Foreigners aiming to adjust their immigration status in the United States to secure green cards will now have to do so from outside the country via the State Department, according to a policy memo from USCIS on Friday.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated that this new directive aims to free up agency resources for processing other cases, as per their statement in the policy memo.
This move has been criticized by aid groups like HIAS, which provides services to refugees among others, arguing it forces survivors of trafficking and abused or neglected children back to dangerous countries they fled to process their applications for green cards granting them permanent residency in the U.S.
The latest policy change is part of a series taken by President Donald Trump over the last year to tighten migration to the United States. In January, the State Department announced the revocation of more than 100,000 visas since Trump took office.