agricultural workers, more than 30% of construction workers, 25% of STEM workers, and 28% of highly skilled health care professionals.
What I’m Reading
- The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is out with an eye-opening report on the wasted taxpayer dollars and poor oversight of contract performance at the Camp East Montana detention center at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. It’s worth reading the entire report, but some highlights include the U.S. government paying the full cost of meals and services even when the facility didn’t have detainees and a contractor unable to meet ICE’s National Detention Standards on security, disabilities, recreation, and access to legal counsel.
- The Department of Homeland Security is proposing a new rule that would make it more difficult for some immigrants to obtain employment authorization. The rule would mainly affect immigrants on temporary status like humanitarian parole, deferred action, or those who remain in the United States on final orders of removal. While rules like this purport to reduce unauthorized migration, it probably won’t stop immigrants like these from working but may incentivize them to find jobs that won’t ask about their status.
- The Washington Post’s Maria Sacchetti wrote a heart-wrenching piece about Wendy Hernandez Reyes, whom the Department of Homeland Security allowed back into the United States so she could bury her 3-year-old son, Orlin. Hernandez claims she wanted her American citizen son to go to Honduras with her. The man with whom Orlin was placed was charged with murdering him.
- Politico reports that ICE issued a request for information on how data and advertising technology providers could support investigations, raising concerns that information collected for digital advertising could be repurposed for immigration enforcement. The data can include details on people’s purchases, browsing history, social media use, location, and personal networks.
- A pregnant Ghanian woman and her 4-year-old son were released from immigration custody and flown home after being held in a windowless cell for over a week at Washington Dulles International Airport. The woman and her son had traveled to the United States for a medical appointment in Ohio, but the government had detained them when they expressed a fear of returning home. An immigration judge denied her asylum request.
- Immigration lawyer and scholar Betsy Fisher argues on Substack that Congress should create a state-designated critical skills visa, allowing states to fill labor shortages in critical sectors like caregiving, food processing, agriculture, and rural healthcare, while protecting immigrant workers from abuse and offering a path to permanent status.
- The New York Times Magazine profiles a family who was deported to Colombia this year after living in the United States with their children. “In the spring of 2024, Hernán Portela and Karen Umaña sold everything they owned and moved from Bogotá, Colombia, to the United States. They wanted their children to get a good education, grow up in safety and be with family members who had lived in Los Angeles for decades.”
- Welcome.US has useful high-level explainers on the citizenship process, including a recent one on the citizenship exam. These are great to share with family and friends who want to learn more about how immigrants become Americans.
Upcoming Events
- June 15–16 – American Immigration Lawyers Association: 2026 AILA/GMS Annual Global Migration Forum
- June 19 – American Immigration Council: Immigration Impact Awards 2026
